French Private Preserve (and Dutch, Spanish Swiss and Austrian…)

No, this is not a new fashion contraceptive, or perhaps it is. Anyway, we have at several occasions written about Private Preserve, which is an excellent way of keeping an open bottle fresh for longer. You fill the half finished bottle with inert gas from the Private Preserve canister and it protects the wine. Much better, in our opinion, than the vacuum-type devices (although we must admit to not having tried the vacuum thingies – it just seems obvious that creating a vacuum will make the volatile components – i.e. smell and taste – of the wine disappear quicker). The producer now tells us that it is available in Europe from the following distributors: France: Christophe Wallaert Vins Selections, cwallaert-at-club-internet-dot-fr, ph 06 17 51 35 41; The Netherlands: info-at-verbunt-dot-nl; Spain: josephpuig-at-gastrogourmet-dot-com; Switzerland: info-at-boucherville-dot-ch; Austria: info-at-englitsch-dot-com; UK: julian-at-winebox.co-dot-uk (and USA: siegelandassoc-at-san.rr-dot-com). They also took the opportunity to remind us that many restaurants and wine bars use Private Preserve so that they can serve a larger selection of wines by the glass: a little gush of gas in the bottle after each serving and the wine keeps as long as needed. Apparently Opus One, one of the most expensive Californian wines, even sent a bottle a Private Preserve together with the wine to restaurants to encourage by-the-glass service. Clever marketing! A good idea that helps you serve more wine by the glass we think!