Wine Shield

[GreginND]

I posted this question in a "product review" forum using my ipad but I don't see those forums here on the web page. So my guess is they don't exist anymore.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried the "Wine Shield". It's a flexible disk that you insert into your open bottles of wine to limit air exposure and keep the wine fresh longer. They claim it's better than any of the vacuum or intert gas methods. And it looks pretty simple. I'm thinking of using these in my tasting room to extend the life of the wine samples.

Any experience out there?

 

[novalou]

I posted this question in a "product review" forum using my ipad but I don't see those forums here on the web page. So my guess is they don't exist anymore.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried the "Wine Shield". It's a flexible disk that you insert into your open bottles of wine to limit air exposure and keep the wine fresh longer. They claim it's better than any of the vacuum or intert gas methods. And it looks pretty simple. I'm thinking of using these in my tasting room to extend the life of the wine samples.

Any experience out there?

I have never seen this product, but most of the tasting rooms I have seen use the rubber stoppers with the hand vacuum pump for wine preservation.

 

[g8keeper]

I posted this question in a "product review" forum using my ipad but I don't see those forums here on the web page. So my guess is they don't exist anymore.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried the "Wine Shield". It's a flexible disk that you insert into your open bottles of wine to limit air exposure and keep the wine fresh longer. They claim it's better than any of the vacuum or intert gas methods. And it looks pretty simple. I'm thinking of using these in my tasting room to extend the life of the wine samples.

Any experience out there?

i have no experience using them, but i always thought it was just used to help eliminate drips when pouring, and had nothing to do with o2 exposure...

 

[GreginND]

No, not the wine pourers. These go into the bottle and cover the top of the wine. Sort of like a floating lid! I'm talking about this:

http://www.wineshield.com

 

[g8keeper]

hmmm...never seen those before...but i do have a question....how do youget it out of the bottle, to reuse the bottle once it's empty???...lol....sorry greg, when you first mentioned wine shield, and described it, it sounded like the pourers, only because i swear those are called wine shield as well....lol...just not sure about that disk thing though...i know this is a different type of thing, but i have been to some wineries that use the same kind of pourers at least that bars do, but the also have a little ball area that fills up to measure the pour...it seems to me that this item may actually be a little more air tight, so to speak, if applied as soon as bottle is opened, thereby also restricting o2 exposure, although i could be wrong...

 

[GreginND]

No, there is no pourer that keeps air out. When you dispense wine out of the bottle, air has to go in.

These are meant to be used once and thrown away. Though, I bet you could fish them out. Cost is about 15 cents each. They are supposed to keep wine fresh for at least 5 days and they claim it works better than the vacuum pump stoppers. It's an interesting idea to limit exposure of the surface of the wine to air.

This would be handy in my tasting room if I don't empty a bottle in one day.

 

[ibglowin]

Reviews on Amazon are good but there are not that many (4) so they could be planted. I am skeptical but they are not all that expensive if purchased in bulk if they do work. Let us know if you do give them a try, seems like they would be good for a small operation like a small winery.

One question, what is an open left over bottle of wine, never seen one of those!

 

[g8keeper]

well i guess those would work fine for someone in a winery, where bottles, by law, normally cannot be reused, so you don't have to worry about the disk being in the way, but for the home winemaker that reuses bottles, it makes it quite a bit more difficult to do so....not so worried about retrieving the disk for reuse of it so much as reuse of the bottle....lol...

 

[ibglowin]

Found a pretty good review here

Sounds like it works well and if bought in bulk can be had for cheap.

 

[Pumpkinman]

nice review, looks like a decent product for a winery or restaurant as stated in the review, here at casa Privitera, I have yet to see a bottle that hasn't been finished..lol

 

[grapeman]

I know for me it could help save a lot of money. We do 9 farmers markets a week and have the tasting room also. We try to use opened bottles for as long as we can, sharing them between markets, but opened about 150 cases this year for sampling. I would say about 2/3 of that was dumped out because we wanted the wine fresh tasting. Something like this might actually help. I'm sure this is similar to what Greg is thinking.

A lot of people volunteer to drink the leftover wine before we dump it out, but usually we don't give it to them because if it still tastes good, it isn't dumped out!

 

[GreginND]

Yes. If I have a tasting room open on weekends, I can easily see someone coming in to the tasting room on Sunday near close and having to open a new bottle for them. The bottle might need to be kept until the next weekend.

 

[grapeman]

Experience tells me even refrigerated, I do not want to open a bottle and let it sit for a week. Most of them, especially reds are long gone by then. It does help to vacuum seal or gas them, but that is a pain. I know one guy opens as many as 28 kinds and keeps them sitting on a bartop for a week or more. I don't want to do that and expect repeat customers.

 

[GreginND]

Rich, I'm with you. I have been thinking about how to make sure the tasting experience is always first rate. I don't want to pour oxidized wines and have had bad experiences visiting other tasting rooms.

That settles it. I am going to buy some of these and test them with some of my homemade wines. I'll leave them completely open for 5 days and see how they fare. These could really help save money! I certainly don't think they could hurt.

 

[ibglowin]

I would think the combination of one of these as well as refrigeration overnight (which slows oxidation as well) might be a great strategy to cut down on dumping lots of wine.

 

[ibglowin]

Seems like a long set of tweezers would be able to retrieve the disk almost as easily as it was inserted since it is thin and bends easily.

well i guess those would work fine for someone in a winery, where bottles, by law, normally cannot be reused, so you don't have to worry about the disk being in the way, but for the home winemaker that reuses bottles, it makes it quite a bit more difficult to do so....not so worried about retrieving the disk for reuse of it so much as reuse of the bottle....lol...