THE PRODUCT: The Wine Doctor
is a wine preservation product that pumps air out of the wine bottle so you can save and enjoy your vino at a later time.
HOW IT’S DIFFERENT: Rather than just blindly pumping and hoping your wine is all set to sit for a few days, this product has a red indicator in the stopper that signals whether or not air is in the bottle. This way, you can’t overpump, and you know if air has leaked back into the bottle, which means it’s time to re-pump (or enjoy immediately).
HOW I TESTED: Using 3 bottles of of the same wine, I poured equal amounts from each bottle and sealed them up for 2 days:
Bottle 1: Argon gas preserver (my top-performing preservation technique; the benchmark)
Bottle 2: Sealed with The Wine Doctor and monitored for air leakage; pumped when red indicator was visible
Bottle 3: Sealed with The Wine Doctor, but not re-pumped when red indicator became visible.
RESULTS: After 2 days I tasted from all 3 bottles. Here’s how they held up.
Bottle 1: Perfect
Bottle 2: Perfect
Bottle 3: Less than Perfect
WHY IT’S COOL: For a bit of background, I have conducted numerous preservation tests. My lifestyle prohibits me from opening and drinking a full bottle every night (I’m the only wino in my family, with a new an active baby). Therefore, it’s been absolutely necessary to find a better solution than opening a bottle only to dump it the next day due to oxidation. The problem with most vacuum pumps, is that there is no way to know if the seal is leaking or not. With The Wine Doctor, that problem is truly solved. As long as you keep an eye on your bottle and re-pump when the red indicator shows, your bottle and its flavor should be safe and sound! I think this is a great preserver, especially for those weary of the argon gas method.
Jenna, that makes sense and I like that – set it and forget it! I think I may get the Wine Doctor to use with less expensive bottles but will stick to argon for better wine that I want to save. Thanks again!
Travis
Hi Jenna, Like you, I’m the only wino in my family and need to save open bottles for a few days. I found your blog via Google looking for advantages of The Wine Doctor pump over the Oenophilia Private Preserve Wine Preserver (argon gas). I am interested in the Wine Doctor pump if it can preserve the wine 5-7 days since it would greatly decrease my expense of buying argon gas!
Just curious if were able to test past 2 days or more? Would be interesting to see the results of The Wine Doctor vs gas after 5 and 7 days as Wine Doctor claims. I currently use Oenophilia’s wine gas and also put it in the fridge to help slow down oxidation. Surprisingly after 7 days the wine is still very good. Would also be interesting to test against Vacuvin’s wine pump too.
Cheers!
Travis
Hi Travis,
I am glad this article is proving helpful! I haven’t tested beyond a few days, actually. Since I am not the best at checking on the wine (daily) to ensure that no air has escaped, this method of preservation is not my choice for preserving beyond a day or two. In that case, I would use the argon gas method (set and forget). I have saved wine for 7+ days with argon and it still tasted great! Here’s a link to a video where I tested argon vs. the vacuum pump, (which is NOT as good as the Wine Doctor preserver).
Jenna