Wine Accessories and Other Wine Related Info

There are wine accessories that are nice to have and are kind of neat to show your friends you are cool with the latest gadget, and then there are wine accessories that are necesseties and only a crazy person would not think to have them.  One example of a must have  accessory is something that makes your open wine last longer... or usually an oxygen remover.  This is a must-have especially if you don't consume an entire bottle of wine in one evening.  In this article, the author discusses the kind of wine accessories that are out there that will make your opened bottle of wine taste just as good one week later as the day it was opened.

After you open a bottle of wine and re-cork it for later use, oxygen becomes trapped in the bottle and can damage your wine. That's right; our friend oxygen is bad news for your wine. While oxygen allows wine to breath and brings out flavors of red wines when first opened, exposure overtime damages the flavor. When oxygen comes in contact with the wine for long periods of time it will oxidize the wine, changing its flavor and causing it to become more acidic. These reactions can cause the wine to spoil over long periods of time.

There are ways to protect your wine from these damaging effects of oxygen. To preserve your freshly opened bottle of wine there are three basic options: a wine savor, a nitrogen canister and a vacuum decanter. Wine savors are simple tools that can be operated by just about anyone. I recommend using Epic's Wine Savor for its ease of use and the option of having multiple stoppers for several bottles of wine. The wine savor by Epic is pump that you place on the top of your wine bottle and pump out the oxygen. After pumping out the oxygen, just release and the stopper will automatically seal the wine bottle. Re-opening your bottle of wine is made easy with the simple push of the release button on top of the stopper. Epic's Wine Savor comes with two stoppers and you can buy replacement, or extra, wine stoppers as you please.

The second option for removing oxygen from your open bottle of wine is to use Private Preserve, which is canned nitrogen. Private Preserve releases nitrogen straight into your bottle of wine; similar to how canned air is used to clean key boards. After pumping the nitrogen in you just re-cork. This product works differently than others. Nitrogen is a gas that is heavier than oxygen and sinks below whatever oxygen may be in your wine bottle. It acts a place holder and keeps oxygen from touching your wine, thus preserving your wine for your next use. You can preserve up to 120 bottles with one can.

One more alternative is the vacuum decanter. This device serves two purposes: the first is to aerate your wine to bring out its full flavors and the second is to preserve and store your wine after aerating. This operates in a similar fashion to the wine savor, but allows you to store it in a stylish glass container. A seal is placed at the lip of the decanter and a manual pump is used to remove oxygen. Most vacuum decanters have a gauge that will inform you of when your oxygen level is low enough for accurate preservation. Simply release seal allows you to enjoy your wine as you please.

With such a simple and cost effective solution, there is no reason for not preserving the flavors of your favorite wine. Now you can open that special bottle you have been saving over and over again.

David Scott is the owner of Su Vino Winery in Grapevine, TX. David also operates the wine related websites WineChristmas.com and WineDivaShop.com, a leading seller of wine shirts.