Nearly everyone has had the sad experience of opening a bottle of wine, drinking half of it, placing the cork back in the neck of the bottle and then discovering the next day that the remainder of the wine in the bottle has spoiled. This spoilage is caused because air is as much an enemy of wine as high temperatures and bottles half full of wine are also half full of air which in turn causes the wine in them to oxidize.

Both in homes and restaurants where wine is sold by the glass, people have been trying to find solutions to this problem for years. It is true that forcing the original cork back into the neck of the bottle and refrigerating the wine may slow the spoilage process somewhat, but there is no escaping the fact that with every passing hour, the wine in an open bottle is deteriorating.

Several years ago, several different gadgets appeared on the market, each of which promised to save our wines by creating a vacuum in the bottle before it was resealed. My enthusiasm for these gadgets was limited, because most of them actually succeeded in removing a bare minimum of air, thus not really doing much good at all for our wine. Finally, however, one of these gadgets is definitely worth considering, both for home, pub and restaurant use. Like some of the earlier gadgets that pre- ceded it, the principle of "Vacuvin" is to eliminate the air in partly consumed bottles. This is accomplished by inserting a specially made stopper into the bottle and then, by using a small plastic hand pump, creating a partial vacuum.

The concept is simultaneously simple and brilliant, and the pump and stoppers are remarkably easy to use. Best of all, Vacuvin really works and actually creates a
60 - 80% vacuum. A bit of experimentation reveals that when sealed with Vacuvin, partly used bottles of white wines can be stored, standing up and refrigerated, for up to ten days, and reds will hold for between three and five (depending on the wine) without showing serious signs of deterioration. One should, however keep in mind, however, that the vacuum created in the bottle is not complete. This means that even though the rate of deterioration of wine in bottles will be significantly reduced, bottles sealed with this system still contain more air than when they were full.

One limitation: Although I use Vacuvin for everyday wines, I will not "save" partially consumed bottles of highly prized or especially expensive wines which, whenever possible should be finished in a single sitting. Vacuvin is available at many wine stores. The price, which always includes the pump and two stoppers is reasonable, and extra stoppers may be purchased separately.

© Daniel Rogov