Metrokane Vacuum Decanter

Keeps Wine Fresh, BAC Up

A stylish crystal decanter is the original multitasking wine tool. It's used to aerate red wines to quickly improve its character. It's indispensable when straining sediment that can collect in older bottles of wine. And it always adds that impressive touch of class when serving wine at the dinner table. But what if you don't serve all wine? Until now there really was no way of preserving what was left in the decanter. That's where the V1 comes to the rescue. This handsome 52-ounce, hand-blown crystal decanter comes with a rubber stopper, vacuum gauge, and a manual vacuum pump designed to preserve vino left over in the decanter. To see if Metrokane's claims of wine preservation hold true, I opened a bottle of Arista Winery Pinot Noir, and poured all but a glass full into the decanter. I fastened the tight-fitting top in place, and pushed the vacuum plunger up and down until it achieved a tight vacuum seal. The next day I opened a second bottle of the same wine and compared it to the portion in the V1. The wine that had overnighted in the V1 tasted nearly the same as the recently uncorked Pinot. Don't you love it when leftovers don't taste left over? Yeah, me too.

WIRED Attractive crystal decanter does double-duty as a wine preserver. Readable vacuum gauge takes guess-work out of when vacuum seal is obtained.

TIRED Vacuum seal keeps wine fresh one time; subsequent reseals only store wine previously exposed to air. Manual vacuum pump takes some elbow-grease to get tight seal.

• Type: Kitchen gadgets
• Manufacturer: Metrokane
• Price: $80