For the Wine Lover Who Has Everything

wine.retainer.jpg Thanks to the folks over at Luxist for digging up what will certainly be the, mark my words, hot wine gift of this holiday season (at least among your millionaire friends). It's not just a wine cooler, it's a wine preserving cooler that takes four of your recently opened bottles and turns them into tap dispensing wine preserved with nitrogen.

So I'm sitting here staring at this product and thinking. OK. Good concept, I get it. And then I start looking at those plastic dispensing nozzles, and wondering, how the heck do you manage to get those clean? Especially if the cabinet is permanently mounted somewhere, the last thing you want is residue from last week's Pinot Gris getting mixed in with this weeks Sauvignon Blanc. Maybe they've got this all figured out and the parts come off and are dishwasher safe. Or maybe not.

Someone buy one and e-mail me a review !

Posted by: Alder on October 2, 2005 8:52 PM: Tweet; Share this post elsewhere: Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit; Filed under: Ramblings and Rants

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Comments (11)

Jack wrote:

10.02.05 at 10:54 PM

Alder, I bet they're cheaper from the company that I think invented them: Cruvinet
http://www.cruvinetsys.com/

Steve-o wrote:

10.03.05 at 6:32 AM

Alder, I went to a wine bar/restaurant called Stained Glass in Evanston IL which does all their wines 'by the glass' in flights about three years ago. They had all of their many wines set up in those contraptions. Seemed to work pretty well and the wines tasted unaffected.

Ken wrote:

10.03.05 at 10:02 AM

The wonderful AOC restaurant in Los Angeles has a Cruvinet which holds 50 bottles and their wines by the glass taste pretty great...

http://www.aocwinebar.com/AOC_home.htm

Andrew wrote:

10.03.05 at 10:13 AM

Wouldnt you just put a bottle of water in and let it run through?

It would be no good to me; a bottle never lasts very long!

Anonymous wrote:

10.03.05 at 10:48 AM

That is a really good idea for home users in theory...but your right in stating "millionaire friends". I like many different wines and have a few bottles open at a time BUT, I couldn't justify $2000 for it. It would take me a lifetime to waste that much wine to make up the cost! Still, good idea.

Ning wrote:

10.03.05 at 12:26 PM

For those of us not yet at millionaire status, but who still want to save our opened bottles of wine, there's an amazing little gadget called ReServe. It seals off the open bottle and preserves the wine with argon gas. Fits in your fridge, and much easier on the pocket! I saw it reviewed in the May issue of Wine Spectator and found one at Williams Sonoma. Check it out at http://www.wineinnovations.com/

Urban Zeitgeist wrote:

10.03.05 at 2:44 PM

The trick I use to preserve wine for the next days is to pour the remaining bottle into an empty half bottle and cork it. That way there is very little oxygen left in the bottle and the wine tastes much better than it normally would. A great cheapo solution.

Alder wrote:

10.03.05 at 3:37 PM

Yeah, I suppose that's true, Andy, though it might be a big waste of your nitrogen to fill up the water bottle as it drains for cleaning.

Alder wrote:

10.06.05 at 4:03 PM

And (thanks to an e-mail from a shy reader) this one is for the LONELY wine lover who has everything but a wine-loving girlfriend:

Diago wrote:

10.07.05 at 5:53 AM

If you do search for "wine dispensing" there are a many companies to offer.

Tanya Francesca wrote:

10.10.05 at 7:16 PM

I was considering investing in a professional version of this dispenser ( specifically Cruvinet) for the cafe I am opening... I had actually asked some of the staff of AOC in Los Angeles about their machine; the consensus was: works great when clean but requires LOTS of cleaning (obviously). With the amount of maintainance and initial cost... I opted not to invest in the cruvinet. It would be cool at home though...maybe a couple bottle version... four is too much for my home:)