Save that wine!

John On Wine ­ – Save that wine!

Originally published in the Ukiah Daily Journal newspaper on June 6, 2014

John Cesano of John On Wine

Whenever I talk about wine preservation, I can count on someone saying, “I always finish the bottle.” This column isn’t for you Tipsy McStagger, but for those of us who only want a glass or two, not a whole bottle in a night; or who at a party finish a bottle or two but want to pour one more glass and not an entire third bottle. Here’s a look at many ways to keep your wine good from glass to glass.

Savino is a simple, elegant, and effective wine preservation system; a cylindrical glass carafe, with a fluted opening which makes pouring wine easy, a glass float with collar, and a top to close the carafe against accidental spill. I was sent one as a review sample and I tried it out, both at home and at work. I found it keeps a bottle’s worth of wine good, glass after glass for about five to seven days. The Savino Wine Preservation Carafe is $60 for the glass model in a gorgeous gift box, or $30 for the same design in plastic.

Wine Preserva is a simple system with a round floating disc that has a radial cut fringed edge allowing it to fit inside of any wine bottle and self adjust for interior circumference. Like Savino, the wine is protected from air by a floating seal directly on top of the wine. The cost is $6 for a 10-pack or $30 for a 50-pack, Wine Preserva is used, and then tossed with the bottle when empty.

In my tasting room, I use a big tank of argon, an inert gas that is heavier than oxygen. The tank, regulator, hose, and wand run about $300, with refills of argon running about $40. I am able to spray a protective layer of argon into each opened bottle between glasses, not displacing oxygen, but blanketing the wine and protecting it from oxygen. A tank lasts 3-4 months in the tasting room and many, many years at home.

Probably the most ubiquitous wine preservation tool is the VacuVin, a device that purports to create a vacuum by pumping all of the air from inside a wine bottle through special one-way valved stoppers. Inexpensive, with a near endless line of fans, the product brings to mind the quote, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

We’re not talking about meat in a bag, but wine in a bottle and sucking the air out of a wine bottle strips away aroma and flavor, as described by Matt Kramer in Wine Spectator. The vacuum created is at best partial, a mere pressure differential with air remaining inside the bottle, and a leak rate that allows more air back in, as measured in two independent laboratories, ETS Labs and a university science lab for Kramer’s piece. Consumer Reports found the VacuVin no better at saving wine flavors than just jamming the old cork back in.

Better than just jamming the old porous cork in, is resealing with The Corker, a non porous sealer that is both decorative and functional. About $20 online at TheCorker.com, or at an art and wine festival, one size fits all bottles, keeps carbonation in a bubbly, allows still wines to be stored on their side in the fridge without leaking, and can be used in concert with Private Preserve for top notch preservation.

Less expensive than a $300 argon tank set up, but based on the same idea, is Private Preserve small $10 cans of gas, nitrogen mixed with argon, that similarly blanket between wine and oxygen when sprayed into a bottle. I like pure argon better, because nitrogen has a lighter atomic weight than oxygen and does not protect by blanketing, but by displacement and complete displacement of oxygen with nitrogen is unlikely. The argon in the can is doing the work here with the nitrogen keeping the price down.

Coravin is a remarkable device that allows you to extract wine through the cork without opening the bottle, using a medical grade needle while blanketing the remaining wine with argon. The argon is actually used to create pressure inside the bottle, pumping the wine out. Not inexpensive, $299 retail for the device, two argon canisters, and a display base. I saw it in use through Sonoma Valley as it allowed tasting rooms to offer tastes of high end, high dollar, wines by the glass without concern about oxidation. Unfortunately, there is a very small but real chance that the wine bottle may explode. Seven people have reported a bottle explosion, and one owner, holding a bottle near his face, cut his lip and chipped his tooth when a bottle burst.

Wine bottles can withstand six to 10 times the pressure a Coravin creates, but a flawed bottle, chipped by accident or with a large bubble in the glass through manufacturing defect has less strength, and sales of Coravins have been suspended until neoprene bottle sleeves can be distributed to all current owners and included at sale for all future owners.

The Air Cork is familiar if you watch television’s Shark Tank; a purple balloon on the end of a hose, with a grape shaped squeeze ball on the other end. This wine preservation system has you put the hose into a wine bottle, balloon touching the wine, and pump, pump, pump, you inflate the balloon, displacing oxygen and creating a protective barrier from air for the wine. Offered $400,000 by “The Sharks,” the creator turned the offer down, and the product is available on Amazon for $25.

 

 

Wine Steamed Chicken, Rice, and Chardonnay. Yum.

I tried to recreate a meal I used to cook often about 25 years ago; steamed chicken thighs, stuffed with ham, swiss cheese, and green onions – a healthy version of Chicken Cordon blue. I wasn’t able to extricate the thigh bone from the center of the thighs, so I rolled the deboned thighs and used cooking twine to tie them around the other ingredients completely.

Instead of steaming in water, I used an entire bottle of $1.99 2007 FoxBrook Sauvignon Blanc California. I tried to drink a glass of this wine, but poured it out, choosing to cook with it instead. Where another Sauvignon Blanc might have a note of cat pee in the nose, this wine tasted of piss. Not a wine I will ever buy again.

I served the Cordon Blue-esque Chicken up with a creamy chicken rice, to which I added a ton of butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

I paired dinner with a 2008 Fetzer Vineyards Valley Oaks Chardonney California. Clear pale gold  in color, this 13% alc wine has a ton of notes and flavors for an under $9 wine at Lucky supermarket. Crisp apple and citrus nose gives way to tropical fruit, grapefruit, and apple, balanced by oak and sweet cream, in the mouth. A nice medium bodied Chardonnay with a long light finish characterized by apple and acidity. I liked it lots, and saved the rest of the bottle with a Wine Preserva flavor saver disc.

Overall, a pretty tasty and moderately showy meal.

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Speaking of showy meals, I’ll be auditioning for Gordon Ramsey’s Masterchef on FOX in 11 days. If you live in Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, open casting calls are coming up; for more information, here’s a link: http://www.3ballproductions.com/masterchef.html

Jennifer Pitchke, a reader of my blog left this comment about the audition process:

Just wanted to let you know I went to the New York auditions and it was nothing like I expected so I wanted to give you heads up. I thought it would be like a one on one. Nope–you will be asked to stand with up to 8 others at one time to plate and they go down the line and you have maybe two minutes with them so back those two minutes good because I sure didn’t. My food rocked but felt I could have handled the Q&A better. Good Luck.

If you have read about the real audition process for American Idol auditioners, not the select few put through to see Simon Cowell and the gang, then Jennifer’s description is familiar. I don’t have cancer, a dead wife, or a very ill or disabled family member to exploit through the audition process, FOX loves the sob backstory in casting their reality shows, but I can cook and have personality; hopefully that will be enough. I will happily keep my healthy family and miss out on being cast if it really comes to that.

I had planned to serve involtini, polenta, and red sauce with a solid red wine. I’m adding a pesto sauce to the mix, so I can “paint” my white presentation plate with the red (homemade Italian red sauce), white (polenta), and green (pesto) of the Italian flag, and lay my sliced pinwheels of involtini across the flag in a line.

The presentation is better, the flavors still work great, and the food allows me to tell my story of growing up watching my Italian American father Charlie Cesano cooking, and how it has inspired my brother Thomas , myself, and my 12 year old son Charlie to be the primary cooks in our kitchens.

 

How about an inexpensive wine preservation device that works?

In the past, stainless steel wine tanks for fermentation and storage of wines required Nitrogen gas be pumped into the headspace between the surface of the wine and the interior top of the tank to blanket the wine from oxygen, and special gas outflow venting.

David Coleman, eccentric genius winemaker and founder, with his wife Ayn, of Adler Fels Winery, is credited with inventing the adjustable top fermentation tank while at Chateau St. Jean in the 70’s.

Coleman’s tank lid design allowed for variable volume of wine to be fermented or stored without harmful oxygen in the headspace. Coleman felt that pumping Nitrogen into the tank was rougher on the wine than necessary.

David Coleman’s tank design featured a lid that was lowered down the inside of an open top wine tank and held in place on top of the wine surface by means of a chain and pulley system.

The next major innovation in stainless steel tanks was the floating lid. Amity Vineyards claims the first wine tanks with a floating lid in 1981.

Like Coleman’s original adjustable top fermentation tank, the floating top tanks allow variable capacity without exposing the wine contained inside to air and oxygen via a tank lid that can be lowered by means of a chain and pulley system onto the surface of the wine, then sealed against the tank sides my inflating a tube contained within the lid’s side. The main improvement comes from a lid that floats and does not require a chain from the lid to a structure above the tank to hold the lid in place on the surface of the wine.

Recently, I unfavorably reviewed the Vacu-vin wine saver wine preservation pump and stopper system. The Vacu-vin was shown not to work over and over again in laboratories, did not maintain wine flavors any better than the old cork in blind tastings, led to wines suffering an aroma stripped nose, and didn’t maintain the marginal partial vacuum created. The product was a complete and total failure.

In response to my Vacu-vin evaluation and review, Shannon Essa, who I worked with at the Wine Appreciation Guild, asked me if I was familiar with Wine Preserva, and offered to send a couple of samples for me to test. Elliott Mackey of the Wine Appreciation Guild did the sending, but my thanks go to both Elliott and Shannon.

Made in Melbourne, Australia by inventor Barry Rees, the Wine Preserva is a flexible disc that floats on the surface of wine in a bottle. The makers claim of Wine Preserva claim its use protects wine from air and oxygen in between glasses, lengthening the time that a wine may be enjoyed, up to five days.

Available in packs of 6 or 50, each Wine Preserva comes in its own protective packaging. The protective individual Wine Preserva wrapper can be opened in the center of the top and bottom, and a fork provided in the 6 or 50 pack can be used to move the Wine Preserva from its wrapper into the wine bottle to be protected.

It took me three bottles to develop a proficiency, I was not initially deft getting the Wine Preserva into the bottle from the wrapper without touching the disc with my fingers. I am not the most graceful or patient person, but I have mastered the action required.

Here’s a link to a “how to” video:

http://www.winepreserva.com/howitworks.html

The disc is a circular clear plastic disc. the center utilizes bubble wrap type bubbles to ensure floatation, and the outer edge is radial cut to provide a flanged adjustable surface allowing one Wine Preserva to fit a variety of different bottles.

I bought some inexpensive wine from the grocery store to use to test the Wine Preserva. I opened twin bottles of a 2008 FoxBrook Cabernet Sauvignon, California, made by Bronco in Ceres, CA. Although the same price as Charles Shaw, $1.99, I can not say it was as good.

The wine at opening was a bright burgundy red in color, and showed youth. The nose had notes of dusty cocoa and dark blackberry fruit. The wine was light, thin, with a little tannin and was a little green with not quite ripe blackberry and cherry flavors in the mouth, with a plummy finish. with 12.5 alc, it was wine, it was unremarkable, it was not bad, it just was not particularly good either, it had no wow. After getting baseline tasting notes upon opening, I poured 1 cup from each of the two bottles (which i used to marinate a pair of tri tip roasts). I inserted a Wine preserva disc into one of the bottles, and put the original cork back in each bottle. I stored both wines in the back corner of a dark closet for 96 hours.

I opened a bottle of 2008 Rodney Strong state Vineyards Russian River Valley pinot Noir, Sonoma County, $13.48. Having tasted the FoxBrook made me want to taste a wine I liked. A deep garnet in color, this wine had quite a bit more body and complexity. 14.4 % alc, it had a nice round rich mouthfeel, medium bodied, spice, cherry and rose petal and pefume nose, floral rose, herb and spice, leading to oooh candy cherry in the mouth, and a long lingering tapering finish. I did pick up some green notes of youth, and will happily go back to the 2007 vintage and let the 2008 age a bit more.

I had one glass of the Rodney strong Pinot, and put a Wine Preserva into this bottle as well – for a full 5 days.

Okay here’s the results:

After 4 days, the FoxBrook Cabernet protected by the Wine Preserva disc had maintained the dusty cocoa and fruit nose, and there was still fruit evident in the mouth. The Foxbrook Cab sealed with the cork alone was nothing, the nose was lighter and the mouth was spent and off putting, making me want to wipe my tongue off.

After 5 days, the Rodney Strong Pinot was still drinkable, the aroma and flavors maintained and still present and lively.

Available at the Wine Hardware stores in Sonoma, Walnut Creek, St. Helena, and South San Francisco, or online at http://winehardware.com/ for $5.99 for a 6 pack or $29.99 for a 50 pack; I can report they work as advertised and add only $0.60 – $1.00 to the price of a bottle of wine while allowing the wine to be enjoyed at a maintained drinkable quality for days. While many people laughingly say, “I always finnish the bottle,” this is a great and inexpensive tool for those who drink more for flavor than effect. Wine doesn’t come with a funnel to aid in immediate consumption for a reason; and Wine Preserva allows the 6th glass in a bottle to taste like the first glass in a bottle, days after the wine is opened, at an additional cost of just $0.10 – $0.17 per glass for home use.

The Wine Preserva is a simple, elegant, logical wine preservation device. It works in a wine bottle exactly like a floating lid works on a stainless steel wine fermentation and storage tank.

“Greenies” will appreciate that Wine Preserva is both recyclable and biodegradable, and can be left in the bottle, and does not alter a bottle’s recyclability. Packaging materials are made from recyclable paper and plastic as well.

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Yesterday, the mailman brought a sample copy of Randall Grahm’s book “Been Doon So Long.” Thanks to Amy Cleary at UC Press; as I revere Randall Grahm, I will be getting into this beautiful book very soon.

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Disclosure: the Wine Preserva discs evaluated in this review were provided by the Wine Appreciation Guild.

It is silly, but the FTC requires these ridiculous disclosures by online wine writers at the risk of an $11,000 fine. I am not required to make the same disclosure if this article appears in traditional print media. This week, it was suggested that Gwyneth Paltrow does not have to disclose gifts she writes about in her online blog, because celebrities can’t be bothered to keep track of all their gifts. It appears the rules only apply to online writers who do not make money or have fame.

I am not paid to evaluate or review anything sent to me, I do not benefit from sales of anything I recommend. If I received a sample, and didn’t like it, I probably wouldn’t write about it. If I receive a sample and I do like it, you’ll probably read about it.

No promises, no guarantees, full disclosure. Greater transparency, and I think honesty, than most wine publications that take money from the people they review. I’ll try never to violate the trust I ask you to place in me when you read a review or evaluation from me.