A good product preserves its existence over time

Private Preserve has been around for over 30 years, and it is as effective and inexpensive as it was when it was invented.
 
When Scott Farmer was working for a wine merchant, he noticed that most restaurants were reluctant to offer his high-end wines by the glass because by the end of the service the opened wine was already starting to oxidize and the next day the wine was no good and had to be poured down the sink. On the other hand, Scott observed that a common practice is the use of inert gas in the preservation of wine stored in vats, barrels, and carboys in wineries. So, it was after many tests of the similar mixture of purified carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon gas that Scott was able to formulate a mixture of inert gases (essentially clean air without oxygen) to keep the wine inside a bottle that was uncorked and recorked—it sometimes allowed the preservation to continue for months.
 
But what exactly is it and how does it work?
 
After opening the bottle (uncorking) and drinking some of the wine, you place the tip of the extension tube inside the neck of the bottle against the glass and spray yourself a long (1 sec.) and 3 short bursts into the bottle. (See the above photo for what this looks like.)

The neutral, non-toxic gas mixture settles on your wine, preventing most of the oxygen from reaching it. The argon gas will settle on the surface of the liquid and thus extend the life of the remaining wine. It's a simple way to slow down the natural aging process of wine and keep wines fresh for several weeks. The product is sold in an 8-inch tall, extra lightweight aerosol canister.

Shop our Private Preserve here.
 

Coravin vs. Private Preserve

Coravin (also available at the shop) is a tool that allows you to inject a gas mixture identical to that of Private Reserve by penetrating a needle through the cork. I use this technology on a daily basis at the shop—it's how I'm able to sample all of our wines for our customers. Even if the technology is effective, its cost can be exorbitant—a cartridge of gas for about one bottles costs about $10. Knowing that the majority of consumers consume the entire bottle in less than 7 days and that the average price of a bottle of wine is between $25 and $45, it is not justified to use a Coravin in this manner.

In addition, the wonder of this machine is the total preservation of all contact with oxygen. Unfortunately, the majority of wines sold at these prices are corked either with cork chipboard stoppers (composite), or nano plastic composites (polymers), or a screw-off cap. For screw-off caps, the bottle will be uncorked to replace the capsule with a Coravin adapter. For synthetic corks, the Coravin needle creates a non-cancellable porosity between the wine and the air, because the cork is no longer hermetically sealed. So there still will be some contact with oxygen in these cases.

The Coravin device, however, does have its place—it is extremely effective for wines (including Port, dessert wines, Xeres, Sake, etc.) that will not be consumed entirely until several months after opening (up to 12 months of preservation). But for all the other wines, the cost of Preserve Wine it is $0.13 per spray. So, I'll let you sort things out with the math there, but we must give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to Private Preserve to what is Private Preserve's. But don’t be a fool. I love my Coravin.

Shop our Coravin here.