Sonoma Magazine / Summer 2008 / Wine toys

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Wine toys

 

 

 

 

 

 

You don’t need this stuff. You could open your sangiovese with a $2 corkscrew and drink it from a paper cup. But you won’t.
You don’t need this stuff, but someone clearly thinks you want it.
A $150 Screwpull? Try it and you’ll buy it. A $45 Vinturi aerator? Ditto.
Want a glass bottle stopper the size of a doorknob? How about a deck of wine-related playing cards?
And everyone should have a magic aging rod to modify the organoleptic qualities of their favorite vintage. Are we right?
As they say in Wine Marketing 101: First came the wine, then came the wine toys.
And wineglasses? Don’t get us started.
You can get most of this stuff—and a whole lot more—on the Plaza and at any number of Valley wineries. – editor

 

You want wine to breathe? Of course you do. If oxidation is the answer, getting O2 into your fermented juice is the challenge. The Vinturi aerator offers one solution, creating a venturi effect that swirls the wine as you pour through it.

Or you can pour through the German-made-and-named Dekantiertrichter (say that three times fast), best used to air the wine while pouring into a decanter, where it will air some more. (Or you can pour through the Vinturi, into the Dekantiertrichter into a decanter to drink wine-flavored air.)

Opening and keeping wine used to be a chore, but no more. The ultimate corkscrew may be the newest toy from Screwpull, those clever folks who brought you the first lever-power corkscrew 20 years ago. This one’s even better, and your 90-year-old mother could uncork anything with this baby. If she could afford it.

Another option—the old-fashioned folding corkscrew beloved of sommeliers, packaged in the Celebration Wine Kit with a thermometer, drip collars, decorative bottle stoppers and personalized wineglass rings.

Worried about when your wine is ready to drink? The Clef du Vin, a clever piece of metallurgic technology, or a brilliant marketing ploy, claims it can age your wine (if it’s age-able) a year at a time for every second you immerse the metal tool. Does it work? Not if you test it on a $3 bottle of budget cabernet. But the critics claim it’s amazing.

Wondering what to do while you sip and sup? Try your hand at a hand of wine cards—regular playing cards printed with useful information on every varietal known to man.

Bored with your goblet? Afraid of breaking good crystal outside? Consider the Edgar Berebi wine stems with interchangeable bowls. If you break the bowl, just replace it. If you never want to break another wineglass, try the Ultimate Unbreakable Polycarbonate stemware.

Speaking of stoppers, if you’re looking for something completely different to seal your bottles, try the glass doorknob wine stoppers from Sign of the Bear. Guaranteed to impress your guests—and suitable for opening doors.