Checking in on the “Keeper”
If you read this blog regularly, you know that I recently purchased a WineKeeper “Keeper” to preserve open bottles of wine. My special circumstances prevent me from consuming an entire bottle of wine on an average weeknight, or even throughout an average week. Therefore, I decided to take the plunge and spend the $100 on this device.
So, how’s it going so far? Good question. I’m going to run the blind taste test soon, in which I test the Keeper against a bottle with a cork in it, but before I do I need to drink my wine for WBW #30. I’m leaning toward the 2000 Paracombe Adelaide Hills Somerville Shiraz, mostly because the name is so long.
Anyway, about 16 days ago I opened a bottle of 2005 Odisea Veritable Quandry. For the past several days, I have kept about one slightly large glass of wine in the bottle, just waiting there for me to cook dinner again and make something worthwhile as a pairing.
Tonight was the night. I made some chicken thighs and fresh baked bread, although I cheated and bought the Essential Baking par-baked bread that you finish baking at home. Still, it’s very good stuff. The best part of the meal in terms of wine pairing was the Kalamata olive tray I put out…they taste so much better when they are left intact rather than pitted.
But how did the wine taste after all that time? I’ll tell you, it was very good! There was a very faint degradation in the bouquet, but we’re talking 1% if that makes sense. In other words, 99% of the original bouquet was still present. The wine tasted terrific, but it did sort of fall apart after about 2 hours in the glass.
This result is very encouraging as I want to get a couple of taps and have a couple of different bottles open at the same time, but I don’t want any of the wine to go bad. So I’m really looking forward to the “48 hours later” challenge between the Keeper and the cork. Two will enter the fridge. Only one will taste good. Or both. Or neither, I guess. We’ll see. I’m trying to remain impartial.
February 1st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Wow, 16 days old and still in good shape?? You used the keeper for that one right? I’d be sold on that alone!
February 1st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Yep! Granted, it was only the 4th time I had poured wine from the bottle, but I think 4 separate pours within 16 days is a reasonable amount of wine to drink. The wine did degrade but only after at least an hour in the glass, and probably more.