How To Use Wine Stopper Pump

Wine Saver – Round One: Competing with the Screwcap

Of the various methods available intended to preserve an unfinished canteen of wine after opening, the vacuum pump is probably the virtually popular, is certainly ane of the most practical and is besides one of the cheaper alternatives. Only does it piece of work?

Well I tin requite y'all a ane-give-and-take reply to that: no.

Allow me to qualify that "no": my tests at abode, with several different good-quality wines with screwcap closures, indicated in every case that freshness and fruit was ameliorate-maintained simply by screwing the cap back onto the corresponding wine bottle than past using the vacuum pump and stopper. This does not hateful that the development of the wine over the test flow was preferable – in fact, among my test subjects, information technology was l/l which wine was preferred.

Deplorable if that pisses you off, sorry if y'all disagree. I'll explain how I arrived at my conclusions shortly.

What Practice They Do?

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The "Vino Saver" vacuum pump system…just what if your wine can't be saved?

The stated purpose of a vacuum pump is to remove air from the bottle. The goal of this rather simple performance is twofold:

to create a good seal to prevent air from entering the bottle and, more than importantly,
to reduce the oxygen remaining in the canteen, thereby slowing down the rate of oxidation of the wine

It sounds skillful, and information technology makes sense that removing air from the canteen should slow downward the oxidation of the vino. The organisation itself is quite uncomplicated: a condom stopper with an internal valve is placed in the neck of the open up bottle, a pump designed to work with that stopper is used to draw air out of the bottle until an "ideal" level is reached – or simply no more air can exist removed, which is non to say that there is no more than air inside the canteen. In the example of VacuVin, the latest pumps volition make a clicking sound once the "platonic" state is reached.

Four VacuVin stoppers

Newer stopper system on the left.

Then far, and then good. If the seal is effective, it should be obvious when the stopper is removed. The valve on the stoppers tin can be manually released, allowing pressure level within and outside the bottle to equalise. When comparing with a canteen closed only with a screwcap after opening, just at a similar fill up level, opened at the same time and stored in the aforementioned conditions, it should be a no-brainer that the wine with less air in the bottle oxidises less quickly.

Should exist. My tests – for all bottles tested – bear witness otherwise.

Before going on, I should mention that my stoppers worked just fine at creating a seal; the pump worked just fine at removing air. Everything worked merely as they were supposed to.

What I Did

The Wines

The wines I chose for testing shared the post-obit features:

monovarietal – Garnacha for the reds, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) for the whites
sealed with screwcap
reductive vinification (exposure to oxygen during vinification or aging kept to a minimum)
steel tank fermentation and ageing, little contact with the lees
large volumes of product

I chose red wines and white wines of expert quality, with all test bottles coming from the same batch. I wanted screwcaps and reductive vinification to minimise bottle variation and the influence of oxygen. This was to ensure that the wine from all the test bottles tasted the aforementioned at the commencement. Reductive vinification was as well important to let the gradual oxidation of the wines afterwards opening to be as articulate equally possible at subsequent tastings. I wanted the vinification to have been washed in steel tanks (instead of wood barrels) so that there would be no forest influence on the wines, and considering it is important for reductive vinification.

The Methodology

four standard (750 mL) bottles of each wine were opened simultaneously and tasted for consistency
the bottles were divided into two pairs (Pair 1 and Pair two), with each pair consisting of i bottle to be resealed with the vacuum pump organisation (Bottle A) and 1 bottle to be resealed with its screwcap (Bottle B)
the bottles were tested several times over the subsequent 96 hours
afterwards each tasting the bottles were resealed appropriately and placed in the refrigerator

The Examination

All tastings were conducted blind.

I chose to test two pairs of bottles to allow a different fill up-level as the start point for the tests. Ane big glass (187 mL) of vino was removed from each bottle at the time of each tasting subsequently the first, each bottle contains 4 large glasses of wine in total.

Pair i

This pair had one glass of wine removed at the time of opening, so it was ¾ full when it was starting time resealed. Subsequent tastings were at 48 hours, 72 hours and, finally, at 96 hours.

Pair two

This pair had two spectacles of wine removed at the time of opening, and so the canteen was ½ total when it was first resealed. Subsequent tastings were at 48 hours and 96 hours.

Results of the Tastings

The differences between the two bottles were already articulate at the first examination afterward 48 hours, and became more than pronounced with each subsequent tasting. Canteen A became softer and rounder earlier than bottle B – it likewise lost freshness sooner. In the whites the fruit flavours were disappearing, in the reds they had moved considerably into "prune" territory. whether y'all enjoy these furnishings on a wine or not, they are all indicators of oxidation.

Decision: oxidation was simply more than advanced in the bottles sealed with the vacuum pump system.

So, on the basis of what the stated purpose of the vacuum pump is, which, as I said, is to slow the rate of oxidation, I must say that it did a poorer job than simply screwing the cap back onto the bottle.

Simply.

As I mentioned above, half of the people I tasted the wines with preferred the more than rounded, softer wine. That's fine, likewise. Personally, I preferred the fresher ones; I preferred Bottle B in all cases and at every tasting.

This test was conducted on screwcap wines that were fabricated reductively. The results with wine sealed with cork and made in a less reductive manner could be different. At the very least, the differences might be less noticeable. I'll likely try that quondam soon.

My Communication

If you are planning on drinking your wine over the space of a few days, don't fifty-fifty worry virtually pumping out air or finding another alternative for "saving" your vino. Put in a good stopper if the wine isn't screwcap or merely put the screwcap back on. It'll be fine. If you need to save your opened bottle of wine for a couple weeks…. Well, maybe you should invite someone to drink it with you lot instead.