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Wine Savers

We tested six tools on half-empty bottles of red and white wine, comparing and evaluating the wines’ flavors and drinkability at various time intervals.

Published May 1, 2014. Appears in America's Test Kitchen TV Season 15: Pork Tenderloin Dinner

UpdateJuly 2014
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled Coravin Wine Access System and contact Coravin for a free repair kit that includes a neoprene wine bottle sleeve to contain broken glass when a bottle breaks, along with updated instructions and warnings. The wine access system should not be used on wine bottles with damages or flaws. For more information, please call Coravin customer service at 1-855-692-6728 or visit coravin.com/support. Even though the company has added this protective measure to the Coravin system, the risk of breaking a bottle of expensive wine with this costly device still exists, and we feel we can no longer recommend the product. The Air Cork, our previous runner-up, is our new winner.
See Everything We Tested

What You Need To Know

For years we’ve preserved open bottles of wine either by using the Vacu Vin Wine Saver, an inexpensive ($9.29) pair of rubber stoppers with a pump that sucks the air out of the bottle, or by pouring leftover wine into a smaller bottle or Mason jar to stave off oxidation. But innovative new gadgets promise to keep wine drinkable longer. We tested six tools, including the Vacu Vin, on half-empty bottles of red and white wine, comparing and evaluating the wines’ flavors and drinkability at various time intervals.

Three models were either ineffective or fussy or both. Our old favorite worked reliably and kept wine drinkable for a week, but two new models bested it. As of press time, these two models had kept wine drinkable for one month. (We’ll continue to taste and report, so check our website for updates.) By inserting one model's sharp, hollow needle through the cork—we never had to uncork the bottle—we could pour just the amount of wine that we wanted while activating a pressurized capsule that simultaneously fed argon (an inert gas) into the bottle to displace the tapped wine. Not even our trained wine expert could say which was fresher: a month-old bottle sealed by this product or a freshly opened bottle of the same vintage. Another, cheaper product is a worthy Best Buy: It forms a barricade against air when its balloon is lowered into the bottle and inflated just above the surface of the leftover wine. On the downside, it’s slightly finicky and can be used on only one bottle at a time.

Everything We Tested

Good : 3 stars out of 3.Fair : 2 stars out of 3.Poor : 1 stars out of 3.
*All products reviewed by America’s Test Kitchen are independently chosen, researched, and reviewed by our editors. We buy products for testing at retail locations and do not accept unsolicited samples for testing. We list suggested sources for recommended products as a convenience to our readers but do not endorse specific retailers. When you choose to purchase our editorial recommendations from the links we provide, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices are subject to change.
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Reviews you can trust

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The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.

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