Wine preservation systems are nothing new — fancy restaurants have been using them for years — but home consumers only had a few choices, namely the Vacu Vin, you know, the one where you pump the oxygen out of the bottle and leave their plastic cork in place. Like most people, we used one for years but were never quite sure if we had an airtight seal. Still, it lasted for years and only cost $15.
The ArT wine preserver works differently — it pumps heavier argon gas in to displace the oxygen (it’s the oxygen that changes the taste of wine and makes it go bad, called ‘oxidation’) With the ArT system, you just pump two quick hits into the bottle and then put in the cork wine stopper that comes with the can. Don’t worry about a good seal since the heavier argon gas immediately sinks to the wine level, keeping all O2 out.
Since some nights we just want one glass of vino with dinner, and it works as promised for us. The second night our red Cab tasted as fresh as the first night. Although the company claims it will keep wine tasty for 7 to 30 days, we found by weeks’ end our original bottle had a sour, off-taste. Around our house, it’s rare for a bottle to last a week, so that isn’t an issue for us.
The company says it preserves up to 40 bottles but that depends on how many times you’re into the same bottle of course.
At 15 bucks a can we’ll be a repeat customer.
For any wine lover on your holiday list, this is a perfect present, amirite?