December 7 2007
Since many wine bloggers are offering up some nice recommendations for holiday gifting for wine lovers of all stripes (see Tom from Fermentation exposing one of my secrets with vintage wine books), I thought I would jump into the fray with my recommendation for the single greatest gift for any wine lover young or old, seasoned or newbie.
It’s the Vacu Vin.
Honestly, if there has been a better wine invention second to the corkscrew, I’m not sure what it is.
My wine life changed once I got one.
The concept is simple enough, most of us know what a Vacu Vin is—little rubber stoppers and a hand pump to suck the air out of your wine bottle.
The thing that makes a Vacu Vin so remarkable is that, paired with your refrigerator, it can legitimately hold wine for several days, if not a week. It works! And, it’s easy to underestimate it as an indispensable tool.
And, the bonus of the Vacu Vin is that it’s not going to break the bank—you can get five stoppers and a pump for under $25 bucks, frequently much less if you shop at a discount housewares store.
In saving wine from going bad while significantly extending shelf life this baby will return an ROI to its user in at least two weeks, perhaps sooner if you drink anything above $15 bucks a bottle.
Because my wife is only a casual drinker and close to a teetoler, I end up being almost singularly responsible for drinking all of the wine that is opened at our house. And, the rub is, I like to drink wine, yes, but I also like to taste wine which means after I open one bottle I’m frequently thinking about what my next bottle choose is going to be.
The Vacu Vin lets me have several bottles running at the same time without the potential peril of the vino turning into vinegar with a cork in the bottle sitting on the counter-top. Much to my wife’s chagrin, it’s not unusual for me to have four bottles of wine running at the house at any given time, replacing the salad dressing in the bottom door, relegating the blue cheese dressing to another spot in the fridge—the real source of irritation for my wife.
Plus, the Vacu Vin, in only very rare circumstance robs fragile wine of character, and most wines are sturdy enough to hold up to multiple uses of the Vacu Vin.
I can’t imagine operating without one.
If you add the Vacu Vin with the Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator, replacing a clunky decanter that is bedeviling to clean, then you pretty much have, in my estimation, about the best wine-related gift you could give somebody for under $65.
Alas, my love affair with the Vacu Vin maybe coming to an end shortly. Supposedly, the Wine Saver Pro is coming out with a home edition, so wine enthusiasts can use a shot of argon gas to preserve their wine indefinitely.
Until then, I know the Vacu Vin will be my preferred gift of choice.
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