Wine Accessories Buying Guide
Choosing the right accessories for your wine collection can enhance your drinking experience in many ways. We give you tips on how to enjoy a tasty, fresh glass of wine from your favourite wine collection up to 10 days after opening a bottle!
Our Wine Accessory Buying Guide is a quick read perfect for anyone who is looking to expand their wine accessory collection. Our must-have wine essentials include corkscrews, foil cutters, wine preservers, aerators and more!
Get ready to discover the best wine accessories that will take your wine drinking experience to the next level.
Wine Accessories FAQ.
What is a wine saver?
A wine saver removes air from an unfinished bottle of wine via a vacuum. This preserves the wine and prevents it from oxidation. The bottle is 're-sealed' with a re-useable stopper.
How do you use a wine saver?
Our range of Vacu Vin Wine Savers are easy to use. Place the re-useable rubber stopper on top of the open wine bottle and using the wine saver pump, continue to pump until you hear a click. The click sounds once all the air has been extracted. That's it!
How long can I preserve a bottle of wine using a wine saver vacuum pump?
Due to the vacuum seal, wine will stay fresh and tasty for up to 10 days.
Is it best to decant wine into a decanter for serving?
Decanting wine from its original bottle into a decanter can make a big difference to the flavour and aromas of your wine.
Wine is not exposed to oxygen once bottled, so allowing it to aerate helps to release aromas and flavours while also softening tannins in the wine. It essentially allows the wine to breathe! Slow decanting also helps to separate sediment from the liquid making it a more pleasant drinking experience. Sediment is most commonly found in red wine, aged wine or vintage port.
It is not recommended to decant sparkling wines.
- Do you need to decant white wine? Most white and rose wines do not need to be decanted. For lighter wines, or those with delicate flavours, decanting can cause certain fruit aromas to be lost. Should you wish to decant full bodied whites, experts recommend decanting white wine 5-15 minutes prior to serving to retain their freshness and vibrancy.
- How long do you decant red wine? Ideal decanting for red wine is from 30 - 60 minutes, enough time to allow the wine to breathe before serving.
Wine Preservers
Enjoy wine by the glass and keep wine fresh for longer with a high quality wine preserver. Wine preservers slow down the oxidation process so wine will taste better, for longer. Although there are many available, the most common and popular wine preservers are vacuum sealers such as the Vacu Vin Wine Saver and Stopper.
Vacu Vin Wine Savers are available in a number of options. If you have a few bottles on the go, opt for a set with extra bottle stoppers! Bottle stoppers, also referred to as wine stoppers, create a good seal to minimise the amount of oxygen entering the bottle.
Wine stoppers are handy wine accessories to have at home, especially useful if you've misplaced the cork!
Wine Pourers & Aerators
We've already talked about how wine aeration can develop and improve the flavour and aromas in wine. If a decanter is not an option for you, a wine aerator is a great accessory to use.
Wine aerators aerate the wine directly from the bottle. During pouring, wine passes through the aerator attached to the end of the bottle. This adds pressurised oxygen to the wine very quickly before it reaches your glass. This process is fast and not ideal for aged red wines that require a more delicate aeration process.
Wine Pourers allow precise pouring of wine into your glass or decanter with minimal or no drips! Wine will flow back into the bottle so you won't waste a drop! Some wine pourers simply help users pour efficiently via the pouring spout while top of the range accessories include aerators and slow wine pourers.
Slow wine pourers minimise oxygen exposure while pouring. This regulation of the airflow is ideal for serving vintage wines that require extra protection from over-oxidation.
Corkscrews & Foil Cutters
The uncorking of wine should be easy and enjoyable. as enjoyable as the drinking itself!
Before you start to use a cork screw, you must remove the foil from the neck of the wine bottle first. A Foil Cutter is perfect for this job. It neatly removes the protective foil from the bottle. Simply place the cutter on top of the bottleneck and rotate the small wheels to remove.
With the foil removed, it's time to open the bottle using a corkscrew. There are different styles of corkscrew available from basic waiters corkscrews to top of the range lever corkscrews. What you choose is down to personal preference, corkscrew designs include;
- Waiters Corkscrew; Very popular, cheap, multi purpose tool. Its compact size makes the waiter corkscrew easy to carry and store, ideal for picnics at the park! Many combine a corkscrew (worm - spiral metal), boot lever (allows leverage to extract the cork) foil cutter and crown cap bottle opener.
- Winged Corkscrew; Bulkier than the waiters corkscrew, this winged version comprises of two wings and a corkscrew (worm). Screw the worm into the cork then pull down on the wings to extract the cork.
- Lever Corkscrew; Large in size, expensive but superb at extracting corks with minimal effort. Once firmly attached to neck of the wine bottle push the lever down, this inserts the worm screw into the cork. Lift the lever back up and the cork is removed with no twisting required.
- Cork Puller; Designed to gently remove damaged, aged or brittle corks on older wines. The two prong cork extractor is gently inserted between the cork and the bottle neck and the cork extracted with a pulling and rotation motion.
Why shop with us?
We stock a fabulous range of premium wine accessories by Vacu Vin at Appliance House.
If you need more than accessories for your wine collection, we also have a superb range of high quality wine coolers including single zone, dual zone and triple zone models on offer.
Plus, we offer the following deals when you shop with us;