Today let's talk about wine.
The other day, someone at the counter said, "I sometimes drink wine on the weekends, but I can't possibly finish a whole bottle. If I drink the leftover wine the following weekend, it doesn't taste good. That's why I've stopped buying so much wine."
I understand this very well.
For Japanese people, 750ml is a bit too much.
Furthermore, once wine comes into contact with air, it oxidizes very quickly and its flavor changes.
I too have shed tears many times at home after drinking wine that has oxidized so much that it tastes like an old man's.
It would be a shame to splurge on a wine and have it end up taste like grandpa's wine.
And it would be even more of a waste if you stopped buying wine so much that you drifted away from the joys of a life filled with delicious wine.
So today, I would like to offer some ideas on how you can prevent leftover wine from oxidizing.
1. Use gas to expel oxygen from the bottle
This is actually what we did at our store until recently. We would spray nitrogen gas called Private Preserve into the bottles of unfinished wine and store them upright. The idea is to create a layer of nitrogen gas on top of the wine, preventing it from coming into contact with oxygen.
It does slow down the oxidation rate, but it's a bit costly. It costs 3,000 yen on Amazon. It claims that it can be used 90 times, so each time costs 33 yen.
A friend of mine who works for a gas company told me, "Nitrogen gas is incredibly cheap. That's almost all the cost of the container and transportation." I felt a little silly when he told me this, so I don't use it anymore.
▶ Private Preserve Wine Preservation Spray: Amazon
2. Remove the air from the bottle using a vacu vin
This means that you don't need to pay any running costs once you buy it. It's quite cheap, costing less than 1,500 yen per set. Put a rubber stopper in and move the special suction pump up and down to remove the air.
I've used this in my store before. It seems to make wine less susceptible to oxidation. It lasts for about 3-4 days. However, when there's only a little wine left in the bottle, it doesn't seem to be very effective.
Also, when the suction pump is sucking air, it seems like the nice aroma of the wine is leaking out. I'm not using it now.
▶ Wine storage vacuum set: Amazon
3. Use Anti-Ox
This is what we're using in our store now. Just put it over the wine bottle. The carbon filter inside absorbs the oxygen.
They're a little pricey at just under 3,000 yen each, but in a store like ours that opens about 10 different types of wine by the glass, it's really convenient to be able to just put them on top.
However, I'm not sure if this will last a week. Of course, it depends a lot on the nature of the wine, but for regular wine, it will probably last about 3 to 4 days.
4. Use Coravin
If you want to preserve the quality of your wine for a long time, this is it. We also use it at Bokumo. The idea is to insert a thin needle into the cork and suck out the wine inside. After sucking it out, argon gas is injected to expel the oxygen.
It's advertised as lasting for three months, but in my experience it only lasts about one month (depending on the wine, of course).
The price of the machine and the gas used to run it are quite high, which is a bit of a drawback. Even the cheaper models cost more than 20,000 yen to start with.
▶ CORAVIN Coravin Series: Wine Accessories Creation, a wine goods specialty store
5. Transfer to a smaller container
This is what I would recommend to everyone.
First, prepare a half-size (375ml) wine bottle. If you don't have one, prepare a small, sealable bottle, such as one sold at a 100 yen shop.
Then, first transfer the 750ml bottle of wine you are about to drink into the small bottle (it will oxidize a little at this stage, but that can't be helped). In order to expel the air from inside the bottle, fill it almost to the brim with wine and then seal it.
Then, enjoy the half of the wine left in the original bottle that day.
In my experience, a small bottle of wine will last for about two weeks if kept refrigerated.
Don't have a half bottle of wine? In that case, please use Bokumo Wine (sorry for the advertisement).
I hope this information is helpful.
By the way, I think the best way to avoid your wine becoming overly oxidized and old-fashioned is to share it with friends who enjoy wine.
Huh? There's no such person?
Then just make it.
Yes, at a wine store with a counter like Bokumo, you have the opportunity to meet people who love wine (sorry for the second promotion).
