Clive Burroughs Proprietor at Fine Wine Accessories in England provided this recent LinkedIn article post. I followed up with some comments noted below and although we may not be in agreement with some of the details, I certainly commended him for bringing wine preservation forward as a topic.
From Clive:
You hardly ever finish a bottle of wine in one go. Wine as you know needs to be stored in the right manner so as to ensure that its flavour and aroma stays intact. Preserving the wine however is not that easy without the right apparatus. To ensure that the essence of the drink stays intact, use of wine preservers is very important.
There are a number of different wine preservers available in the markets. Some use the mechanism of pumping out the air from the bottle while some lay a blanket of inert gas over it to stop the exposure of wine to the air. Choosing the right one according to your requirements is what is necessary. There are various different gadgets available for you to choose from depending on the ease of use you are looking for.
The Vacu Vin Wine Saver is a very simple and uncomplicated one to use. This has been in use for decades and allows the user to hand pump the air out. This wine saver just needs to be placed around the neck of the bottle after which you can pump out the air which arrests the wine’s exposure to air.
The AntiOx wine preserver is again a fairly simple one to use. Just pop it onto the bottle firmly and the micro filter present in this preserver will do the rest of the job. The best feature of this stopper is that it records the date which helps you to keep a track and there is no need to pump out any air.
The Vacu Vin Concerto Wine Saver with its 4 stoppers works in the same way as the ordinary wine savers.
Then there is the Original Inert Gas Aerosol Wine Preserver which is one of the best amongst the many. It makes use of the same inert gas which is used in the production and bottling of wine to stop the oxidization process. The Private Preserve is a good one too. This is one of the simplest to use and relatively inexpensive too. The gas contained in a can needs to be simply sprayed directly over the wine bottle. It lays a safe blanket of inert gas over the wine and displaces all of the oxygen from the space above the wine thus stopping the oxidization process. If you want a system which is absolutely hassle free to use, this one is for you.
My response:
As one of the inert gas wine preservation companies based in the U.S. (VineyardFresh), we couldn't agree more with Clive. We understand that people do not think of saving wine, but of drinking and enjoying wine. What we have learned from feedback and comments is that use of wine preservation actually causes people to drink more wine (not less).
After all, having quality wine preservation allows people to open up whatever they want, whenever they want. Open that 2nd or 3rd bottle or more expensive bottle, because you can, without worrying about waste.
Although we are biased, we are strong advocates of ANY product that uses 100% argon to preserve their wines (i.e. Enomatic machines, Napa Technology Wine Stations, Wine Saver Pro, Coravin). Relatively recently, Coravin has helped educate, by creating awareness of their product the category of wine preservation. Wine Enthusiast reported that in 2015, 2016 data not yet out) wine preservation increased by 15%.
We need to help consumers (and the trade) realize that wine preservation should be a necessity, is not an accessory. The importance is for the end user to have the best product/system that fits their needs. Could be anything from a higher end quality system to our product that retails for $15 or less here in the U.S.
Interested in more industry information including a Harvard Business Review article on how Wine Preservation could increase the wine industry by Billions of US Dollars, feel free to connect with me anytime at gary@vineyardfresh.com
