Favorite Kitchen Utensils: Wine Vacuum

Sometimes you just can’t finish a bottle of wine. Maybe it’s late, maybe you have to work in the morning, or maybe you just want to avoid the spirit-crushing malady known as “wine head.” 

Whites will keep fine if you cork them and put them in the fridge, but reds demand a little more care—even an overnight stay on the kitchen counter will change the flavor of an opened bottle for the worse.

Fortunately, there are devices you can buy to vacuum out the air in the bottle and preserve the leftover wine for another day or two. There are many different models; we’ve used the VacuVin’s rubber stoppers for years with good results.

Depending on where you buy it—many liquor stores carry it—a VacuVin set usually costs between $10 and $15.