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If you have a really good wine collection, invest in a coravin.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... innovation

It uses a titanium coated hypodermic to pierce a cork, and injects argon gas into the bottle. The maker says it will keep the wine indefinitely, the somms I work with say a year.

For the night you want to drink a glass of that 97 Tig, but not the whole bottle.

Wow, impressive article on that Coravin. The downfall is that it looks like you need to keep it connected to the bottle when not in use, thus you can really only open one reserve bottle at a time. In reality how long are you actually gonna keep that one wine open? 6 mos? a year? doesn't seem worth it to me until you get much more expensive than the 97 tignanello. Do people with collections like that ever really drink their trophy wines?

I'm talking individuals... i can see how making a reserve list accessible by the glass at a restaurant could pay huge dividends.

I have a few of those vacuum pump valve-corks and they work fine for my very humble needs. I don't go in for very fancy wines and an open bottle will not stay that way for long in my house.

terra wrote:Champagne... Or whatever you call it in the U.S. Chicks love the 'bubbly'... Can't go wrong with it.

Two decent champagne cocktails:

1 - 4 oz. champagne/sparkling wine + 1 sugar cube soaked in Angostura Bitters + lemon peel

2 - 4 oz. champagne + 1/2-1 oz. St. Germaine + lemon peel

In both drinks, lemon peel is optional.

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Wow, impressive article on that Coravin. The downfall is that it looks like you need to keep it connected to the bottle when not in use, thus you can really only open one reserve bottle at a time. In reality how long are you actually gonna keep that one wine open? 6 mos? a year? doesn't seem worth it to me until you get much more expensive than the 97 tignanello. Do people with collections like that ever really drink their trophy wines?

I'm talking individuals... i can see how making a reserve list accessible by the glass at a restaurant could pay huge dividends.

It can be removed. The opening in the cork is very fine, you get a slow pour, and the cork seals itself back up. I'm not sure how it works, exactly, but I've seen it used a number of times.
It's not that easy, and waiters weren't allowed to touch the thing, only somms. Even the managers wouldn't use it.
I work with a ridiculous wine list, and we were using it on bottles we priced in the $250- $400 range (not that expensive for us), or thereabouts. Selling glasses of wine for $55- $85 was nice, and then for some reason the owner objected and we have stopped using it, at least for now.
And that's a good point the trophy wines, too. I'm an alcoholic, so I didn't think of that.
Fat Cat raises a good point of course about not keeping an open bottle around for long anyway. Again, not something I would think of because once it's been opened it would be gone.

Most places are fine with co2/nitrogen/argon to just displace air before you close the bottle. Affordable for the home user, too, and works fine for stuff you might keep week or two.

Who drinks just one glass of wine? Two glasses of wine X 2 people = empty wine bottle.

johno wrote:Who drinks just one glass of wine? Two glasses of wine X 2 people = empty wine bottle.

I was thinking the same thing.

I just need some good whiskey, some ice, and a few glasses. Pour the whiskey in the glasses. Throw the ice at anyone who asks for ice in their whiskey.

My essential home bar is two unopened bottles of rye (Templeton and High West), because no one who's come over wanted rye; and whatever wine I've picked up this week.

I've been doing NO2 liquor infusions as a party trick (habanero tequila burns so good) and just started some slow infusions. Latest one is beet and ginger Plymouth Gin - fucking delicious with some soda water or ginger beer. I think I'm going to buy a PureFizz after Christmas so I can carbonate the liquor directly.

Seems like you have most covered, but I will add a bottle of Cointreau in case someone wants a margarita. Classic margarita: 1 part tequila, 3 parts Cointreau, 1 squeezed lime. Shaken and served on the rocks.

Yes I Have Balls wrote:Seems like you have most covered, but I will add a bottle of Cointreau in case someone wants a margarita. Classic margarita: 1 part tequila, 3 parts Cointreau, 1 squeezed lime. Shaken and served on the rocks.

It's on the list already. Go home man, you're drunk.