Extending The Life of Your Wine
Extending The Life of Your Wine
My honest thoughts on various closures
The closures I have in my house
From cute bottle stoppers to expensive gas devices and the ones between, I have my opinions and I am here to share them. Below I am explaining each of them for you in hopes you have a better understanding of what you could use and when. 1
Basic + stylized standard closures
These are the most basic wine closures there are. There are thousands of them on the market from super basic to very ornate and very expensive. While they may be fun and tempting to purchase for a friend or hostess gift, they barely offer a layer of protection against oxygen.
You want to keep oxygen away from your wine. It will reduce those fruity aromas and can lead the wine to go bad at an accelerated pace.
I admit, I never use these closures. I have these two, I don’t even know where they came from if I am completely honest. They are good if you are going to finish the bottle in the same day. Pop one of these babies on the bottle and you will be fine. I do not recommend using them for any length of time past the same day.
Vacu Vin closures
Best closure for sparkling wine in my opinion
Now, these I suggest to everyone. They are the best bang for your buck if you are looking to keep your wine fresh for a couple of days. I use them on white, red and sparkling wines. I find my whites can stay fresh, if the closure is properly used, for around 4 days. Older whites, not really past 2 days, but for young, drink now white wines, these are great. For my red wines I use these when I know I will drink the wine within 2-3 days or cook with it in a week or two ( I don’t mind if the oxygen starts aging the wine if I will cook with it). The best way to make sure this closure works properly is to reseal it daily.
For sparkling wines, these need to be in your house. I keep sparkling wine fresh and bubbly in the fridge with these closures for 3 days. The key to this is resealing the bottle daily, if not twice a day. Now, some of the bubbles will fade by that third day, but it is still enjoyable.2
Buy here
The way they work is you have a little rubber stopper and then a hand pump. You are basically sucking the air out of the bottle until you hear the noise change to a distinctly different clicking noise. This removes excess oxygen helping the wine stay fresh in the bottle for a little longer.
Repour wine savers
These little blue stoppers are quite something. They are filled with a special packet that removes the oxygen from the bottle once you place it on top. Their website tells you more of the science if you want to nerd out. They will keep a bottle fresh for up to 2 months. I have recently started using them more and more. I am someone who tries a lot of wines in one week but I do not drink them all, in fact I may not get to drinking the bottle I open tonight for another month or so. That is where the repour wine saver comes in best. They are a little more expensive, but in my opinion completely worth the investment.
Buy them here
Coravin wine gadget
Buy coravin here
So, if you clicked the link to buy one, you will see a massive price difference between this preserver and the others. Technically it is not a closure (except for the twist cap add-on). It uses actual gas and a needle to gently pierce your natural cork top and give you the ability to pour as little or as much as you want.
I have heard some people say they have kept a bottle fresh for a year after using this. I would love to meet these fine folk, I found all of the bottles I have used a coravin with are definitely showing oxidation at the 4-6 month mark. I have tried a couple at the year mark and no way, not fresh still (and they were stored properly). Regardless in the debate about the length it keeps your wine fresh, obviously it is on a much different level than the others.
The nice thing about this preserver is the ability to store the bottles back in your wine cellar, fridge, or rack on their sides. This is unlike all the other options, which the bottle needs to be upright after removing the cork.
I will say, the coravin is worth its weight in gold for someone studying wine and for bars and restaurants. But for the everyday consumer, no way. Save your money unless you typically will taste a wine and want to store it for a few months before you have another taste. These are not cheap, so don’t feel just because they are, what do the kids say, boujee, you should get one ( I had to google how the kids spell that word). On that embarrassing note I will leave you.
Did you know my designs are available on wine chillers? Check them out here.
I should note, Repour has sent me free stoppers, however, this does not impact my opinions at all. I do not get money from them to hype them up.
Listen, I am not responsible if you don’t properly vacuum seal that sparkling wine and the closure pops out, that is on you, just saying that I have never had an issue in 13 years using these for the bubbles. ;)