Over the years I’ve tried out a lot of different devices to try and preserve wine for those rare occasions when I wasn’t consuming an entire bottle of wine at one time…you know, with help from my wife. Some of them were gimmicky and didn’t really work, while others were a good option, but required a big monetary investment.
Boys and girls, we may have found a new option.
So a while back I tried a wine preservation system that involved placing a small plastic sheet down into the bottle. The sheet would spread out over the top of the wine, in theory creating a barrier between the wine and air, dust particles, and such things. The theory behind it wasn’t bad, and really the system worked OK, but I didn’t like the disposable nature of the sheets – you had to buy new sheets every time, they weren’t reusable.
Because of that, when I was approached about checking out the Savino Enthusiast system I was intrigued – the concept was the same as the Wine Shield system, but it a reusable system. So, how did it work out?
I actually really like this, and it also happens to work too.
There are two variations on the Savino, but I tried the Enthusiast, which is made from a shatter-proof plastic material (which I didn’t personally check by throwing it against the ground, but seemed like a moderately fair claim). I know some people shy away from plastic, but I actually like it here because it’s easy to clean (they say dishwasher safe but still recommend hand washing, which is what I did), and being plastic means you can take it outdoors without any worries, making it handy as an outdoor carafe as well.
The system itself is fairly simple – pour a bottle of wine into the carafe, then drop the float in on top of the wine. It will automatically right itself, creating a barrier over the wine, but can still be poured around, meaning you don’t have to take it out to get at the wine.
To test the system I poured in a bottle of wine (a Malbec I’ll be reviewing later this week actually). I quickly poured myself a small glass of wine to test the functionality of the float (it works seamlessly), and then locked the top in place and left it on my counter.
Over the next four days I sampled the wine, seeing if I noticed any changes in the wine (for better or worse). I have to say that the wine may have opened up a bit, but it certainly didn’t turn to vinegar, and I suspect putting the wine in the fridge would keep it even longer.
There are systems out there that will promise to keep your wine fresh for weeks at a time by sucking out the air, and they probably work really well. But here’s the catch – they’re also really expensive. The Savino Enthusiast Wine Preserving Carafe is available online now for about $25 (http://amzn.to/1OtHn1Y) and it happens to work.
The tag line for Savino is “Today’s Wine Tomorrow”, and while I don’t yet know if it will keep a bottle of wine fresh for more than a week, if you’re looking for something that will let you consume a bottle of wine over a few days, you can do a lot worse than the Savino.
Editor’s Note: I received this item as a free sample for review.
