Product Description

Vacu-Vin wine saver system. The only thing sadder than pouring spoiled wine down the drain is not opening it at all because you can't finish the bottle at one meal. The one and only, original Vacu-Vin, used in more than 10 million homes worldwide, is the easiest, most affordable way to preserve opened wines. The Vacu-Vin pump removes the air (and the oxygen that spoils wine) from opened bottles. Place it over the reusable stopper and pump out the air. The more stoppers you have, the more bottles you can save! One-year warranty. Includes one pump and two stoppers. Gift boxed. Fits any size or type wine bottle. Additonal stoppers available here

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #445 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Brand: Vacu Vin
• Model: 98125
• Dimensions: 5.00" h x 1.40" w x 2.75" l, .20 pounds

Features

• Reusable vacuum wine storage set ideal for all wine lovers
• Keeps open wine fresh for two weeks
• Correct usage puts an end to the oxidation process
• Includes 1 sturdy plastic pump and 2 high-quality rubber stoppers
• Hand washable; one-year warranty

Amazon.com Review
Wine should breathe a little, but not overnight. Putting an end to the oxidation process, which turns a favorite Merlot into vinegar, is easy with the Vacu Vin Wine Saver. Made from high-quality rubber, which will not affect the taste of the wine, the Wine Saver uses a vacuum-style pump to release air to keep a wine fresh. And it's easy to use--just place a stopper in a bottle's neck, place the pump over the stopper, and pump air out until some resistance is felt. This process is suitable for preserving all but sparkling wines, and will save Chiantis, Syrahs, and others for up to two weeks. --Madeleine Miller

Customer Reviews

Enjoy the same bottle today and tomorrow.
Without the VacuVin a bottle of wine presentings a daunting undertaking - are we ready to drink 4-5 glass of wine right now? The VacuVin eliminates this problem by allowing you to remove the air from the bottle after you have opened it, which slows the oxidation which turns the wine sour.

You stick the rubber stopper snuggly into the bottle top, place the VacuVin on top and pump its handle 4-8 times (depending on how empty the bottle is). With each pump, the VacuVin sucks out more air though a narrow slit in the rubber stopper. You can feel the vacuum inside building as each pump takes more effort. The vacuum then holds the slit closed.

The beauty of this, is that it takes no time at all - maybe 15 seconds, tops. With the VacuVin, I've been able to enjoy the same bottle of wine for upwards of a week. One hint for a better vacuum seal, is to run the rubber stopper under water before using it - a little moisture helps achieve a better seal, especially when the rubber stoppers are no longer new.

I used to love it
After using my Vacu Vin for a decade or so, I agree that it somewhat prolongs the life of a half-finished bottle of wine. However, I'm ashamed to admit that in all those years I never asked myself the first question that popped into the head of an engineer I know.

When he first saw me using the Vacu Vin he asked me what the gizmo was supposed to do. I told him that it vacuumed the air out of the bottle, removing most of the oxygen that otherwise quickly spoils the wine. After he stopped laughing he asked me a perfectly reasonable question. "Are you trying to tell me that this little plastic pump creates a vacuum in the bottle?"

Well, of course not I said, but it gets most of the air out. Again he laughed, and I started to wonder. Any scientist can tell you that creating a vacuum is no laughing matter - it takes serious horsepower. Human strength and plastic pumps only lower the air pressure a bit, leaving a lot of air behind: they simply cannot create a vacuum.

Thinking back to some pretty fine bottles that had soured in just a day or two with my Vacu Vin, I wondered if I'd been kidding myself all along. Since I didn't know of a viable alternative, maybe I just wanted to believe that it was working? Now that I've found a better answer, I'm sure of it.

Maybe you know that bars and restaurants selling premium wines by the glass often use a gas-replacement system that pumps nitrogen into the bottle as wine is poured out. This keeps oxygen out and protects even very expensive wines until the next time somebody wants a glass - often many days later. The only problem with this near-perfect system is that it's generally too expensive and cumbersome for home use.

That's why most wine shops sell little disposable cylinders of inert gas for that do the very same thing for home users, and do it cheap. One little red bottle of gas costs about ten bucks and protects over 100 bottles of wine - about a dime per use. Just spray this harmless gas (mostly nitrogen, I think) into the open bottle, replace the cork and you've sealed out virtually all the oxygen. As long as the cork is re-insterted tightly it's almost as though you'd never opened the bottle at all.

In casual testing this treatment has preserved very fine wines for well over a week in my house. Since I can't look at an open bottle of wine for more than a few days without finishing it off, I can't say just how long they a bottle might last in the care of someone more restrained. I can say that my wine seems more fresh and alive on second tasting than it did when I relied on my Vacu Vin, and that I can't remember the last one that spoiled.

Actually I can - it had a Vacu Vin stopper in it...

Slightly helps some wines, completely destroys others
The main goal in keeping wine "leftovers" is to prevent the wine from aging between the time you open the bottle and when you finish the remaining wine. Air destroys wine, so you need to minimize the air contacat. You also have to keep the wine in the fridge during this time, because 55F is a 'normal aging temperature' and since the air is already aging the wine, you want to minimize *any* other degrading that might go on. Any temperature over 55F will simply make things worse.

The vacu-vin attempts to help by sucking the air out of a half-empty bottle of wine. Note that, instead of the few pumps their literature suggests, you need about 15 pumps to get most of the air out. For many wine types the fact that you are in essence lowering the pressure in the bottle pulls the 'liveliness' out of the wine, which ruins it.

I have done a series of tests for my website comparing both a red and white after 3 days, being stored under a variety of circumstances. The vacu-vin "works" in the sense that it does remove most of the air. However, it was also found to greatly harm some wines - even when you compare its use against a simple cork.

The *ideal* method of saving wine is cheap. Simply put the wine into a smaller glass bottle, cork it, and put it in the fridge. That has the best chance to keep the most common wines for another few days in the best condition. No air at all, no vacuum either. Of course, *no* method will really keep a wine in the same state it started in. You can always cook with the wine on the second day, and move along to your next bottle!

Life is too short to drink bad or old wine :)

I'm continuing to experiment with preserving opened bottles, with various price ranges of wine, and with different wine types....
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