Oxygen: Wine’s Nemesis

Oxygen is a threat to wine practically throughout the entire winemaking process, save for a few points during fermentation where oxygen at the right time can often enhance resulting flavors, aromas and color. Once in the bottle or in your glass, extensive exposure to air can eventually “oxidize” the wine into a chemical compound called acetaldehyde, which smells like rotten apples in large amounts, and further into acetic acid, which smells and tastes like vinegar. Prevention of air exposure is much more critical for white wines than reds mostly due to the abundance of tannins, which are more abundant in red wines due to skin contact, and anthocyanins, which are responsible for color in grape skins prolonging the oxidization effects described above.

But Wait, There’s More… or Less

Ok, now that I told you that oxygen is bad, I need to tell you that some oxygen exposure is good and can actually enhance the aromatics and flavor profiles of some wines. Ah, this lovely world of wine we live in. To be fair, in this case we should be talking about aeration, which is the deliberate and controlled exposure to oxygen through the means of decanting and breathing, which aims to encourage the revealing of the wine’s bouquet. It’s precisely for this reason we swirl our glass before digging our nose in the bowl.

The Hardware

There are many devices available to help preserve wine and protect it from extended exposure to oxygen. They fall into the following categories:

Vacuum & Pump Systems

With the aim to prevent air from entering the wine, vacuum and pump devices have been developed to remove air from open wine bottles. They are as simple as using a hand-pump that sucks the oxygen from the remaining head space in the bottle or more automated systems like the SoWine by Transtherm which can ensure your wine stays fresh for up to 10 days.

Nitrogen & Argon Systems

Inert gases are also helpful in preserving wine because they blanket the surface of the wine preventing oxygen from penetrating the juice. These devices come in easy-to-spray canisters as well as more automated systems such as the PEK Supremo Wine Steward which utilizes argon and can preserve your bottle for up to 10 days as well.  Most winery tasting rooms use inert gas to preserve open bottles.

This year’s event will be held at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District from 11:30a – 6:45pm.

International Wine Accessories will have a drawing for several items throughout the event.  All you have to do is stop by our booth to sign up to be eligible.  Check out these great prizes:

A Set of Ultima Burgundy Glasses

An Ultima Tasting Set

Vinturi Wine Aerator

12-bottle Mini Cellar

Don’t delay, get your tickets now at http://bit.ly/PinotSummit and win(e) some fabulous stuff from IWA!

Here’s a few gift ideas just in time for Father’s Day:

Avanti 52-Bottle Built-In Mini Cellar – Give your Father the gift of Built-In Wine Storage! This is the built-in mini cellar he’s been hoping to get! It has stainless steel-trimmed glass doors, an LED readout for temperature setting and monitoring, slide out chrome racking for easy access and interior display lights to show off the collection.

SoWine Home Wine Bar by Transtherm – Give Dad the ultimate in wine preservation. The SoWine chills and preserves opened wine for up to ten days! The compact design will fit easily in the kitchen or Dad’s smoking lounge.

Vinturi Wine Aerator Gift Set – This Father’s Day, Dad deserves a great glass of wine…perfectly aerated by the Vinturi. The Vinturi Gift Set includes the popular Vinturi Wine Aerator beautifully packaged with the Vinturi Tower that holds the Vinturi for elegant wine service by the glass.

Ultima Stemware – Don’t let Dad drink wine in those tiny little wine glasses. Give him the strongest, clearest & most resilient glass crystal ever created! The Ultima Series is designed to enhance a wine’s flavor and bouquet. He’ll appreciate this gift every time he takes a sip.

Bronze Estate Opener – Now Dad can open a wine bottle quickly with modern technology and antique charm. Our Bronze Estate Opener works with both standard and flanged bottles and makes opening wine easy while looking great…the opener that is, but Dad will look pretty good too.

Laguiole Black Horn Steak Knives – Nothing goes better with wine than a great dinner. And a great dinner deserves the finest cutlery. Heirloom worthy, these knives are handcrafted in France of the finest quality, stainless steel for the blades. A set of six for when all the guys (and gals) get together for steaks.

So don’t delay. Order your Father’s Day gift today and surprise Dad with something he really wants.

Wine preservation gases such as the Private Preserve Wine Preserver and the Winelife Professional Wine Preservation System are cans of compressed gas about the size of a standard wine bottle. Each can of gas has 120 applications and surprisingly, a full can feels very light when you pick it up. The can comes with a plastic tube you attach to the nozzle and insert into the neck of the wine bottle you intend to preserve. A quick 1 or 2 second blast of the nozzle blankets the top surface of the wine with a gas mixture of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and in the case of the Private Preserve, argon. These gases are flavorless, odorless, non-toxic and non-flammable. The gas mixture is heavier than air and settles on top of the exposed wine surface. Since these gases contain no oxygen and is entirely inert, there is nothing that interacts with the wine. After you spray the gas, quickly recork the bottle with the original cork (don’t use a vacuum cork as that will suck the gases out of the bottle) and store the bottle upright. It’s that simple. Best of all, both these products cost only $9.95.

The question is, does it work? First of all, wineries use nitrogen systems to blanket the top of wine sitting inside stainless tanks and the by-product of fermentation is carbon dioxide which acts as a natural preserver. As far as real-world tests, I opened two identical wines, poured two glasses from each and had about half a bottle of each remaining. In one bottle, I used a vacuum system and in the other bottle I sprayed the gas and recorked it. After two days, I opened both bottles and tasted some of each. The vacuum pumped bottle had changed slightly, but the bottle with gas tasted the same as when it was first opened. Amazing.

If you want to take the next step, combine inert gas with a dispenser system and you have the ultimate wine preserving and serving system around. The Keeper is the same kind of system that fine restaurants use to serve wines by the glass, but on a smaller scale. Simply insert the stopper faucet into your favorite bottle, turn on the nitrogen cylinder and serve. Each cylinder is good for 25 bottles.

Get one of our gas systems for your leftover wine. It’s the kind of gas that you won’t be embarrassed to have.

Air: good for us, bad for wine

Fine wine and oxygen don’t mix. Prolonged exposure to oxygen will cause wine to oxidize, breaking down the aromatic phenols which gives wine its distinct bouquet and taste, and changing its sensory characteristics. Unless it’s a bottle of Madeira, these changes usually aren’t good. The bouquet can smell a little cooked or raisiny, the taste is flat or a little off, often masking the true flavor of the wine, and the color may have turned brown.

While you can still drink this wine and it won’t harm you, it probably won’t be a pleasant experience. But, wait, don’t pour that wine down the drain. While it may not be good for drinking, it can still be used for cooking. So stick the cork back in it, put it in the refrigerator and save it for Coq au Vin.

Less Air = Less Oxidation

Vacuum and pump systems work by removing most of the air from an open bottle of wine and slowing down the oxidation process. Does it work? Well, it often depends on the wine and if some slight oxidation would actually benefit it. I’ve been using a Vacu-Vin for several years now and this has been my experience.

If I simply stick a cork in a half-consumed bottle of wine and leave it out at room temperature, it may last until the next night. If I stick that bottle in the refrigerator, it may last for two days before it starts to taste funny. If I use my Vacu-Vin and leave that bottle out, it still tastes fine sometimes up to 3 days later, and if I put it in the refrigerator, it can last up to a week. Now I’ve made it a habit to just stick one of the Vacu-Vin stoppers into the bottle immediately after I’ve poured a glass. If, by the end of the evening, there is still wine in that bottle, I pump out the air with the Vacu-Vin until I hear that clicking sound that says I have an adequate vacuum and stick it in the fridge.

Oh, a couple of suggestions. I avoid laying an open bottle on its side and prefer to stand the bottle upright. By laying the bottle on its side when it’s not completely full, you’re creating more surface area for wine to come into contact with the remaining air in the bottle and speeding up the oxidation. And buy some extra stoppers. After entertaining, I find I always have more leftover open bottles than stoppers.

I’ve been talking only about the Vacu-Vin, but there are other similar products at IWA such as the L’Atelier Gard’Vin and the Costa Brava Vacuum Wine Preserver that work equally well.