Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly, it works, July 17, 2007
Of course you can't get all the air out of the bottle (a perfect vacuum), but I was surprised that this worked at all. Yet, with the partial vacuum this produces, the wine lasts noticeably longer. E.g. normally I'd find wine undrinkable after 3 or 4 days, but with this technology, it was drinkable and enjoyable (although not perfect... can still taste some oxidation.
I'd advise, particularly with a red wine, that you open a bottle, pour out a couple glasses you're planning to drink, then immediately seal up the bottle. Let the wine breathe in the glasses.
Keep in mind, if you half-empty a bottle, then that's a lot of oxidizing air that can ruin the wine. But, e.g. if I drink a glass of wine or two from a bottle, so there isn't much air in it, and use this to vacuum out the air, the wine will be drinkable a couple days later, whereas otherwise it wouldn't be. Usually, I use this to save wine for cooking, I must admit.
It works well and easily... you pump a few times until you hear a little musical clicking-like sound that tells you it's at full strength vacuum, which happens sooner or later depending on how little air is in the bottle.
So, my 5 star rating isn't saying "oh, the wine will be good a month later" or "you'll never tell the difference at all"... but I'm simply saying that it helps, and helps enough that I use it and like it. Which is all you can expect from wine anyway. Note, that I have a fairly good palate, I do have a fine ability to smell and distinguish tastes, but I'm no great conoisseur. I can certainly taste oxidation, however, and this helps quite a bit.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wine Saver--Yippee!, August 28, 2006
A fabulous product--I have tried most of the other wine savers but this one sets the standard. Takes the guess work out of pumping--the "click" tells it all. Thanks for making such a great product. Wine lovers rejoice!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great if your expectations are realistic, December 26, 2007
Looking at the reviews of this an other Vacuvin products, you see reports that are deeply contradictory. It's interesting that there is such a divergence of experience with such a simple product. The ideas behind Vacuvin are pretty simple.
First, air is the enemy of an open bottle of wine. Bacteria in the air want to turn alcohol into vinegar. The air itself oxidizes and dulls the taste of all but the most robust wines.
Second, you can remove some of the air with a simple pump and thereby slow down the rate at which wine deteriorates.
Why then, do we have both no-star and five-star reactions to this product?
Maybe the biggest source of disagreement is expectations. Vacuvin slows the deterioration of wine in the bottle, but it doesn't stop it.
Another possible reason for all the disagreement might be a question of temperature. The biochemical reactions that kill your wine are temperature sensitive. They proceed faster when the wine is warm and slow down when it's cool. Putting a pumped-out bottle in the refrigerator or wine cooler will slow down the spoilage processes and make Vacuvin more effective.
A third issue is the way the wine is handled before the Vacuvin plug goes in. If wine has a lot of air dissolved in it by being poured from decanter to bottle, there's no system that will keep it fresh.
For more info on wine storage, check out my book, New Short Course in Wine,The
--Lynn Hoffman, author of New Short Course in Wine,The and bang BANG: A Novel from Kunati Books.
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