The Auswine Forum

Hey Guys

I love to have a glass of wine at night but like the idea of having one only with dinner on school nights!

I am lucky to have a milestone birthday coming up and my lovely wife has asked me to pick something special...

I would ideally love a two bottle wine preserver so I can enjoy a couple different bottles over a couple of weeks if required!

Any advice.. Ideally under $1000

Thanks

I think this is what you need ... http://www.coravin.com/ ... as long as the bottles have cork closures.

Howdy

Seen the Coravin but the drama is so many wines in screwcap closure these days... I really need a solution for that.. I would love something that dispenses a measure which would be awesome!

Tim

I have a sunbeam FoodSaver which not only vacuum packs food, it also comes with a bottle stopper attachment that you can remove the air from a wine bottle. I use this and pop the bottle back on the wine fridge. It stops the oxidation process whilst I drink the wine over about 4 nights. They are about $200ish.

NitroTap Wine Service & Preservation System - Uses Nitrogen
Sowine - Temperature and Vacuum but probably not that good..(Eurocave Wine Art is the same system I think).
Krups Wine Dispenser - Vacuum as well.
Wine Keeper The Vitner is like the Nitrotap

I'm a fan of Coravin

oh I also forgot, Pungo...Which is similar to a Coravin but it works with screwcap...At the same time, it is more of a leave it on there until you're done...vs. take a glass and move on..

I made a post here about my rig. I've been using it for about 2 years now.
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12639&p=104672&hilit=argon#p104672

redstuff wrote:I made a post here about my rig. I've been using it for about 2 years now.
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12639&p=104672&hilit=argon#p104672

Redstuff, you are an ideas man.

Scotty vino wrote:

redstuff wrote:I made a post here about my rig. I've been using it for about 2 years now.
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12639&p=104672&hilit=argon#p104672

Redstuff, you are an ideas man.

It is da bomb, brilliant

Coravin is the one, more than your budget but it will change your drinking habits forever and pay for itself in less than a year. I am not too sure if it is available in Australia yet, but it will be sometime 2015 at the latest!!

felixp wrote:Coravin is the one, more than your budget but it will change your drinking habits forever and pay for itself in less than a year. I am not too sure if it is available in Australia yet, but it will be sometime 2015 at the latest!!

The pricing of this is a bit much for my liking... its available here for £270 but each argon capsule costs another £8 roughly and will allow for the pouring of "up to" 15 glasses... so thats 50p or about $1 Aussie per glass of wine you drink!

Might make sense if I had a cellar of $300/bottle Burgundy I wanted to sample at random, but otherwise somewhat more of a novelty and hence hard to justify the upfront cost.

How much is an actual small enomatic system? I would love on of these
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0383/9 ... ochure.pdf

sjw_11 wrote:How much is an actual small enomatic system? I would love on of these
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0383/9 ... ochure.pdf

I guess they might work out as expensive given they are also using argon gas... or maybe you can buy in a more economical quantity than buying the capsules at Coravin's monopolistic rate?

Sam - I see it as completely changing the way I'd buy wine though..

Since I'd rarely drink more than a glass..and probably prefer 2 half glasses of two different things..rather than have some daily drinkers I don't care much about because there is a reasonably good chance some of it is going to waste, I can have some here or there from nicer wines and not worry about it going bad...

A 300 dollar bottle of Burgundy is less of an issue because if I'm doing 75-100mls at a time, I'm having this on 7-10 different occasions...Which also increases the value of it to me as a wine...

I don't think 300 dollar bottles of wines would suddenly become a common thing for me..but using it like this my average bottle price would jump significantly...

I definitely do not see using this for cheaper wine..no point...plus it doesn't work with screwcap and probably doesn't work with Ardea either..

The amount of times I hear people say 'i just need to find the right occasion to open a bottle of Grange etc' is amazing.... Coravin takes the choice out of the equation as you can have that bottle on several occasions.... I think the price and the cost of capsules are ok.... I'm planning to have 20 plus older bottles on the go at any given time

As an aside, if you have a red that's started to oxidise from being open too long, put a touch of young chardonnay in it, say about a centimetre in the bottle. The high level of sulphites in the chardonnay will pull the oxygen out of the red and not effect the taste too much.

Polymer wrote:Sam - I see it as completely changing the way I'd buy wine though..

Since I'd rarely drink more than a glass..and probably prefer 2 half glasses of two different things..rather than have some daily drinkers I don't care much about because there is a reasonably good chance some of it is going to waste, I can have some here or there from nicer wines and not worry about it going bad...

A 300 dollar bottle of Burgundy is less of an issue because if I'm doing 75-100mls at a time, I'm having this on 7-10 different occasions...Which also increases the value of it to me as a wine...

I don't think 300 dollar bottles of wines would suddenly become a common thing for me..but using it like this my average bottle price would jump significantly...

I definitely do not see using this for cheaper wine..no point...plus it doesn't work with screwcap and probably doesn't work with Ardea either..

if you are like me and most wine drinkers., Coravine will pay for itself very very quickly. Having a glass of top wine knowing you can leave the rest alone for as long as you like is just priceless. I also use it on one bottle from a case, e.g. 2005 Bordeaux for me, and only need the one bottle over a six year period to have a really good idea how my case is maturing. For me, it is an absolute God-send.

I think the only question mark has been reliability...seems to preserve the wine fine most of the time...not so good other times...They're also supposed to release a thinner needle for older bottles (not that it should really be a concern of mine).

I can definitely see it saving money in the example you gave as well as being just useful all around....and I think that would be how a lot of people also use it...for me though, if anything I'd be even less likely to buy larger quantities of any given wine...

Some people end up buying fewer bottles but more per bottle...and a Coravin would just magnify that for me...

There's a bit of love over at Wine Berserkers for the 'Pungo' - bit similar to the Coravin with needle and Argon setup.

Well, the good and bad with the pungo is, you can't really remove it from a wine...I guess technically they say you can and you can cap it...

It is one of those things I'd prefer to leave on...but then I'd need a bunch of them which gets stupidly expensive....

On the plus side, it can fit with screwcap wines apparently...you remove the screwcap and there is an adapter...

The Pungo looks interesting. I will start thinking of a budget way to puncture a stelvin and retain a seal.

Polymer wrote:I think the only question mark has been reliability...seems to preserve the wine fine most of the time...not so good other times...They're also supposed to release a thinner needle for older bottles (not that it should really be a concern of mine).

I can definitely see it saving money in the example you gave as well as being just useful all around....and I think that would be how a lot of people also use it...for me though, if anything I'd be even less likely to buy larger quantities of any given wine...

Some people end up buying fewer bottles but more per bottle...and a Coravin would just magnify that for me...

I've used it on some 30 year old bottles with just the 'regular' needle, and then came back to those bottles after a month and the wine was exactly the same as the first glasses

Thinking of getting a Coravin, but where do people get the gas refills from??

Mike Hawkins wrote:The amount of times I hear people say 'i just need to find the right occasion to open a bottle of Grange etc' is amazing.... Coravin takes the choice out of the equation as you can have that bottle on several occasions.... I think the price and the cost of capsules are ok.... I'm planning to have 20 plus older bottles on the go at any given time

I'd be dead, or at least need a wet suit

Cheers
Craig

Mike Hawkins wrote:I've used it on some 30 year old bottles with just the 'regular' needle, and then came back to those bottles after a month and the wine was exactly the same as the first glasses

Mike,

How has your coravin been going? I was following people's progress on them in the forums but that stuff has died down a lot and people talk about it a lot less (although more people seem to have one). It must be working out ok.

I know some people have had issues with it but part of that must also be how they're doing it.

Planning to get one once I move...in AU I just have far too many wines with screwcap and the ones that I don't I tend to have slotted for full consumption....Already my buying is shifting a bit but I think it would make a huge shift with Coravin....hoping for a Champers one at some point....

Mike,

How has your coravin been going? I was following people's progress on them in the forums but that stuff has died down a lot and people talk about it a lot less (although more people seem to have one). It must be working out ok.

I know some people have had issues with it but part of that must also be how they're doing it.

Planning to get one once I move...in AU I just have far too many wines with screwcap and the ones that I don't I tend to have slotted for full consumption....Already my buying is shifting a bit but I think it would make a huge shift with Coravin....hoping for a Champers one at some point....

Hey Polymer,

i have a Coravin. Its fantastic, 10 -20 bottles on the go at anyone time. Comparing wines against each other has given me new perspective on my cellar, expanded my palate and helped narrow down what i like by taste rather than label. Once you get to try them up against each other blind you really get a good feel for what your preferences are. The result is that I've shuffled about my cellar by sending a handful of each wine i have that i don't love as much off to auction to swap for more of those i only had light stock of. Having said that when you taste a wine on its own you enjoy it for what it is, so the experience is different, as with a Corivan you are playing wine judge with your collection.

Getting used to the Coravin takes a little practice ....i wasted a few gas cylinders thinking they might be finished when it was cork in the needle that needed clearing etc

I'm getting far more from my cellar than ever before. 1 or 2 bottles over a weekend but now i can chop and change depending on how i feel. Ive had bottles open for 4 months that are still perfect whereas others 2 months is maximum and they begin to oxidise. All wines are kept in my temp controlled fridge.

if you've got the coin ...get one.

strippett wrote:Thinking of getting a Coravin, but where do people get the gas refills from??

order from Coravin.com - so shipped from the U.S website via DHL here in a few days.

So have you noticed anything as far as consistency (when they start to oxidize)? Do you think it has anything to do with technique, temperature or humidity? Or just the cork?

Generally i find it can vary between wines, the older the bottle the quicker it is to oxidise. 1998 & 2002's i opened lasted 8 weeks. Its gradual but if you use the coravin regularly you can pick up that the bottle is beginning to oxidise. It was at about 6 weeks i began to notice the older bottles begin to oxidise so lifted the cork and enjoyed the last 3rd. 2 x 04's lasted close to 3 months and almost everything 06 or younger is still coming out great after 5 months.

I do think that there have been a few wines where I've had a lot from on the same night i.e pumped more gas in a short space of time/more holes in the cork/in & out of fridge as opposed to this process over weeks/months and these wines tended to show some oxidisation quicker no matter what vintage they were from including up to 2012.

So yes technique, temp and humidity play a role in oxidising the wine quicker.

The trick is to get them back in the temp controlled fridge shortly after opening and not puncture 6 holes in one night - common sense but those wines i used the coravin on sparingly and placed back in the fridge within 15mins were prone to not showing any oxidisation.

Given the variation in cork and the more holes you put into it with the coravin, the quicker it will oxidise.

you laying them down or standing them up in the fridge after you use the coravin?