The Best Wine Purses of 2020

Jolene heading out to host a wine dinner.

Jolene heading out to host a wine dinner.

Are you a wine sales rep in search of an attractive insulated wine purse for daily on-the-job use? Or maybe you’re a wine enthusiast looking for a wine purse for carrying some bottles to the beach or to a special event?  Or maybe you’re looking for a whimsical wine tote for an upcoming birthday gift. We’ve got you covered in this review of the best wine purses for every need.

Before we continue with our review, a little about the KnowWines blog. We are an Amazon.com affiliate and we do receive a small commission if you purchase items through our affiliate links at no cost to you. The commissions we receive help us pay for web hosting fees, products to test, and other costs associated with running this site. Thanks for using our affiliate links and supporting our independent blog!

Do I Need a Wine Purse?

If you are in the wine trade - perhaps as a sommelier, an event planner, or host of wine classes - an insulated and professional wine purse is a must. These insulated wine purses have enough structure to keep wine bottles upright. As these wine totes are a necessary tool for the trade, they should have some style elements enjoyed by the owner in addition to practical features like insulation, structure, and wear-resistant fabrics.

If you are a wine enthusiast or buying for a friend who is a wine lover, then you are looking for one of two types of wine purses. The same companies that make professional wine purses also make smaller handbags that fit two or three bottles, keeping them upright and chilled. The second type of wine purse is what we call a recreational wine purse - one intended for carrying wine in a discreet manner with the wine itself inside a food grade bag with dispenser.

Wine Purses: What to Consider

Once you’ve determined the style of wine purse you’re looking for - a professional wine purse to hold one or more bottles, or a fun wine purse to discreetly transport wine to an event or party - there are a few more things to consider. 

Construction and Aesthetic of Wine Purses

Wine purses are typically constructed from vinyl, leather, or faux-leather (also called vegan leather). If there is potential for the wine purse to be exposed to water, you may want to consider avoiding leather. Alternatively, if you are taking wines to show to a wine bottle shop or wedding planner, then you might want to consider the finer aesthetics of a leather or faux-leather wine purse.

Number of Bottles the Wine Purse Contains

Will you (or the recipient in the case of a gift) need to carry one, three or six bottles of wine for appointments?  

In the case of recreational wine purses - where a hidden bag holds the wine instead of the original box or bag - consider how much volume you need for the event.  

Should my Wine Purse be Insulated or Uninsulated?

Most wine purses offer both insulated and uninsulated compartments. You’ll need to consider whether you want a bag that simply helps pre-chilled wine remain cold - much like those insulated grocery bags you see in the freezer section of the grocery store - or if you want a bag that uses ice packs which can be removed from the wine purse in cooler weather.

Wine purses without removable ice packs frequently cannot be kept cool by placing ice directly into the purse.  Placing ice directly in many wine purses often results in leaking or dampness of surrounding materials and could discolor or damage leather bags.  

Does My Wine Purse Need a Spout?

If you plan on serving wine from a spout connected to a discreet bladder inside the wine bag, then yes, you will need a wine purse with a built-in spout. Professional wine purses don’t have wine spouts.

Overall Top Wine Purse

The chill-n-go family of professional wine bags has been making wine purses, totes, and luggage for 30 years. Jolene has had this bag for almost two years and would purchase again if her original wine tote disappeared.

 
 

With good construction, removable ice packs, and pouches for storing maps, handouts, corkscrews, and more, one could easily get 2-3 years of everyday use out of these sturdy nylon bags available in many colors.

Best Wine Purse for Wine Professionals

Chill-n-go has been making the go-to wine purse (or tote) for sommeliers, instructors, and wine salespeople for years. Consider this wine bag (available in several colors) if you have frequent need of a wine purse and want a high-quality bag that will be a trusted partner for years.

 
 

Why do we like it? This bag was clearly designed with the professional in mind. The nylon construction is very sturdy and easy to clean regardless of your travel conditions - dusty roads, sticky floors, errant wine splashes from excited wine tasters - no problem.  Also, the design is unisex (not too feminine, not too masculine).  

We like that the ice packs are removable and easily stored in the freezer between uses (or one can go without the ice packs in cooler weather). There’s a zippered pouch for storing an extra corkscrew, a champagne stopper or two, or a credit card swipe device that attaches to your cell phone for any off-premise sales.  

Nylon fabric separates the ice pack from the bottles and any literature you might have, so no more wet labels or wet literature if you’ve been compensating with other bags. With this bag, we’ve easily carried wine maps measuring up to 14” in height. We’ve also used the tote for grocery shopping.

Pros:

  • Easy to clean

  • Sturdy bag and handle, including shoulder strap

  • Structured bag holds one to six bottles upright easily

Cons:

  • The classic design in nylon might be too “plain” for those seeking a luxury look

Chill-no-go does offer a similar tote in Italian leather for those wanting to splurge on a Made in USA wine purse bag including this red leather snake print.

 
 

Best Wine Clutch Purse

Perhaps you are looking to discreetly carry just one chilled bottle to an event (sans paper bag). When you’re not using it for wine, this wine clutch purse can also be used to carry medicines requiring insulation.

 
 

Pros:

  • Clutch is a discreet way for wine enthusiasts to carry one bottle of wine

  • Available in many trending colors and prints, including cork

  • Use to carry other beverages in addition to wine, including craft beer bomber or a couple of smaller beers.

Cons:

  • Don’t put ice in the bag, as thawed ice will leave water spots

  • Good looking, but not robust. 

  • Designed for infrequent use, not as an “everyday” bag

The PortoVino Wine Bag, the Best Wine Bag for the Beach

While originally designed for wine, any beverage can be placed in this discreet wine purse when glass wine bottles are not allowed.  

 
 

Inside the PortoVino purse is a pouch that you pour wine into.  In the front of the purse is a spout hidden behind a flap that allows one to pour wine out of the purse into a wine glass.  

Check out this video to learn more about what you can store in the wine bag and how to fill it with wine. It is also possible purchase replacement BPA-free bags in case you forget to clean out the bag or you rupture the bag accidentally with a sharp object.

 
 

PortoVino Wine Bag, the Best Fashionable Wine Purse With Hidden Spout, Insulation, and Leather Construction

Like the beach bag, this purse has a compartment for up to 1.5 L of wine. Unlike the other PortoVino wine bags, the leather bag interiors look more like a traditional purse, with pockets for a cell phone and other accessories. Made of Italian leather, this bag would make a great gift for someone who wants to bring wine with them to outdoor concerts or to pool parties in an elegant carrier.

 
 

Pros:

  • Italian leather construction

  • Fashionable and discreet

  • Reliable customer service if there are any issues

Cons:

  • Does not hold bottles, only wine poured into a bag inside the purse.

Our Favorite Overall Wine Purse

Each of these wine purses has unique, favorable qualities that we appreciate. Still, our favorite wine purse is still the chill-n-go wine tote, and that distinction is based on our two years of experience with the bag.

Here’s an overview of what we love about this wine purse:

  • This bag will last for years, is available in several colors, and an upgrade to leather is available. 

  • The design is not too feminine or too masculine.

  • The bag itself does not look or feel “cheap,” but rather has the timeless look and feel of something from a premium outdoor retailer like REI.   

  • The Chill-n-go wine purse holds up to six bottles of wine and has the flexibility to be insulated or not, depending upon your environment.

  • If it gets dirty, clean up is easy.  

  • There is a handy compartment (separate from the bottles within) into which you can easily place a wallet and wine accessories like a corkscrew.  

  • When you are not using it to carry wine, it can be used for a grocery tote.  

Whether you’re a sommelier, a host of wine classes, or a just a wine enthusiast seeking the perfect wine tote for special events, we hope you found what you were looking for in this review.

Have other recommendations? Share them in the comments below!

Cheers, from KnowWines!

Wine Bottle Protector Sleeves

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Are you a wine lover who enjoys bringing back a souvenir or two?  Or a business traveler who likes to bring back a gift for a spouse, partner, or colleague?  There are a number of wine travel bags on the market to help you transport that special gift. Wine bottle travel protectors increase the likelihood that the wine bottle you place in checked luggage will make it home safely and not spill all over the contents of your luggage.

Wine Bags for Travel

Most wine bottle bags are designed to protect wine bottles placed inside checked luggage.  These wine bottle protector sleeves are great for when you want to transport one or two bottles of wine in your luggage.

Wine bags keep wine bottles (and other bottles like craft beer bombers, artisanal vinegar, olive oils, and perfumes)  from breaking during rough luggage handling by providing some padding/protection for the wine bottle. They also help protect your packed items and the bottle’s label.  

We have reviewed several wine travel bags, including our favorite, the JetBag:

 
 

Before we continue with our review, a little about the KnowWines blog. We are an Amazon.com affiliate and we do receive a small commission if you purchase items through our affiliate links at no cost to you.  The commissions we receive help us pay for web hosting fees, products to test, and other costs associated with running this site. Thanks for using our affiliate links and supporting our independent blog!

Purpose of Single Bottle Wine Bags

Most wine sleeves are purchased for the following purposes:

  • Protecting wine bottles from breaking during air, cruise, and car travel

  • Protecting wine labels from getting scuffed or marked up in a suitcase

  • Protecting other packed items from stains in case the wine bottle does break or the bottle closure (e.g. cork or screw-cap) is compromised while flying

Single bottle wine bags don’t take up much space and are a great item to slip in the suitcase when traveling to a wine region.  Wine sleeves take up much less space in a checked bag when compared to a wooden bottle box coming from a winery.

Most travel wine bottle protectors are not very decorative.  If you’re looking for a more decorative and re-usable bag for gifting wine, check out our blog on re-usable wine gift bags.

It is possible to ship wine in a bottle bag. However, we would recommend using a single bottle shipping container like this one, which provides a little more structure than a wine bottle sleeve designed for air travel.

 
 

How to Select Wine Sleeves

When it comes down to it, there are two types of wine sleeves on the market: reusable or single-use wine sleeves.

How do I discern between a single-use or reusable wine bottle bag?  Single-use bags will have adhesive strips that enclose the wine bottle in the bag.  Reusable wine bottle bags will have plastic or Velcro sealing mechanisms.  

Almost all the wine bottle protectors we’ve used are constructed of plastic.  At the end of the day, disposable wine bottle protectors will cost the least. We have a strong preference for reusable wine sleeves so as to reduce landfill waste.  

Types of Wine Travel Bags

We’ve been using wine travel bags for over ten years, and we’ve experienced all different bag types, including the ones reviewed here.  Here are a few types of bags on the market:

Jet Bags - Absorbing Wine Sleeves

Our favorite wine bottle protector has several stand-out features. First, the bag has diaper-like material inside which provides both padding and absorption in case the enclosed bottle leaks or breaks during travel.  Secondly, the bag stands up when a wine bottle is inserted in the bag. Third, the bag has a handle whereas many other wine bags do not. Recently, JetBag has come out with an assortment of bags in addition to its flagship original.

 
 

Pros:

  • Sandwich-bag type closure is easy to open and close, even with one hand

  • Absorptive “diaper” material in case of breakage

  • Made in the USA

  • Available in attractive designs

Cons:

  • With repeated use over the years, the plastic seams may separate (though any slit on the side of the bag can be fixed using packing tape).

  • Extreme temperatures can compromise the bags

Inflatable Wine Bottle Protectors

Perhaps you prefer to have inflatable options for wine bottles, especially if your checked bag won’t be completely full.  The generous size of an inflated wine bottle protector will help reduce the likelihood that a bottle will break as the bottle is suspended in a “pillow.”

Inflatable wine bottle protectors come with a small hand-held syringe that inflates the protector.  While the wine bag is reusable, it does not deflate for storage. The bags hold air for months after inflating.

 
 

Pros:

  • Lightest weight wine bottle protectors

  • Less plastic than most other wine bottle protectors

  • Greatest cushioning to protect the bottle from impact

Cons:

  • They don’t “deflate” - once inflated they take up much more space than other wine bottle protectors

  • Requires bringing along air syringe when you travel, to inflate the wine bags.  If you forget the syringe at home, you can’t inflate the bag.

  • No liquid containment should the cork come out or the bottle break

Wine Wings Reusable Clear Wine Sleeves with Bubble Padding

If your cruise line or airline requires transparent bags, the Wine Wing reusable wine sleeves may be for you.  The exterior of these bags is the thickest of all the other bags reviewed. These bags were designed by an Australian pilot for his wine-loving wife.  

 
 

Pros:

  • Inner cushioning is attached to the thick plastic exterior layer, meaning that the bubble wrap won’t bunch up to the top of the bag when inserting a wine bottle

  • Transparent bag, which may be recommended or required for some cruise or airlines

  • Heavy-duty Velcro closure - easy to close

Cons:

  • No absorptive layer

FlyingTrav Discreet Wine Sleeves

While we’ve experienced very little theft from checked luggage over the years, there may be circumstances in which a little discretion comes in handy.  Perhaps that special bottle is a well-recognized luxury brand and you want to be discreet. Or you’ve purchased a bottle of wine and don’t want that special someone to see the bottle while you unpack.

 
 

Pros:

  • Solid white, cannot see into the bag from the outside - offers protection from prying eyes and sunlight

  • Pliable and attractive exterior protective layer - no rough edges

  • Two layers of bubble wrap (most wine bags utilizing bubble wrap have only one layer)

Cons:

  • Bubble wrap not attached to exterior protective layer - bubble wrap may bunch up. Simply hold the bubble wrap with one hand while inserting the bottle with the other to prevent bubble wrap bunching 

WineSkin Single-Use Wine Sleeves

WineSkin wine travel bags were the original wine sleeves. These wine sleeves are commonly found at wineries and airport shops that cater to air travelers.  We’ve also seen them in some wine bottle shops. While we prefer to purchase re-usable wine bottle bags, we have used them before and have been pleased with their performance.

 
 

Pros:

  • Lightweight

  • Tough vinyl exterior 

  • Good seal

Cons:

  • Not re-usable (designed for single use)

  • The double-adhesive seal can be a little tricky to manipulate for people with clumsy thumbs (which may be a result of a long wine tasting session)

Alternatives to Plastic Wine Sleeves

Prefer non-plastic options to wine sleeves?  In over 20 years of traveling with wine we’ve yet to have a wine bottle break. Ultimately, the secret to not having a bottle break is having a fully packed bag so that the bottle is not banging around inside a suitcase during transport. When we’ve forgotten to add a wine travel bag to our planned checked bag, we’ve used hiking socks to protect the bottle and label during transport. Socks like this Made In USA variety will serve the purpose well. Simply place the wine bottle into one sock and then place the second sock over the top of the bottle.

 
 

Wine Bottle Bag Conclusion

If you are a frequent air traveler or are looking forward to a trip to wine country, we really recommend investing in a few single wine bottle sleeves to protect the two or three special bottles you want to bring home with you, as well as the wine’s label and your packed clothes!

In almost 20 years of wine travel, both domestically and internationally, we know that one can never be certain that the wine point of sale will have wine travel bags available, so we suggest that you keep one or two inside your checked luggage bag just in case. Our favorite is still the reusable Jet Bag.

 
 

Happy travels and cheers, from KnowWines!

Creative Ways to Gift Wine

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You’ve identified the wine bottle you would like to gift, but are looking for a creative way to gift it without boring tissue paper, cellophane wrap, or a single-use paper bottle bags. Lucky for you, we’ve identified and developed over ten creative ways to give the best wine gifts! 

First a little about KnowWines blog. We are an Amazon.com affiliates and we do receive a small commission if you purchase items through our affiliate links.  The commissions we receive help us pay for web hosting fees, products to test, and other costs associated with running this site. Thanks for supporting our blog!

Gift Wine With a Pair of Socks

We love to gift wrap wine bottles with a pair of novelty graphic crew socks.  Simply insert the wine bottle into the first sock, then place the second sock over the top of the bottle.  Add a finishing touch like a raffia bow or decorative hat from a craft store to dress it up a bit.  

Some of our favorite food and drink novelty socks come from HotSox. These socks are super-comfy without being too thick. They really do feel like premium socks one would find at a high-end store like Nordstrom.

There’s a variety of novelty socks available online with humorous themes or hobbies to pair with your friends’ interests.  Don’t know what the gift-recipient is into? Simply default to these wine themed socks.

 
 

Stage Christmas Wine With LED Lights

If you’re looking for a fine wine gift presentation that’s more elegant, consider decorating an end table with a few wine items - decanter, glassware, corkscrew, and another empty wine bottle.  Then, place the gift wine in front of the festive decor. Check out our list of our 50 favorite wine accessories to accompany your fine wine gift.

 
 

You may also consider placing the wine in a single bottle wine holder and decorating around it. 

Books and Wine - Always a Perfect Pairing

If the wine lover in your life is also a book lover, we have the perfect gift! This handmade book-strap carrier by Hide & Drink comes with a handle that you can loop around wine.  It is constructed of full-grain leather and comes with a 101 year guarantee!

 
 

Not sure what book to get?  Check out our recommended wine books or this new release from fellow North Carolinian Elizabeth Schneider.

 
 

Gift Wrap Wine With a Scarf

Another two-for-one gift idea is wrapping a bottle of wine with a scarf.  There are a lot of options you can consider: vintage, re-gifting an unused scarf, or a white elephant scarf.  

Here’s a helpful video on how to gift wrap wine with a scarf.

Note that the scarf does not need to be small.  One could use a blanket sized scarf like the one below and simply fold it in half twice before following the video instructions.  

This burgundy, black and gold scarf would complement many red and white wines.

 
 

Gift Wine With a Luggage Tag

If the wine gift recipient travels frequently, placing a new luggage tag or two around the neck of the bottle may be a good way to connect their love of travel with wine. With so many luggage tag color options, one can select a tag that matches or contrasts the wine gift or complements the recipient’s luggage.  

 
 

Gift Wine In a Suitcase

Does your New Year’s resolution include cooking more at home, exploring a new cuisine, and trying some new wines?  Stop by your local wine bottle shop and have them select six or twelve wines that they’d recommend to try with the cuisine you’ll be exploring in the new year.  

Perhaps you also plan to travel to a wine region in 2020 and want to do a little wine homework.  Place those bottles in a VinGarde Valise and place the valise under the tree.

 
 

And if travel is in your new year, check out our blog on traveling with wine for more wine travel tips and tricks!

How to Gift Wine in a Gift Basket

While you could purchase a ready-made wine gift basket, it is often more personal to build the basket yourself, especially if the gift basket includes customized corporate items. Additionally, many off-the-shelf wine gift baskets include salty or sugary items with artificial preservatives. Making your own gift basket allows you to tailor the food items to the preferences of the recipient.  

When selecting a gift basket, we prefer to get our basket from a craft store or a thrift store.  We look for baskets with a sturdy upright carrying handle. Place a tea towel in the bottom of the basket. There are a number of funny tea towels available online. If the gift recipient is more conservative, this tea towel might be a good choice, especially for corporate clients.

With a tea towel in place, secure the wine to the basket in an upright position, and tie the neck of the bottle securely to the handle. Then arrange gift items around the wine centerpiece.  You may want to use double-sided tape to secure some items to each other to prevent contents from flying out of the basket or being crushed if the basket tips over.   

Gift Wine in Slippers

Keep your toes and your insides warm with this combination of wine-themed slippers and two bottles of wine. These applique slippers have grippy bottoms and the inside of the slippers are super soft!

 
 

Dress Up Your Wine in a Wine Outfits

While we prefer to gift items that will be re-used or re-gifted by recipients, we understand that sometimes you want to just have fun with dressing up wine bottles. These wine bottle outfits can be re-used year after year.   

Ugly Christmas Sweater

We’re big fans of an ugly holiday sweater party - why can’t wine partake as well?

 
 

Swedish Gnomes

And of course, there are wine outfits for gnome-loving wine enthusiasts!  

 
 

Holiday Formal Wear

Add a little formal whimsy to the corporate open bar.

 
 

What are some ways you have gifted wine?  Let us know in the comments box below.

Cheers!

The Very Best in Wine Cabinets

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At KnowWines, we’re wine collectors ourselves, and so we have the best interest of fellow wine collectors at heart. Whether you’re just getting started with your wine collection or have been curating a wine collection for a number of years, you’re going to need wine cabinets, coolers (like the popular Vinotemp or Eurocave), and shelving. Lucky for you, we’ve spent the last few years curating more than just wine. We’re also curating our top picks in all things wine related, from wine keys to wineries to (you guessed it) wine storage. In this weeks blog, we’re compiling our favorite reviews on how and where to store wine. Whether you’ve got a huge collection and a small space to store it, or a small collection and more room than you know what to do with, one of these blogs is likely to have a solution for you.

Please note, as you read, that KnowWines pays for all of the wines, wine accessories, and wine trips that we review on this blog. We are Amazon.com affiliates and we do receive a small commission if you purchase products, guides, or maps through our affiliate links. The commissions we receive help us pay for web hosting fees, the products we test, and other costs associated with running this site. So, thanks in advance for supporting our blog!

The Small Wine Fridge

Back in June, when we were anticipating hot temperatures and the pleasures of pulling chilled bottle of wine from our personal wine refrigerator, we reviewed four small wine fridge options. In that blog, we not only give detailed descriptions, including pros and cons, of the four wine refrigerators, we also provide an overview of wine assassins and provide a detailed list of what to look for in a quality fridge to suit your needs, from bottle size flexibility to noise, design aesthetic, and energy efficiency.

The EuroCave Wine Cabinet

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Since we’re on the topic of wine coolers, we can’t ignore the classic EuroCave. Our performance review on the EuroCave details our own experience with this wine cabinet (spoiler alert: it’s still going strong after five years!) and also discusses features and benefits of the cabinet. For those who are seriously considering a purchase of this wine cabinet, we also include several nitty-gritty details about how to clean, maintain, and save energy with the EuroCave Performance wine cabinet.

Wood Wine Racks

Wooden wine racks are a classic choice for storing your wine collection. The Wine Racks America Ponderosa Wood Wine Rack is a solid, attractive, and easy-to-assemble option, especially if you’re looking for an entire wine rack wall. As we discuss in our review of these wooden wine racks, this is an ideal choice for someone with a cellar, closet, walk-in wine cellar, cave, or off-site temperature-controlled wine storage locker who is seeking sturdy shelving for organizing and laying down wines for in-bottle aging.

DIY Wine Cabinets, with Crates

As we state in our review of Weinbox, these stackable, easy-to-label crates help wine collectors create a modular system for storing wine that allows them to easily add and remove wines from the storage location. Wine crates are an attractive option for maximizing storage units that are taller than they are wide, while still enabling for retrieval of wines through a molded “door” on the front and back of the wine crate. These beat cardboard wine boxes by a mile!

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Storing Wine When You’re On the Go

As someone who appreciates wine, you probably also enjoy sharing wine. And chances are, you’re not always going to be enjoying your wine within the confines of your own home. Sometimes, you want to bring a bottle (or two) to a friend’s house, on a picnic, or even on a special vacation. First of all, if you’re planning to fly with wine, read our article on how to check your wine when flying - we fill you in on all the travel guidelines for wine, plus share recommendations on the best luggage for safely transporting bottles. If you’re just traveling across town for a wine and cheese picnic, or perhaps heading to a party where you’ll gift the hostess with a nice bottle from your collection, read our review of the top reusable bags for wine.

Storing Corks

Finally, what do do with all those corks left over from opening your bottles of wine? If you wish to collect them, there are several chic and fun options available to you, and we review several of them in our Best Wine Cork Holders blog. Whether you want to save a few select corks or need a receptacle for every cork from every bottle of wine you open, this list will help you find what you’re looking for.

With the holidays fast approaching, these ideas for wine storage make great gifts for yourself or your wine-loving significant other. If you’re looking for a holiday gift that’s wine-related but a bit less of an investment, check out our ultimate gift guide for wine lovers.

Cheers!

Weinbox Wine Crate for Modular Storage of Wine

If you belong to a wine club and store your wine in your home, at some point you’ll want to optimize the modular storage of your wine.  All those wine shipments come in different sizes of boxes, and trying to stack odd-shaped cardboard wine boxes gets tricky and looks messy. After some online research, and taking a peek in other wine storage units, we came across the Weinbox.  

 
 
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What to Consider Before Getting Weinbox Wine Crates

Wine crates are a great way to reduce the footprint required to store wines in a large open space, like an open wine cellar or off-site storage lockers like Extra Space Storage.  These open areas, while temperature and humidity controlled, often lack shelving or other structures for storing heavy wines. Without planning, your storage space may end up looking like like this photo - definitely not ideal!

Wine collectors often need to choose between investing in wood storage shelves (see our article on Wine Racks America) or a modular system that allows them to add and remove wines from the storage location for consumption. Wine crates are an attractive option for maximizing storage units that are taller than they are wide, while still enabling for retrieval of wines through a molded “door” on the front and back of the wine crate.

 
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These wine crates are ideal for wine collectors and wine retailers who are storing wines in open areas or in interior closets. An ideal customer would reuse the crates as wines are consumed. Not every wine storage location (cellar, closet, off-site temperature-controlled storage) is amenable to wooden wine racks or a large wine maturation cabinet like Eurocave.

Wine crates like Weinbox are not ideal for wine collectors who have ample shelving or for wine collectors or retailers who are happy with storing their wines in cardboard boxes or wooden shelves. 

What is Weinbox?

The Weinbox (Wine is Wein in German) is an injection-molded plastic folding wine crate made in Germany by CABKA, a company that specializes in reinforced and long-lasting plastic products like pallets and industrial boxes - products that are designed for reuse and that are 100% recyclable upon the end of their use. CABKA saw the need for a wine bottle stacking system superior to awkward cardboard box stacking that is not always available with wooden wine rack systems.  

The Weinbox is a product that can help with the vertical stacking of a wine collection as a freestanding wine rack, especially in open vertical storage space without shelving. With its lean profile and molded handles, the Weinbox is also good for confidently carrying up to a case of wine between storage locations and up and down a flight of stairs.  

The Weinbox wine crate(s) are not intended for use as wine shipping crates. If you need to ship wines in a lay-flat box, we offer an option below.

Weinbox Wine Crate Features and Benefits

Horizontal Wine Bottle Storage with Minimal Bulk

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Ideally, wines with cork closures should be stored on their sides to keep the cork moist. A moist cork is important as dry corks allow oxygen into the wine bottle and cause the wine to oxidize. (We discuss this and other wine storage details in our wine refrigeration blog!). The Weinbox holds up to 12-750mL wine bottles in an orderly, horizontal arrangement. 

Each individual Wienbox wine crate measures 19 inches long x 10.5 inches wide x 9.75 inches tall (485mm x 266mm x 247mm). An empty Weinbox weighs approximately 3 lbs and 11 ounces. Four Weinboxes take up about the same space as one case of wine in a shipping box.

Weinbox Modular Storage is Dust Repellant

Over months and years, cardboard or wooden wine storage boxes and racks will accumulate dust. In three years, we’ve never had a problem with dust accumulating on the Weinbox crates.  

Flexible Bottle Size

Bordeaux, Alsace, Burgundy, Champagne, and oversized California wine bottles all fit in the box, and you can still get 12 bottles per box.  It is even possible to store three magnums (1.5 L) bottles in one Weinbox. We’ve been able to fit 18 Alsace wine bottles into one Weinbox.

We recommend that you try to keep like bottles with like bottles (in other words, don’t mix bottle sizes) for neat looking storage. We’ve also noticed, when driving with mismatched bottles in the wine crates, that they make a lot of noise when driving down the road!

Access Wines and Read Label Tags From Both Sides

If you are stacking cardboard shipping containers of wine in a vertical space, chances are the wine you want to consume is buried in the bottom box, and you can’t access it when needed. That’s never a fun situation.

With the Weinbox, individual bottles can be removed from the front or back of the crate (so you don’t need to unstack crates!). 

Or maybe you can’t even locate the bottle you want to drink because when the shipping box arrived, you put it in the wine cellar with a bunch of other ambiguous cardboard boxes. Without a good labeling system, it’s pretty hard to find that single bottle of wine. With the Weinbox, each crate can be labeled with A6 index cards, so you know exactly what’s inside. Individual Weinboxes labeled with index cards can be cross-referenced in spreadsheets or wine applications like Cellartracker.

 
 

Stackable Modular Wine Storage

An advantage of the Weinbox wine crate modular system is that crates can be stacked up to seven units high. Also, if you have a wine cellar or retail space, the wine crates can double as supports for an impromptu tasting table. Simply make two columns, each four crates high, place a board across the two columns, and voilà, you’re ready for a spontaneous tasting!   

Wine Crate Folds Flat for Storage

Most other racks on the market are not foldable, including wooden wine racks.  As you consume wine in your collection, you might not need all the wine crates at once. Weinbox crates can be disassembled in under two minutes. Disassembled, 63 crates stack only 2.5 feet high.  

How Robust are Weinbox Crates?

Weinbox wine crates have stood up well for us over three years of use. They are made of injection-molded plastic that is intended for industrial use - these crates are much stronger than other plastic crates intended for the home user that one finds at box stores like Target.

We have filled each of our Weinbox crates with 12 to 15 bottles of wine and then carried them up and down flights of stairs. We’ve driven on gravel roads and the interstate with full crates in the back of our crossover SUV, and we’ve moved them through a warehouse on hand trucks to our wine storage locker.  

How High can I Stack Weinbox Crates?

In our wine storage locker, we have stacked the Weinbox wine crates 7 crates high and 3 crates wide.  At this height (about 5.5 feet) it becomes difficult to hoist additional filled wine crates on top of the 7th layer of wine crates.  

Social Proof: Weinbox Wine Crate Reviews

We researched online reviews and videos to see if our experience with the Weinbox was the same as other users.

Most other user reviews were quite positive. These wine crates provided the modular and self-standing wine storage solution that they were looking for.

There were a few users who found the assembly a little tricky, like a complicated puzzle. However, after ten to fifteen minutes of troubleshooting, most were able to assemble each subsequent box in less than five minutes.  Our experience was similar: it took about five minutes to get the first one unpackaged and assembled, and the subsequent boxes each took about two minutes to assemble. 

Some users who filled their crates with oversized California wine bottles found that the crates bulged a little on the side.  We had the same experience. However, the bulging has not presented any problem in stacking the wine crates and has not caused any structural issue with the individual crate.

Alternatives to Weinbox Wine Crate

Storvino Bottle Storage System

The Storvino Bottle Storage system is made in the United States. Each unit holds six wine bottles and is stackable. When stacking, one can use the space on top of the top-most unit to store two or three wines. 

 
 

Pros:

  • Sturdy, made of industrial-strength injection molded plastic   

  • Made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic

Cons:

  • Tight fit for wider bottles like Champagne or Burgundy bottles, you might tear a label if you try to force a big bottle in the hole

  • No handles for transport

  • No label holder

Stakrax Stackable Modular Wine Bottle System

The Stakrax Stackable Modular Wine Bottle System is made in Australia and takes a slightly different approach that may suit your wine storage needs.  Each unit holds one wine. It might be a good solution if you have an especially narrow space or odd-shaped space you’d like to use for wine storage.

 
 

Pros:

  • Easy to assemble

  • Best for odd-shaped spaces where one needs to take a “Lego” approach to fit wines

  • Accommodates Champagne bottles

Cons:

  • Depending upon the configuration needed, you may need to purchase additional pieces to complete a storage unit

  • Some buyers mention that they’ve had units arrive to their store or home that are damaged, however it was easy to replace with customer support

Domaine Layflat Bottle Storage Wine Storage Boxes

The same company (Domaine Wine Storage) that is authorized to sell Weinboxes in the United States also sells cardboard boxes that lay flat. This could be a good solution if you are not thrilled with plastic solutions to modular wine storage.

One advantage of using this approach is that all the wine boxes match, making stacking (and moving) easier than utilizing the packaging that wine club shipments come in.

 
 

Pros:

  • Wine modular storage amenable to moving

  • Cardboard box prevents exposure to light 

Cons:

  • Inserts don’t accommodate all bottle types, they are designed for Burgundy and Champagne bottle shapes

  • Magnums (1.5L bottles) and exceptionally long Riesling bottles don’t fit

Weinbox Wine Crate Summary

We have been using Weinbox wine crates for three years and really like how they reduce the storage space of wine when compared to cardboard wine boxes. We appreciate that the product is made in Germany and is well constructed. The boxes can also be folded up to store flat. These wine crates have handles which makes it easy to transport wine up and downstairs. The index card system, in combination with the CellarTracker.com inventory system, has solved our wine inventory needs when storing wines at an off-site wine storage locker.

We hope that the Weinbox will serves your storage needs, and that you can finally recycle all those bulky cardboard boxes! Domaine Storage is the only authorized dealer in the US, so get your Weinbox here:

 
 

Cheers!

Saint-Émilion in Bordeaux

During one of our annual visits to the Bordeaux region of France, we fell in love with the village of Saint-Émilion. Feeling felt that this village and its surrounding area warranted a deeper dive, we went back in October 2019 as Saint-Émilion celebrated 20 years as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

Here, we cover our favorite Saint Émilion restaurants, St Émilion Hotels, off-the-beaten-path recommendations, and tips and tricks for getting the best Bordeaux. While some of the most expensive wine in the world is from this region, the number of small, independent producers still make it one of the few places to find great values, including some of the best red wine under $30 in the world.

First a little about KnowWines and this blog. We paid for all of our wines, visits, dinners, and tours on this trip.  We are Amazon.com affiliates and we do receive a small commission if you purchase guides or maps through our affiliate links.  The commissions we receive help us pay for web hosting fees, products to test and other costs associated with running this site - thanks for supporting our blog!

Church in St-Emilion France.JPG

What is Saint-Émilion?

St Emilion, Saint Emilion, orSaint-Émilion? So many spellings for this unique place! It took us awhile as Americans to figure it all out!

Saint Émilion, the Person

In the 8th century, a Breton man left his home area of Vannes and wandered this region of France (before it was France) and came upon the Ascumbas area, which is where the village of Saint-Émilion is today.  Looking for peace and prayer, he lived in a cave and was later joined by fellow Benedictine disciples.  Later they carved a church out of a single piece of limestone, a site you can still visit today. After his death (late 8th century), the village was named in his honor.  Since then, several different religious orders have inhabited the area, contributing to monastic life and religious architecture.  In fact, some of the wineries touch the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim route.

Saint-Émilion Area and History

The village of Saint-Émilion is surrounded by 22 villages and communes, each with its own history and activities.  It is located west and north of the city of Bordeaux, by about 40 kilometers (25 miles). 

Saint-Émilion limestone has been mined for centuries, resulting in a labyrinth of caves. One can combine a cave visit and wine tasting at Châteaux Franc Mayne. This limestone, mined by hand and chisel, was used to build a number of monuments and walls.  Many of the structures in the area were built for defensive fortifications, religious reasons, symbols of power, and later for aesthetic purposes.

The Libournais and Saint-Émilion Wine Region: Terrior, Soil, and Vineyards

 
 

This region has a unique microclimate due to its location between two rivers (the Dordogne and Isle rivers), the abundant presence of limestone, rolling hills, natural springs, and soils comprised of limestone, iron-rich clays, gravels, and sand.  Its close proximity to the Atlantic ocean and all the rivers in the area keep the temperatures fairly constant and moderate.  

Merlot and Cabernet Franc grow well in this region.   And where the soils are a little warmer, vignerons will plant Cabernet Sauvignon as well. 

When perusing wines at Saint-Émilion bottle shops, you will find an array of wines from one of ten Libournais regional AOCs as well as other, less restrictive AOCs in the region.  These are Fronsac, Canon-Fronsac, Pomerol, Lalande de Pomerol, Saint-Emilion, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Saint-Georges-Saint-Emilion, Lussac-Saint-Emilion, Montagne-Saint-Emilion, and Puisseguin-Saint-Emilion.

(An AOC, or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, s a system in France to clearly define the area of origin from which a specifically labeled appellation product like wine can be created and labeled under specific production methodology.)

What we found unique in this area is that grapevines were growing on all different aspects (meaning that vines faced north, south, east, and west).  In many of the world’s grape growing regions, the vines might just face south or southeast or southwest. These viticulture practices, as well as highly variable soils, mean there is a lot of diversity of expression of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and there are lovely blends of these two wines to explore in the glass.  

If you want to learn more about the Saint-Émilion wine classification system, the folks over at Wine Cellar Insider have a good resource on this topic including the current Châteaux classifications. 

St Emilion Chateaux Franc Mayne Cave Wine Limestone.jpg

What to Do in Saint-Émilion

Travelers and religious pilgrims have flocked to Saint-Émilion for centuries to view the rolling hills, valleys and plateaus, natural water springs, caves, medieval limestone churches and chateaux, and yes, to enjoy the wine.  

Today’s travelers will find the following sights and activities in the greater Saint-Émilion area :  medieval monastic limestone ruins, limestone buildings reflecting over eight centuries of architecture, Roman ruins, grape growing and wine production, fine wine tasting and bottle shops, fine dining and gastronomic delights like macaroons and lampreys (scary looking but tasty aquatic animals), fishing, hiking in rolling hills, driving on winding roads, and pockets of forest. 

When to Go to Saint-Émilion

Late March through November are peak times for visiting Saint-Émilion.  Many shops, inns, and restaurants close in January and February, or are only open on the winter weekends to attend to weekend-trippers. 

How to Get to Saint-Émilion

How to Get to Saint-Émilion from Paris

This rural wine region is fairly easy to get to, especially from CDG Airport in Paris.  One can fly on Air France several times per day from CDG to BOD or take the train from CDG Airport to the Bordeaux St-Jean train station.  

How to Get to Saint-Émilion from Bordeaux

From BOD airport, you can take a taxi or Uber to Saint-Émilion.  You could also take a bus, taxi, or Uber from BOD to St-Jean train station.  

From the St. Jean train station, you can take a regional train to the edge of Saint-Émilion and walk up the hill 1.5 km to your hotel or Airbnb. Have luggage? Contact the Tourism Office, which is open every day of the year except Christmas o arrange a taxi or Tuk-Tuk to ferry you to your hotel or room.

If the regional train is not running that day (construction, strike, etc.) you can take an Uber from the train station to Saint-Émilion.  To make yourself easy to find, order your ride near one of the small hotels across the street from the train station.  Last, you can rent a car online or over the phone from the Bordeaux airport or at the St-Jean train station.  

Parking in St Émilion

While there is not a lot of parking available in Saint-Émilion, there are spaces around the churches and near Place Bouqueyre in the lower part of the village.  As we visited in October, we had no difficulty finding angled parking west of the Tourisme Office for the cost of about 2€ per hour.  Those seeking free parking or parking an RV will need to park outside the village - this is also where free parking is available.  

What to Wear in St Émilion

It is a pre-requisite to wear very sturdy shoes.  Also, you will often see people in dark jeans or dark slacks, raincoat or jacket, scarf, dress shirt.  In the evening you might see dresses with low-heeled shoes (cobblestones, steep streets).

When visiting vineyards, go business casual with hiking boots, walking shoes, or dressy but sturdy boots.

We did see a few people more dressed up, usually on their way to weddings or celebrations, or fine dining at the two-Michelin star Hostellerie de Plaisance.

What You Won’t Find in St Émilion

Saint-Émilion has a population between 2,000 and 3,000 people, and the surrounding villages and communes in the area are fairly small as well. You will not find any of the following in this village:

  • Fast food chains

  • Retail shopping

  • Nightlife after 9 pm

  • Close parking during the summer and around harvest

Wine shop in Downtown St-Emilion.jpg

Where to Eat in Saint-Émilion

Each time we’ve been to Saint-Émilion, we’ve made the time and budget for lunch at Hostellerie de Plaisance.  Here, one can choose menu items a la carte, go for a three-course menu that is choice of the chef, or take a longer multi-course menu.  Plan two to three hours minimum for this experience.

If you want something more casual, a little cozier, and have one to two hours for lunch or dinner, try L'Envers du Décor.

For those wanting views of vineyards in nearby Pomerol, the Terrasse Rouge Brasserie Restaurant was lively and modern.  

Those looking for a romantic, quintessential, small village dining experience with fireplace and exposed limestone walls might try Réserve de Presbytère, an excellent value for the money.

In the village, you can find a small grocery store selling fresh fruits, bread, French cheeses, snacks, and milk.  Next door is a butchery selling fresh cuts of meat and a variety of charcuterie. 

Where to Stay Near St Émilion

There are a number of hotels, inns, and rooms available in Saint-Émilion which are great for one or two nights in the village. For those wanting to stay near vineyards and away from the village, or who wish to take a longer look at the entire Libournais region, look east to the region of Castillon.

0417. Chateaux du Palanquey Sainte-Colombe.JPG

We enjoyed our stay at Chȃteau du Palanquey in nearby Sainte-Colombe. This recently opened five-room establishment is run by a family and features a wine cellar, spa, spacious parking, vineyard views, and contemporary yet cozy rooms. Throughout the Chȃteau (formerly a winery) there are various nooks for reading, playing billiards, or enjoying wine and snacks by the fireplace. Outside you can walk around the grounds or take a stroll on gravel roads through the vineyards. Gracious hosts Melanie and Laurent will also help you with restaurant reservations, wine visits, and drive recommendations, and will also offer you breakfast, lunch, or dinner with 24 hour notice. One can also purchase wines from their cellar to enjoy.   

Wine Tasting in St Émilion

After visiting for three years, our favorite wine shops for tasting and making purchases are ETS Martin and Vignoble and Chateaux. Both offer shipping to the United States. I’ve used both for shipping and have had better luck with ETS Martin. We’ve always received our shipments in North Carolina within 5-7 business days.  

Saint-Emilion winemaker Chateau Guadet.jpg

When tasting at any of the bottle shops, be aware that some wines are only available to purchase in the region, while other wines are imported to the United States and can be purchased stateside at a lower cost. We chose to purchase wines at these establishments that can only be obtained in the region or older vintages that are very expensive here in the States. 

If you prefer not to ship, and simply want to purchase a couple of bottles from bottle shops or a winery, check out our article on how to fly with wine if you purchase wine from the vineyard and want to carry it back with you.

Wine Touring and Tasting in St Émilion

A few short years ago, not many wine estates were open for tasting and tours. Today over 130 wine estates are open to the public! Wine tour operators in many wine regions are little more than drivers shuttling drinkers between chȃteaus. Upon arriving at chȃteau, the host may be the winemaker or an intern or family member tasked with guiding tourists through a facility.  

To increase the odds that you have a good experience, we recommend knowledgeable tour guides who have years of experience in several areas of the wine industry to connect you to real winemakers and small, independent producers like Chȃteau Guadet.

Alternatively, if a guide is not in your budget, we highly recommend the Bordeaux Right Bank guide. This is an excellent resource with one-pagers on many chȃteau in the region, and includes the relative quality of the wines, history of the chȃteau, whether or not you can buy wine, and if they accept visitors. This guide can also come in handy for when you are shopping at bottle shops in the area or back at home.

 
 

Have you been to Saint-Émilion? Did you have a favorite wine, restaurant, hotel, tour, or experience?  Please, let us know in the comments below! And if you are looking for more travel tips, drop us a line at jolene@knowwines.com.

Cheers!

What To Do When the Nose Goes

So, you’ve saved up for a trip to wine country and made it to your destination - only to be stricken by seasonal allergies or a cold, leaving you with a stuffy nose and a limited (or no!) ability to smell and taste food or wine.

tissues.jpeg

Here are a few of our favorite travel tips, having fallen prey to the impact of recirculated air, traveling during cold and flu season, and also having lifelong issues with hay fever.  

Packing medicine for smarter getaways

It’s a good idea to pack some basic over-the-counter medicines for trips to prevent time wasted driving to a store during your stay. Also, if your wine travels take you to Europe, you’ll find that most stores are closed on Sunday, or the dosage is in a language you can’t read. 

Start with this re-usable TSA Approved Transparent Waterproof Cosmetic Bag with Zipper for storing medicines

 
 

We like this three-pack as you can use one for liquids, one for dry goods, and the third for electrical adaptors and chargers.  We try to minimize the liquid medicines we take on a trip or place them in our checked luggage.

OTC Medicines and supplies to make travel easier

To prevent potential overdose and to treat only the symptoms we have, we prefer to shy away from all-in-one “cold and flu” or “allergy” medicine and purchase independent components separately.  

Pain Reliever

All over-the-counter pain relievers are not created equal.  While these products are available without a prescription, they are still medicine. By avoiding combination products, you reduce the chance that you take the same active ingredient twice when combining medications. If you aren’t sure which OTC pain killer is best to have with you for travel, check with a pharmacist or your doctor for a recommendation.  

Our personal favorite pain killer is Advil. Available in travel sized two-packs, these travel packages slip easily into your carry-on or checked bag, and you don’t need to carry a bottle around.  

 
 

Facial Tissues

Hotel facial tissues (unless you are staying at a 4-star resort) are just a step above sandpaper. Don’t forget to pack facial tissues like these.    

 
 

Eye Mask

If you are a seasonal allergy sufferer, remember to pack one of these warm eye masks that helps in reducing swelling due to hay fever.  This type of eye mask requires a microwave for activation, so if there is no microwave in your room, check with the front desk. Many heatable eye masks don’t have washable covers.  While these may look less fashionable than velour eye masks, these eye masks are re-usable and washable.  

 
 

Bkr Water Bottle

If you don’t travel a lot, you might not know that it is just fine to take an empty water bottle on the plane with you. Simply fill it up once you pass through security.  

We like this Bkr bottle since it has a screw-on top, making it perfectly safe to throw in your favorite handbag without worrying about leakage. We also like that it is dishwasher safe. And since Jolene’s day job is a scientist, she thinks the whole “beaker” thing is kind of cool!

 
 

Why can’t I taste or smell anything when I’m sick?

Temporarily losing your sense of smell or taste is normal when one has hay fever (seasonal allergies) or the common cold. Nasal passages become congested with mucus or are inflamed. These symptoms may be accompanied by pain behind or below the eyes.  Removing the mucus and reducing inflammation is key to getting your nose back in tip-top wine tasting shape. If you are experiencing more than a temporary loss of your sense of smell, then see a physician as this might be a sign of something more serious.

Mucus relief for wine tasters

If you have a wine tasting coming up that you can’t reschedule or you have a blind tasting exam as a student of wine, having a cold or allergies is going to be stressful! Your primary objective is to get that gunk out of your nose and chest and to get the Eustachian tube cleared up and draining properly so that you can get back to smelling and tasting wines as soon as possible. You may be tempted to run directly to the box of drugs with the most active ingredients. However, there are a number of home treatment options that you can try instead of (or along with) OTC drugs.  

Our recommendations below are for home (or on-the-road) treatment of sinus congestion due to cold or allergy. As always, if you suspect that you have something more serious, call a physician. The front desk of your hotel is a great place to check for medical options and hours. If you are not at a hotel, send a message to your AirBnB or HomeAway host for a recommendation.

Hot Shower For Cold or Allergy Relief

Your first line of relief is a long hot shower. Your stuffy nose from cold or allergies is due to inflammation and swollen blood vessels. The steam from the shower helps open up the nasal passages to make it easier to expel mucus. Ten to 15 minutes should be enough to yield some relief, and this treatment can be repeated up to 3 times per day. Though a hot shower won’t cure the underlying cause of illness (cold virus, allergen, irritant), it will provide relief.  Don’t make the shower too hot or you may scald yourself.  

Get a Steam Inhaler

If a hot shower is not available, or you are in an area where water use is restricted, there are a few tools available for intense steam therapy.  

First is a steam room, which may be available in resort-type areas.  If traveling, ask if there is a steam room available at your hotel or gym. As with the hot shower, a steam room can be used 2-3 times per day, 15 to 20 minutes maximum per visit.

Staying somewhere less plush? If your accommodations are AirBnB or HomeAway, there might be a pot available to heat water in the kitchen. Simply heat the water and then turn off the heating source. Lean over the pot, and cover your head with a towel. It will take a little figuring out to find the best combination of face distance to pot and percent of towel coverage. Keep in mind that when utilizing this method there is some risk of scalding yourself. Be careful!  

Whether you are at home or traveling, check to see if a humidifier is available to borrow. There are some travel humidifiers on the market, however, I’ve not found one yet that disperses a steady stream of fine mist. When traveling domestically (say, in California’s wine country), consider taking one of these personal steam inhalers along if you are prone to congestion while traveling. It is TSA compliant. These value electronics often work only on 110 V, so they are not worth the hassle to take overseas.

 
 

Drink More! (Water, That Is!)

The wine can come later (once you can smell it again). It is important to drink a lot of water and other liquids including soup and decaffeinated tea, to help reduce inflammation and replace liquids lost during coughing and sneezing.  

Best Saline Nasal Spray

Traveling with a Neti-pot can be cumbersome, so leave it at home. While congested in Europe, we came across this product called Sterimar. It is now our pick for best nasal spray! We love it’s angled applicator, the fact that it is all natural salt water from France, and that is has a super cute dolphin on the front.  This product is available online and is widely distributed in Europe.  

 
 

How to Use a Nasal Spray

If you’ve had poor experiences using saline nasal sprays (or OTC or prescription sprays), check out this short video explaining how to position your head to receive the spray. 

 
 

Best Expectorant if Stuffiness Comes With a Cough

While many “cold and cough” multi-purpose products contain guaifenesin, we prefer to take it by itself and add in other medications (only if needed!), reducing the likelihood that you overdose on OTC cold medicines. How does guaifenesin work? By thinning the mucus making it easier to get it out of your system by coughing.

 
 

Is it even possible to sleep with a stuffy nose?

You’ve made some progress against the gunk in your sinuses and lungs the night before your tasting or special meal. Now, it’s time for some sleep. In fact, rest is one of the best ways to get back into the tasting action. But nothing is as frustrating to wake up to an even stuffier head in the morning! During the day, we are typically walking or sitting upright, and any post nasal drip gets swallowed (I know, gross!).  Well at night, that swallowing is minimal, leaving one with typically a very stuffy head and bad cough in the morning. To reduce the chances of this happening, collect as many pillows as possible to prop your head upright. If you sleep well in a recliner, this could be another option.  If you experience ear pain in the evening or at night due to blockages in the ear’s Eustachian tube, sleep on your side with the painful ear “up” to promote drainage.  

How do I cancel my reservation if I just can’t make it to the tasting?

We’ve been in your shoes. You’ve done all you can to increase the likelihood of success so that you can show up with a cleared out nose and ready for a day of tasting. Still, sometimes the allergies or cold virus gets the best of us and we should not be out in public spreading our germs.

If you paid a deposit, call the winery, restaurant, or host where your tasting is taking place and inform them that you are not feeling well. Most often, they understand and can rebook you. You may not get a refund though they will often transfer your deposit to the new date of your rebooking, frequently within a year.  

If you are a student of wine sitting for a tasting exam, call the instructor or test auditor and let them know that you are unwell.  There may be options to re-sit the exam at a later date.  

In all these instances where a deposit has been made, check with your credit card company (if you used a credit card to hold a reservation). The card may have insurance for travel disruption as part of your annual fee. It is worth a call to check it out!

Finally, if you get sick on your trip and end up not being able to taste any wine at all (so sad!), consider getting recommendations from a winemaker or travel companion for a few great wines to take home with you. Here’s our guide for checking wine when you fly.

What are home remedies for when the nose goes?

If you travel to taste wines or are in the wine trade, what other tips or tricks do you have to share regarding unplugging the nose?  Let us know in the comments below!

Here’s to healthy travels! Cheers, from KnowWines!











































The Chappellet Winery

Are you seeking an off-the-beaten path wine tour with some of the most stunning scenery in Napa Valley? 

Do you enjoy classic California Cabernet Sauvignon?

Are you (and perhaps a small group of friends) looking for a Napa winery with great value Cabernet Sauvignon as well as collectible fine wines? 

Then a visit to Chappellet Winery may be a good fit for you!

In 2019, KnowWines visited Chappellet Winery and enjoyed a private tour with tasting.  Here’s our review of the visit. And before you head to Napa, check out our free e-course and blog about places to stay in the valley.

Things to consider before visiting Chappellet Winery

This winery tour is good for anyone interested in an off-the-beaten path tasting experience in one of Napa Valley’s legendary wineries.

The tour is great for the following types of travelers:

  • Wine lovers who want to avoid a bar-type atmosphere that can be found at some wineries on the main roads in Napa County

  • Wine enthusiasts who want a private or semi-private tasting experience

  • A mixed group of wine tasters with interests at various price points

  • Collectors of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines

The winery tour and tasting experience is not ideal for these types of travelers:

  • Fast paced service in a noisy, vibrant setting

  • Travelers who need to be on their smartphone nonstop (beautiful rural regions frequently have poor cell service)

  • Travelers with pets or companions under 21

  • Wine enthusiasts afraid of narrow, winding roads

  • Wine tasters expecting a free or discounted wine tasting fee with wine purchase 

Before purchasing a Chappellet Winery tour and tasting, you will need to consider the following:

  • Do you want a private or semi-private experience?

  • How much do you want to spend on the experience? 

  • Do you want to taste current releases or the more premium wines from Chappellet?

  • How much time are you willing to spend (most of Chappellet’s wine tastings take 90 minutes)?

Where is Chappellet Winery and Pritchard Hill?

Chappellet Winery is located at the top of Pritchard Hill.  Pritchard Hill is located in the Vaca mountains in Napa county.  

To get to Chappellet Winery on Pritchard Hill, head north from downtown Napa on the Silverado Trail for about 17 miles. Then head east on 128 for about a mile until you get to Stage Coach Canyon Road, which leads to the winery. This road is winding with switchbacks.  

What should I wear to a Chappellet Winery tour and tasting?

The winery and grounds are best described as rustic and elegant. There is a mix of pavement and permeable surfaces like gravel, so sturdy closed-toe shoes like hiking shoes, leather, or rubber boots would work best. We saw most guests wearing jeans and a nice pull-over or wrap as it is always cool in the cellar. 

If it is raining on the day of your visit, bring an umbrella to get to and from your vehicle. Umbrellas are provided on the tour. In summer months, you might consider sunscreen if you burn easily. When you check in, there are washrooms and some spaces to store a few bags and coats. 

About Chappellet Winery and Pritchard Hill

Pritchard Hill is named for an early Vaca mountains homesteader named Charles Pritchard.  In the 1890s he was growing Zinfandel and Riesling among other grape varieties. Early settlers knew that the iron rich and rocky red soils, as well as elevation and aspect, would be great for grape growing. Grape growing and winemaking went on up here until Prohibition, and then it took a backseat to other agriculture endeavors like cattle grazing.   

0412. Descending Pritchard Hill.jpg

In the 1960s, a new generation of winemakers entered the region, inspired by André Tchelistcheff, a diminutive (4’11) Russian-born winemaker who inspired this generation of new winemakers following Prohibition. Since 1938 Tchelistcheff was Napa’s Beaulieu Vineyards vice president and chief winemaker and helped bring high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and winemaking to the foreground through innovation in the vineyard and cellar.

In the 1960s, a 30-something Don Chappellet had already made his mark in the world, co-founding Interstate United Corporation, which developed and sold the first vending machines that dispensed coffee into cups by using fresh grounds. Before Starbucks and Nespresso were ever a thing, Don was the largest coffee buyer in the world. Don was tiring of the coffee business and wanted a different pace of life for his family. While at Interstate, he had started to amass a collection of Bordeaux and Bourgogne wines. He was a 4th generation Californian and did not want to move to France - he wondered if such wines could be made in California. 

Shortly after meeting Tchelistcheff, Andre told Don that high elevation (1800 ft) mountain grown Cabernet Sauvignon and the right cellar techniques might yield a wine very similar to Chateau Latour from Bordeaux. Andre helped Don pick the site of Chappellet. Don left his corporate job, traded his jacket for a tractor, and purchased land on Pritchard Hill. He moved his wife Molly and their five children to the mountain. Later, Molly would establish beautiful gardens near the winery as driving back and forth from town with so many children was a lot of work. She has written several books on gardening, entertaining, and wine caves, including the James Beard Award Winning A Vineyard Garden.

Chappellet is one of few wineries still owned by a family on Pritchard Hill. Today’s owners are descendants of Don and Molly Chappellet.  The winery recently celebrated 50 years in business.

Our online booking experience

We booked our private tasting online about five days before arriving in Napa. Those traveling during the peak seasons of Thanksgiving/Christmas and during the summer months may want to consider booking one or two weeks out to get your ideal time slot.

There were three booking options: the Estate Tour & Tasting, the Private Estate Tour and Tasting, and the Signature Tasting and Estate Tour. The Estate Tour is the least expensive, and is for wine enthusiasts who don’t mind being joined by a few others on the tour. The Private Estate Tour is private, and allows you to taste five wines that are typically available only to club members. The Signature Tasting is geared toward the wine collector, focused on collectable wines, and again, is private. 

We selected the mid-priced Private Estate Tour and Tasting for 90 minutes. The booking process was very easy. Quickly we received an email confirmation with very detailed instructions on how to get to the winery.   

Our tasting experience

When we arrived we were greeted by Theo, the winery’s brand manager. She was very knowledgeable on vineyards, winemaking practices, and retail. It was a rainy day, and she provided us with a giant golf umbrella during our walking tour of the vineyard. (Yes, we had an umbrella in one hand and a wine glass in another!)

Back inside the cellar, we sat down and tasted the following wines.

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  • 2017 Grower Collection Chardonnay, El Novillero Vineyard, Carneros

  • 2017 Grower Collection Pinot Noir, Apple Lane Vineyard, Russian River Valley

  • 2016 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon

  • 2016 Cabernet Franc

  • 2016 Hideaway Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

  • 2014 Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon

During our tasting we never felt rushed or pressured to join a wine club. We were able to walk around a little in the cellar and watch workers moving barrels and cleaning equipment.

Other Chappellet Winery visit reviews

We wrote this review as we did not see a lot of other wine bloggers writing up a trip report. We did do some online researching before our trip.

The types of positive comments we saw on online reviews were “Pleasant Surprise, Chappellet is great,” “a hidden gem”, and “scenic, best winery of the week.”

Ambivalent or negative reviews included “smaller pours than some other wineries,” “requires credit card deposit for booking,” and “too far from town.”

Alternatives to visiting Chappellet Winery 

It is difficult to get wine tastings at other wineries on Pritchard Hill. If you have found a great winery on Pritchard Hill, kindly share it with us in the notes. Chappellet is a little bit of a trek to get to, and other readers might want to book a second wine tasting in the area. If you are looking for some other options for wine tasting in Napa or Sonoma counties, check out our top 15 wineries to visit.

Where to purchase Chappellet Winery Wines

In addition to purchasing wines directly from the winery, one can purchase wines using the affiliate link for our favorite value-priced Cabernet Sauvignon in all of Napa Valley, the Chappellet Mountain Cuvee. Just click the image below for the link:

Our Favorite Value Cabernet

OR save on any Chappellet Wine by clicking using this link:

Our visit conclusion

When people ask us for recommendations of “mountain wineries” off the beaten path, I often recommend Chappellet (unless they are directions/GPS agnostic!).  

This was our second visit to Chappellet Winery and the staff have always been friendly and knowledgable, and the wines, while at a premium and luxury wine price point, are a great value compared to other wines in the vicinity.  

We enjoy the quiet, serene drive up and down the mountain. The winery feels truly in a world of its own perched up there on Pritchard Hill.  

Enjoy your visit!

Cheers!

Wine Racks America Ponderosa Wood Wine Rack

So, you have space in a dark closet, basement, or cellar (lucky you!) and are looking for wooden wine racks that are economical, robust, customizable, and easy to put together.  Enter Wine Racks America, a company that makes wine racks for a variety of consumers and commercial applications.

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We purchased two Wine Racks America racks in 2013 and were pleased with their robustness and the ease of putting them together. We ended up staining them to fit in with our basement decor, and we still use them there today in our basement, especially for the storage of wines and craft beer bombers that we plan to consume or share in the coming months. 

Things to consider before buying Wine Racks America Wood Wine Racks

The best way to store wines is on their side, and preferably in a dark place away from light, vibration, extreme temperatures, and relative humidity above 50%.  If you have most of these conditions as well as a growing wine collection, you may consider wooden wine racks for storing wines on their sides.

Wine Racks America wooden wine racks are ideal for someone with a cellar, closet, walk-in wine cellar, cave, or off-site temperature-controlled wine storage locker who is seeking sturdy shelving for organizing and laying down wines for in-bottle aging.

Before purchasing a wooden wine rack, consider the following:

  • How much space is available for the rack?

  • Do you want the wine rack to mount on the wall or on the floor?

  • What color of finish or stain do you prefer in a wine rack?

  • How many bottles do you hope to accommodate?

  • Which specific wine bottles will you need to accommodate (e.g., mostly standard Bordeaux or Burgundy bottles or a range of bottle shapes and sizes)?

  • What do you want to store above the wine rack?

You may not be an ideal candidate for a wooden wine rack if the following statements are true about you:

  • You don’t like to assemble products.

  • You need the product right away (manufacture and delivery can take several days).

  • You do not want to sand the item before staining (if you purchase the unstained product).

Wine Rack Americas Ponderosa Pine Wine Racks

Wine Rack Americas has been making wooden (metal, glass, and other) wine racks in Salt Lake City, Utah since 2003. The wooden wine racks are handmade from both hard and soft woods and with or without a finish. They sell five different lines catering toward the wine enthusiast, the serious collector, and the wine retailer.  In this review, we will be covering the Wooden Ponderosa Wine Rack Deluxe.

This product is ideal for the home wine collector who is simply looking to lay down wine bottles in a closet or basement for under a year. Those looking for a more refined or finished product may want to contact Wine Racks America directly for more customized options.  

Pros:

  • Made out of solid wood

  • Available stained or unstained

  • Ships in a flat box

Cons:

  • Some assembly is required.

  • As a natural wood product, there might be some natural variation in the finished product.

  • If most of your collection is Chardonnay, and the bottle has a wider base, they might be a tight fit.

  • If most of your collection is 375 mL or narrower than a Riesling flute, then the bottles might not fit on the brace.

Features & benefits of the Ponderosa Pine Deluxe Wood Wine Rack

How to finish the wood wine rack

The Wine Racks America wood wine rack comes unfinished.  You can stain the unit before you assemble it, or you can choose from over a dozen different finish options.  

We opted to finish the rack ourselves. We simply sanded the entire rack unit, first with coarse sandpaper, and then fine sandpaper.  We spread out all the wood components in the yard (on the cardboard box the pieces arrived in). We purchased some stain from the local hardware store and stained two units within one hour. We let the wine rack pieces dry in the garage for one week prior to assembling.

Wine rack construction

The Wine Racks America Ponderosa Pine Deluxe Wine Rack is made in America (Utah).  It comes with a lifetime guarantee. The Ponderosa pine is a fine-grained pine tree with a pleasant smell.  It is easy to stain and does not splinter as much as other softer pine wood. The entire unit is made of wood - there is no laminate or composite material.  

This freestanding unit does not require bolting to the wall. However, if there are small children in the house who might climb on top of the unit, we would recommending fixing the unit to the wall with some long screws.  

Wine Racks Americas Racks fit all 750 mL bottles

Over the past several years we have stored various bottle sizes in this wood wine rack.  

Wine bottles with wider bases like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir do fit. However, the fit is a little snug.  We have found that the wood is flexible and forgiving, so with a little elbow grease, we’ve gotten in all the bottles.

Special 500 mL or 375 mL bottles often don’t fit, in that most will fall through the slats. We’ve placed these smaller bottles in our EuroCave or placed them at the bottom of the wine rack on the lowest shelf so that they don’t fall through the slats.  

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Weight of the wine rack, with and without wine

Assembled, the wine rack weighs 50 lbs. Of course, you’ll add weight for wine bottles in the rack - you can easily put up to 250 lbs of weight on the system. If you are located on the second floor (or higher) of a building and are uncertain about the quality of the flooring under you, you may want to consider setting up your wine rack perpendicular to the floor joists so that your floor does not sag due to the weight. 

Storage on top of wine rack

With this unit, yes, you can store other items on top of it (including another wine rack, if you fasten them together appropriately!). We store some glassware on top of ours, as well as a collection of carboys containing fermenting beer.  

Wine Racks America’s standard wood wine rack allows for growth

Unlike many other wood wine rack companies, Wine Racks America knows that wine enthusiasts have evolving needs. If your collection grows to a large size and you’re considering adding more units, rest assured that other products have uniform height or width to allow for later expansion. 

Wine Racks America Wood Rack social proof

We did a lot of research on how others felt about the on-demand wooden wine racks from Wine Racks America. Overall, the evidence was overwhelming that the racks work as expected, are sturdy, and hold the wines as intended.

Negative reviews focused on aesthetics: that the wine rack did not always look perfect and that a little cosmetic work (sanding, staining) needed to be done by the buyer to smooth out any rough spots.  Occasionally there were wood knots that were aesthetically unpleasing, especially to people used to the perfect look of laminated or synthetic products. However, it was noted that wood knots did not interfere with the structural integrity of the product.  

Alternatives to the Unstained Wine Rack

Still undecided on the right wood wine rack for you?  Here are a few alternatives

Wine Racks America Ponderosa Pine 64 Bottle Two-Tone Deluxe

The two-toned Ponderosa pine model is good for those who want a finished or furniture-looking wine storage system. This unit is almost identical structurally to the unfinished version. The rough edges have been smoothed out and there are a few choices of finish colors available.  Some assembly is still required.

Stackable Modular Wine Rack Stackable Storage Stand Display Shelves 

If your collection is mainly comprised of Bordeaux-style wine bottles (Merlot, Cabernet, Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc), and you want a less expensive, more “palet lumber” look to your wine shelf, then this might be an option.  If you collect Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, or Champagne, you will likely not be happy with this wood wine rack.

This item will likely have more knots and be less aesthetically pleasing. However, if you just need some robust wood wine racks, this might fit your needs.  Since it is made up of a much softer type of wood than the other racks reviewed, it is going to show dings and scrapes more easily.

This wood wine rack looks very easy to put together.  Once you get this unit filled up, you might need to brace it with some more wood.  This might be a good wine rack for someone who enjoys wine who will be living in their home or condo for a couple of years and wanting to make a minimal investment in a recyclable wine rack. 

Wine Racks America Wood Wine Rack, our conclusion

We purchased our wine racks in 2013 and still use them today for storing value wines for weekday wines, large format (750 mL) beer bottles, and mead.  

The Wine Racks America wood wine racks enable the home wine enthusiast to store wine on a rack at a reasonable price in a location such as a basement or closet.  If the wine is going to be stored in an area with visibility, you might want to finish the wine rack yourself to give it a more polished look, or spring for the two-tone deluxe mode. 

Some less expensive options do exist out there to consider, especially if you are in temporary housing.  These units are typically easier to put together and less flexible to bottle size than Wine Racks America wood wine racks.  Wine Racks America seems to be focusing on the wine enthusiast and wine obsessed market, and not the low end of the wood wine rack market.  

If we needed another wine rack, especially for the storage of beer bombers, we would purchase the Ponderosa pine wine rack again.  

When you purchase a wine rack on Amazon.com through our link, it helps us to keep running our site and to continue to provide you with our reviews, tips, and guides. 

Thank you, and cheers, from KnowWines!



The Repour Wine Saver

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Wine preserver systems and gadgets are plentiful in the wine world. Most wine consumers are looking for a wine bottle saver that will allow them to open a bottle of wine and enjoy it over days, perhaps weeks.  Wine bars and wineries also seek out wine stoppers that allow them to open a slow-moving bottle of wine and serve it days or weeks later as part of expanding their wines-by-the-glass programs. 

This week, KnowWines researched, used, and reviewed the Repour bottle stopper as an alternative to inert gas systems or pumps for wines we knew we would finish in about a week.  We didn’t want to use up our Coravin cartridges on weekday wines, so we gave this product a try.

Things to consider before purchasing the Repour:

There are a few situations for which the Repour wine preserver is ideal, for both the home wine drinker and the staff of a wine bar or bottle shop.

For home consumers, the Repour is great for those who want to simply open a bottle of wine - regardless of enclosure type - and enjoy it over a period of a few days or weeks.  It is also a good product if you enjoy having a few different bottles of wine open, let’s say a Cava, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sauternes. Historically, having all these different bottles of wine open, either on the counter or in the fridge, meant that these wines would go bad within a couple of days, resulting in a lot of bad wine being poured down the drain.  The Repour helps solve that problem.

In wine bars and wineries, the Repour wine preserver helps maintain a large number of open bottles. This is ideal for the wine bar or shop that doesn’t want to make large capital investments in serving stations like Enomatic. The Repour wine preserver is also good for wine bottle shops or restaurants who already have wine serving stations and want to serve dessert wines or wines with sediment.  Systems like Enomatic and Coravin can potentially aspirate solids into the dispensing mechanism through user error, causing them to plug up and require time-sucking maintenance.

While the Repour fits a broad spectrum of wine consumer and business needs, the Repour is not for:

  • Wine lovers wanting to check bottle aging months or years later on - they should consider Coravin

  • Cheap wines - the Repour might cost ⅓ the bottle of wine if it is really value juice

  • Storing open wine on the side - the Repour won’t work as designed and you may have a leaky mess

  • Locations where wine bottles are shuffled around a lot - someone may accidentally dislodge the stopper, rendering it ineffective

Those who have used pumps or Coravin and are looking for a simple, low-cost alternative to mid-priced wines becoming oxidized as they age on the counter or in the fridge may benefit from having a few Repour stoppers on hand.  Those Coravin syringes and cartridges can be saved for fine wines.

Finally, if you travel for work or vacation and want to enjoy a nice wine during the week without the hassle of packing inert gasses or pumps, consider keeping a Repour or two in your carry on luggage for emergency use.  The Repour also makes for a good thank you gift or stocking stuffer for wine lovers.

So, show me the Repour!

The Repour Wine Saver is a single-use wine preservation tool invented by chemist and wine lover Tom Lutz. Like many other wine consumers, he was tired of discarding partial bottles that contained wine that did not taste fresh a few days after opening.  

After about 18 months of research and product development, the product was featured on Kickstarter, received the funding target, and the rest is history.

The Repour wine saver is available on Amazon and through select wine retailers.  It is available in different package sizes: 4, 10, and 72 stoppers.

Repour Pros:

  • Lower cost per use than Coravin and other inert gas systems

  • Good for wines containing sediment 

  • Good for dessert wines 

  • Good for take-home bottles of fine wine from a restaurant

Repour Cons:

  • Single-use (you recycle or discard after use), so not ideal for cheap or value wines

  • Need to store the bottle upright

  • Don’t know when it is “used up”

How do I use Repour?

Open your wine and consume what you need.  When you are ready to close up the bottle, simply remove a single Repour unit from the box it arrived in, remove the adhesive seal from the Repour unit, and insert it in place of the cork or screwcap.  As you consume the wine over the course of a few days or weeks, simply re-insert the stopper after pouring. Once the bottle is complete, discard the stopper.  If your city or county recycles plastic and metal, then please recycle the stopper

Since the Repour device is so effective, you may need to aerate each pour if the wine aromas are muted. Aerate by simply swirling the wine in the glass.

Finally, don’t be afraid to firmly push the Repour into the bottle. If a good seal is not made, then oxygen will still get into the wine.  

How does Repour Work?

Let’s go back to high school chemistry! Air is comprised of about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Nitrogen is fairly unreactive. Oxygen, on the other hand, is a double-edged sword. While it is a giver of life, it is also an active element in aging and degradation. The introduction and removal of oxygen from vineyard to cellar to bottle is controlled by growers and winemakers to deliver a specific style of wine.  

As wine consumers, we battle oxygen the moment we open a bottle of wine. While a little aeration upfront (either through decanting or swirling) might be needed to open a wine, oxygen starts to attack the wine within minutes or hours, resulting in tired tasting wine.  Some indications of oxidized wines that often lead to wine getting discarded after oxidation are loss of fruit aromas and flavors, browning of white wine, oranging or browning of red wines. As oxidation continues, the wine can start to get some gamey and vinegar aromas and flavors (commonly referred to as “bad” wine).

The Repour stopper, which include an FDA approved non-toxic oxygen absorber inside the stopper, was designed by a chemist and entrepreneur who knew well the experience of pouring bad wine down the sink. He was also familiar with oxidation as well as Dalton’s law and Henry’s law. The outcome of this research was the development of a stopper containing metals that “rust” as they are oxidized - instead of the wine getting oxidized. Need a refresher? Geek out on these short science videos:

What wines are best to use with Repour?

With a tapered insert, the Repour stopper can be placed in any type of wine bottle. It can be used with sparkling wines, white wines, red wines, fortified wines, and sweet wines. 

The stopper can also be used regardless of the original closure. It does not matter if the original bottle stopper was a screwcap, a natural cork, a synthetic cork, or a glass cork.  

Is my open wine bottle worth the Repour?

Every consumer, bottle shop owner or wine bar will likely have a different opinion on how to determine if a bottle is “Repour Worthy.” One should consider how much wine they are typically pouring down the drain after two or three days of opening. 

We personally use the Repour when the wine is over $15 per bottle, there is over ⅔ of the bottle left, and we’d like to enjoy the wine over a period of a week or two.

Can I re-use the Repour?

We’ve never re-used a Repour stopper. However, after doing some online research we found several different strategies consumers have used to maximize the use of the stopper.

If you insert the Repour on day one and consume the rest of the wine on day two, you may be able to reuse the stopper by rinsing the emptied bottle, filling the bottle almost full of water, then firmly inserting the used Repour into the bottle. I would reuse a Repour on bottles in the $20 to $40 USD range, especially if I aimed to use up the wine in a couple of days. If it was a more expensive bottle, I’d use a new Repour. If the Repour was in a bottle for several days or weeks, I would likely not consider reusing the Repour stopper and recycle or discard it.  

There are a lot of different strategies to consider. Have some fun experimenting with the product (and with Henry’s and Dalton’s laws!). The worst that could happen is that a bottle of wine gets oxidized. 

Testing the Repour

We first used the Repour stopper on a bottle of Champagne that retailed for about $45 USD. We opened the wine on a Wednesday night and poured a couple of glasses. We inserted the stopper and placed the wine in the refrigerator. We did notice that the height of the stopper and bottle exceeded the shelf height in the refrigerator, so we adjusted the height of the fridge shelf to accommodate the bottle plus stopper. We drank some Champagne each day (one glass each - difficult work!). On Sunday (over 72 hours later) we finished the bottle. We were quite surprised each time we removed the Repour that the wine was still bubbly and the aromas were still fresh. I also found the Repour easier to insert than other Champagne stoppers.

Next, we used the Repour stopper with a 2011 Napa Chardonnay. Two other dining companions helped us consume ⅔ the bottle on a Friday night. We inserted the stopper after the meal and placed the wine into the refrigerator. Six days later we drank the last couple of glasses. On the first sip, the wine did not have much flavor.  After letting the wine sit for about 10 minutes after swirling, it tasted just fine. I did notice that the wine was a little muted (not as intense) but did not have any of the oxidative aromas or vinegar flavor that one typically encounters after storing a white wine in the refrigerator for about a week.  

Finally, we tried the Repour stopper on a 750 mL bottle of 1998 Sauternes. Sweet wines are difficult for wine bars to serve in Enomatic stations, as the stickiness can gum up the lines. We enjoyed the wine over 11 days and did not notice any reduction in aromas or flavors using Repour. We stored the wine in the refrigerator between pours.

In the coming weeks, we will open a $25 Bordeaux wine and let it sit on the counter with the Repour and taste over a few days. We will report back here on how that goes!

Similar Wine Preserver Systems

Like the inventor of RePour, we’ve also tried various wine preservation systems. Here’s a rundown of products that compete with Repour in this space. These different types of systems have one or more niches that they fill. We’ve yet to find a holistic solution for all possible wine preservation scenarios.

Private Preserve Wine Preservation System 

Essentially this is inert gas one sprays into an opened bottle of wine, followed by quickly forcing the original stopper into the top of the bottle.  

Pros:

  • Multiple uses per can

  • Pennies per use, so good for cheap and value wines

Cons: 

  • Not easy to travel with

  • Need to store wine bottle upright

  • Takes a little skill to get the procedure right

Vacu-Vin Stainless Steel Stopper

If you know you will finish your wine in less than seven days, then you may want to consider this stainless steel vacuum system. The system comes with a stopper that you insert into the bottle, then you attach the pump and pump until you hear a click. If you have more than one bottle open at a time, you will need to purchase additional stoppers.

Pros:  

  • Easy to use

  • Lasts for 5 - 10 years

Cons:  

  • Not as portable as single Repour

Fantes Champagne Stopper, Made in Italy

For sparkling wines and Champagne, this stopper has been the standard - made in Italy for over 100 years!

Pros:  

  • No gas cartridges to purchase

  • Reusable

  • Easy to use and store

Cons:  

  • With a lot of use, the sealing mechanism can wear, resulting in reduced carbonation and aroma intensity so check the seal that it is working well

Our summary of the Repour stopper

We enjoyed researching, trying and testing the Repour stoppers that we purchased online for a few weeks. This item is good for consumers who like or need to open bottles of wine and consume them in a couple of days or weeks.

We consider the Repour a good item for the home consumer to have on hand for premium wines, and we will be pouring less wine down the sink in the future! We also liked the ease of use - simply remove a foil adhesive and press the Repour stopper into the top of the bottle! We like the option to store wine in the refrigerator or on the counter. 

The Repour is not for consumers or sommeliers who want to try fine wine now and sample it again in six months or a year. The Coravin might be more of interest if tasting across several months is your desire.   

When you purchase the Repour wine saver on Amazon through our link, it helps us to keep running our site and to continue to provide you with our reviews, tips, and guides. Thank you!

And Cheers, from KnowWines!

EuroCave Performance Review

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The EuroCave wine cabinet is a big investment, and we know that fellow consumers want to be certain they are making the right choice.  In our experience, it is common to find product reviews immediately following delivery and installation, with the excitement of the purchase still fresh in their minds. Here, we’re pleased to be providing a review after five years of EuroCave use (we purchased two EuroCave Performance 283 units in 2014).

At the time of purchase, we couldn’t find a lot of online information on EuroCaves. However, we’d been to Europe a few times and had seen the EuroCave in wine bars and restaurants. Their design and quietness stood out to us.

As our wine collection grew, we had to choose between storing wine in the basement at ambient temperature in our Wine Racks Americas wooden wine racks or take the plunge and purchase a large wine maturation cabinet.  Looking back, we wish we’d committed to a EuroCave much earlier!

The EuroCave Performance 259 Built-In Wine Cellar:

Who is EuroCave?

EuroCave Group is an innovative French company with over 40 years in the wine cabinet business. The EuroCave brand came into being in 1976, just after the invention of the wine cabinet in 1975. EuroCave saw that wine lovers and collectors had a desire to store wines somewhere other than an actual cave for improved storage conditions.

EuroCave Group has four brands, two of which are targeted for the home consumer:

  • EuroCave: Sold and distributed throughout Europe and globally. This brand includes wine cabinets, wine cellar conditioners, and storage systems. These units typically have 5-year warranties.

  • ArteVino: Large wine maturation cabinets sold and distributed to select large online retailers and select big-box stores in both France and the United States. These units typically have 2-year warranties.

With over 20 patents in wine cabinets, partners with a university in France on wine maturation research. They also have strong distribution in large wine consuming countries like France, United States, Australia, and Asia.

What is a EuroCave?

In the United States, people use “EuroCave” colloquially to refer to the gold standard of wine maturation cabinets. These same units can also be maintained to keep wine at serving temperature - slightly higher than during wine maturation. The temperature setting depends upon your desire - bottle aging or serving!

Physically, EuroCave wine maturation units are comprised of a cabinet body, control panel, lighting, glass door, bracing, storage shelves and racks, humidity cartridges, breathing hole, adjustable feet, temperature sensors, hygrometer, and hinges.

The EuroCave provides temperature, humidity, air circulation, vibration, and a light-controlled environment to mimic the natural cave-like environment ideal for bottle aging. Read more about the impacts on these environmental impacts in our review of the best small wine refrigerators.

The name EuroCave is typically considered a premium, long-lasting, durable goods producer. Premium durable goods for the home often contain the same components as a EuroCave: metal-versus-plastic components, luxurious look and feel, quiet operation, above-average mechanics like compressors, and seamless integration of cabinet components.  

Large EuroCave maturation cabinets like the EuroCave 283 are likely not a fit for wine collectors who have small collections under 50 bottles, who drink most of the wine that they purchase within a year, and who are living in small spaces.  The EuroCave is also not suitably installed in areas that are poorly ventilated, prone to flooding, have uneven floors, or sustain temperatures spiking above 35 C (95 F) or dipping below 12 C (54 F).  

Pros of the EuroCave Performance

  • Robust walls, wooden shelves

  • Wood-framed metal rolling racks with plastic individual bottle cradles

  • Very quiet compressor (“library quiet”)

  • Easy to make minor repairs by oneself

  • Sleek, modern look 

  • 5-year warranty

  • Less expensive than building a stone-walled cellar

Cons of the EuroCave 283

  • Difficult (not impossible) to move (they weigh over 200 pounds)

  • It’s difficult to know the exact number of wine bottles you can get in the unit due to the variability in bottle sizes common in the wine trade 

Features and Benefits of The EuroCave Performance

The EuroCave Performance  minimizes the environmental impact to wine in the six areas of concern for wine collectors (temperature, humidity, UV light, vibration, air circulation, and storage). Here’s why we love the EuroCave Performance, in relation to those areas of concern. The EuroCave Performance:

  • Maintains a constant temperature.

  • Maintains a consistent humidity level inside the chamber between 50% and 75%.

  • Uses tempered glass to protect wine from UV light.

  • Has anti-vibration technology to reduce vibration.

  • Circulates fresh air to reduce the likelihood of mold, acting as a natural cellar.

  • Convenient shelving system reduces need to move the bottles around too much.

EuroCave Temperature Setting

After using two EuroCave 283s for the past five years, we have experienced no issues with temperature fluctuation. Setting the temperature is very easy.  It is adjustable, but we leave ours set at the default temperature of 12C (54 F). 

The best way to reduce the chances of temperature fluctuation is to install the cabinet in an area that does not see a lot of temperature fluctuation. This EuroCave should reside in a space that is between 12 C and 35 C as ambient temperature.   

Of note, the EuroCaves are one-temperature cabinets.  If one chooses, they could easily convert the wine cabinet to be a wine serving cabinet, meaning one could adjust the temperature to 18 C for serving a red wine directly from it for a big party.

What ambient temperatures are required for the EuroCave?

In order for the cabinet to operate properly, the ideal ambient temperature of the room should be 12 C to 35 C.  We would not recommend installing a EuroCave in a garage in most climates due to these risks. Large appliances in extreme temperatures simply do not last very long.  

Where is the EuroCave made?

The EuroCave is made in France in two locations:  Fourmie and Pont de Chéruy.

What are EuroCave walls made of?

The EuroCave Performance 283 walls are constructed of aluminum.  Some models include a body stiffener, which is essentially a metal brace reinforcing the side walls.  

What accessories come with the EuroCave?

The Performance EuroCave comes with an open door alarm, sensor fault alarm, temperature alarm, charcoal filter alarm, digital setting and selection keys, button to adjust light mode, a humidity display, and temperature display, standby key, and hot and cold circuit indicators.

When purchasing, one has the ability to select, with some constraints, the number of rolling shelves and wooden racks.  

User instructions also came in six languages with plenty of black and white photos and descriptions of components and descriptions of what the different display items mean.

There is also a EuroCave App.  I did not choose to use the App as I already had an inventory in the CellarTracker App and like other features of CellarTracker.

What maintenance is required on the EuroCave?

The maintenance has been minimal with our two units.  

The user’s manual indicates it is important to replace the charcoal filter each year.  We have been religiously replacing this filter because did find stories in online chat rooms of users who did not change the filter only to discover that the EuroCave became moldy. Think of this filter as the lungs of the EuroCave!

One downside of these filters is their cost.  There are very few retailers who sell these universal charcoal filters in the US.  Honestly, what needs replaced each year is the charcoal in the filter. If you have the tools and access to some aquarium charcoal, you might be able to replace the charcoal within the cartridge annually.  

If you purchase a EuroCave in person or over the phone, consider asking the retailer to throw in a few of these universal filters.  Additionally, check the online prices during the winter holidays and stock up to save.  

Once a week we check the temperature and humidity in our caves.  We live in North Carolina, where low humidity is only a problem in January or February.  There is a tray at the bottom of the unit within which water can be added to increase relative humidity.  You can add about two ounces of water a day until the humidity rises to 60 to 70%.

If the interior humidity of the EuroCave becomes too high (maybe you accidentally added too much water to this tray or the room the EuroCave is in has become humid), you can temporarily insert some fragrance free DampRid into the unit to correct the humidity, preventing mold from growing in the cave and the wine labels from getting too moist. 

During our five years of ownership, the only non-scheduled maintenance issue we’ve had on our Performance EuroCaves was the replacement of a control module as the LED lights were not fully functioning.  The EuroCave continued to function but the lights were dim. EuroCave customer support was great. They explained the repair process and offered to send a repair person out, but since we are somewhat handy, they shipped us the part for free with instructions and a voucher for a future purchase at a wine retailer.  The repair was as straightforward as they described. The EuroCaves have functioned flawlessly since.

How do I tighten a EuroCave Shelf?

One common “newbie” compliant on the EuroCave shelving is that, once the unit is fully loaded, the rolling trays don’t move as smoothly as they did when the cabinet was empty. The weight of the bottles can put a shelf out of alignment due to settling.  

To fix this problem (which has happened to us only twice), simply remove the bottles from the offending shelf and tighten the screws. This task was fairly straightforward and required only a screwdriver.

How to conserve energy with the EuroCave?

Single temperature units are the most energy-efficient if you are waffling between a single temp and dual temp unit.

To maintain the lowest energy consumption (0.8 kWh per day), minimize the amount of time the door is open.  Keep the cabinet in an area in the middle of the allowable temperature range (12C to 35 C) and check that the door seal is making a tight seal and is in good condition.

At what temperature should the EuroCave be maintained?

If your intention is to store wine in the EuroCave like one would in a cellar for 2 - 20+ years, then set the temperature between 10 and 14 C (maturing temperature).

If your intention is to use the EuroCave as storage of red wines for consumption within 2 years or so, then you can set the temperature from 16 to 20 C (serving temperature). 

We personally keep our cellar at 12 C (54 F) ideal for cellaring a wide range of wines. 

How to Arrange Bottles in a EuroCave Wine Cooler

As with all wine coolers, getting a precise bottle count per cabinet is a difficult task!  This requires some strategy to maximize all that precious cellar space.

With our two units, I took this approach: I dedicated one cabinet to white wines and “all others” and the other cabinet to Bordeaux / Napa.  In the “white + other” cabinet, I assigned Riesling bottles to the top half of the cabinet (the flute bottle shape is long and narrow) and Burgundy-style bottles to the bottom half of the cabinet.  The “Bordeaux/Napa” cabinet holds fewer bottles due to the nesting ability of Bordeaux style bottles.  

Of course, another approach might be warranted for your wine collection.  Our suggestion is simply not to mix all the bottles as it will make it difficult to find the bottles you are looking for!

EuroCave Performance Alternatives

So, you like what you’ve read about the EuroCave 283 Performance. However, you are looking for other cabinets in the EuroCave family at a lower price point. Consider this high-quality alternative:

Why Invest in a EuroCave Wine Cooler?

After living with two EuroCave Performance Wine Coolers for five years, we would still make the same purchase.  They are true “library quiet” and require little maintenance. Maintenance includes replacing a simple filter once per year and visually checking the cabinets about once per week to monitor for humidity or temperature change.  As with any large appliance, wiping down the unit with warm water for cleanliness and vacuuming the coils to reduce dust build-up will extend the life and maintain performance. The units are sleek and attractive. After a small learning curve, adjusting the racks and tightening the rolling trays is easy for even the most non-mechanical person.  

We hope you find just the right wine cellar for your wine storage needs.

Cheers!

Over 50 Gifts for Wine Lovers

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Autumn is coming to a close, and that means that we’re on the fast track to fall and winter festivity. So, in preparation for the 2020 holiday season, we’ve rounded up the best wine gifts for the wine connoisseurs, wine enthusiasts, and sommeliers on your gift list.

You won’t find trendy trinkets, wine t-shirts, or silly slogans on this list. Instead, you’ll find timeless items that wine lovers will truly love (and that we have personally used - and loved! - ourselves).

Use the links below to search by category:

Wine Preservation Gifts

Coravin Model Eleven Fully Automatic Wine Preservation System 

This is the ultimate gift for the wine collector who has been coveting the Coravin, has a passion for all things wireless, and is a total gadget fanatic.  Enjoy wine by the glass without removing the cork! This bundle also has accessories for screw-cap wines.  

Coravin Model 2 Premium Wine Preservation System

Know a wine lover who has everything, but still want to be able to pay you rent after you buy their present? Here’s the Model Eleven’s little sister, the Model 2.  Enjoy wine by the glass without removing the cork, and without all the frills of the Model Eleven.  

Eurocave WineArt Preservation System

This attractive wine preservation system is ideal for the wine connoisseur who opens one or two bottles a week and intends to consume the wine in under seven days. This system is designed to sit on countertops and fits under most cabinetry, helping to eliminate the risk of partially consumed wine bottles being hidden in the refrigerator and forgotten.  

Wine Saver Vacuum Pump Preserver

Great for the wine enthusiast on a limited budget, with limited space for bulky wine preservation systems. This system stores nicely in a kitchen drawer and is also good for holidays when many bottles may be partially consumed.

Wine Folly Champagne Stopper Made in Italy

Can’t finish that bottle of bubbly in one evening?  No worries, use this heavy made-in-Italy Champagne stopper, refrigerate it, and you’ll still have fizz two days later (or more)! Works for other sparkling wines as well and is a thoughtful gift for Mimosa lovers.

Repour Wine Saver - Wine Saver, Stopper

Don’t care for all the gadgets, and simply want a good stopper? This Repour Wine Saver, used by a growing number of wine bars, is good if you want to minimize oxidation and plan to finish that bottle in three or more days.  

In-Home Wine Dispenser - Just Like Wine Bars

Now you can have the look and ease of a fine wine bar in the comfort of your home. For that partner that sees an Enomatic at the wine bar and wants to take it home, here’s the solution!

Wine Storage Gifts

Best Large Wine Cabinet

Check out our review on living with a Eurocave wine cabinet for over five years (coming soon!).  We personally own a Eurocave 283, but also love the Artevino, which is a little smaller, storing approximately 200 bottles.

Best Small Wine Refrigerator

Check out our review on the best small wine refrigerators , and see our top pick here:

Made in America Wine Racks

Already have a cool, dark place to store wine?  Here’s our favorite wood wine rack by Wine Racks America. Store 72 wines in your closet, basement or wine cave.

Metal Wall Wine Rack

No cellar? No problem. Display a few wines you will consume in the coming weeks right on your wall.  Good gift for wine lovers in townhomes and apartments.

Wine Glassware Gifts

Gabriel Gold Glas Universal Wine Glass

Check out our Gabriel Glas Gold article for a full review.  This is our favorite feather-light go-to glass.

Zalto Universal Glass

Ideal for those who love the thought of fine rimmed bows and delicate stemware, but want a more robust feel in their hands without sacrificing a great bowl.  

Gabriel Glas Decanter

We just love the look and feel of this mouth-blown, Austrian crystal, lead-free decanter. It is easier to clean than some other artistic decanters on the market.

Everyday Decanter - Le Chateau Wine Decanter

This lead-free crystal decanter is a good step up from big-box store decanters. Price point is good for home parties where one mis-step could lead to broken glassware on your floor or in your sink. 

Wine Service Gifts

Waterford Crystal Wine Bottle Coaster

This is a nice gift for anyone wanting to own one piece of Waterford. It adds a splash of elegance, and is a good paperweight when not holding a bottle of wine.

Stainless Steel Wine Bottle Coaster 4-pack

We use these frequently in North Carolina when cool white wines start to sweat after being removed from the refrigerator. Keep your table looking nice with this coaster 4-pack.

Champagne Wine Bucket with Stand

Regardless of your wine preference, this bucket and stand pair is great for keeping sparkling and white wines (as well as craft beer bombers) cool on hot summer evenings. With a combined weight of 6 pounds, it can prop open patio doors, and with its stainless steel construction, if you accidentally leave it outside overnight it will not rust. Instead, it becomes the Best. Birdbath. Ever.

Vacu-Vin Wine and Champagne Cooler  

No space for a Champagne wine bucket? No problem. These re-usable and foldable wine sleeves cool down warm wines quickly. Simply store them in the freezer between uses.

American Metalcraft Wine Service Tray

These stainless serving trays can be used to transport wine bottles and glassware, as well as food between tables or food stations.  

Serviette (aka White Cloth Restaurant Napkin)

Sommeliers use these simple white cloths to cover the service tray (to prevent bottle and glassware slippage while walking) as well as to wipe bottles and stop drips during pouring.  

Wine Tasting Gifts

KnowWines Wine Tasting Class

Get a group together and organize a wine tasting to explore new tastes as well as build community. Contact us for an in-person class.  We can customize classes to fit your needs.

Not in North Carolina? No problem. Contact your local wine bottle shop or wine bar to see if they offer classes on site or can send someone (and some wines!) to your home.

Wine Tasting Grid Mat

Setting up your own wine tasting?  These wine tasting grids double as placemats.  Also check out our blog on how to do a wine tasting in your home.

Blind Tasting Wines

This wine subscription aims to present to you wines to explore with their identities covered.  Taste with friends or family and see who guesses the best. Once you unveil the wine, you can learn more about it in enclosed envelope.

Wine Glass Cleaning Supply Gifts

So your wine loving friend already has a kitchen or dining room full of wine accessories.  For the neat-nik in your life, a thoughtful collection of cleaning supplies in a gift basket might do the trick.

Riedel Microfiber Polishing Cloth

After five years of home glass-polishing use, ours are still going strong. 

Crystal Glass Cleaning Sponge with Handle

There are so many different types of glass cleaning sponges on the market. What makes this one stand out is the scratch/free brush and the bamboo handle that allows you to stand it up to dry. 

Polident

Can’t get that red wine stain out of glassware? Let it soak overnight with Polident.

Decanter Cleaning Brush and Beads

Decanter brushes and beads get in all the nooks and crannies where typical brushes cannot go.  

Decanter Stand

Once your decanter is washed, it can be dried and stored on this decanter stand with rubberized ring that prevents scratching of the decanter neck and body.

Wine Travel Gifts

North Carolina Wine Trails

Plan a weekend getaway exploring North Carolina’s gorgeous wine trails.

Napa and Sonoma

Plan the ultimate West Coast wine adventure using our detailed guide to Napa and Sonoma.

Bordeaux

Treat yourself to a beautiful trip in Bordeaux with our guide for women traveling solo in that region.

Rhone

Become a Rhone Ranger and gift your partner a journey to this beautiful, rustic region.

Virginia

Virginia is for lovers! So what could be more romantic than a Virginia wine trip for two?

Wine Gift Bags

Two Wine Carrying Bag

Read our blog reusable wine bags for more ideas in this category. (But, spoiler alert: this is our top pick!):

Wine suitcase

Traveling to wine country and need to bring back bottles in checked luggage? Check out our blog to learn more about traveling with and packing wine. And for your gifting needs, here’s our favorite wine luggage:

Wine Bag for Wine Sales Person

Have a friend or family member in the wine business who could use a high quality bag for carrying samples?  This is the wine bag we personally use when teaching wine classes.  

Wine Stocking Stuffers

Wine Stain Remover

If you happen to spill some wine on your clothes, the carpet, or your friend’s jacket, this Made-in-Texas product really does work on fresh wine spills!  It is available in a 4.8-ounce bottle for home use and single-use packages for dining out and travel.

Wine Opener

Check out our review of wine openers.  Here’s our top pick for gift giving, for quick reference:

Wine Charms

In 2019 we reviewed wine charms. One of our favorites, Simply Charmed, also makes holiday-themed magnetic wine charms:

Yeti wine tumbler

Whether you need to keep wine cool in the summer or your gluhwine warm during the holidays, we found this excellent Yeti tumbler can meet both needs.  

Free and Low Cost Wine Gifts

Subscription to a Wine Podcast

Have a friend who doesn’t know how to download wine podcasts?  Spend an hour at a wine bar with them and get them set up! Some of our favorite wine podcasts are Wine for Normal People, Vinepair, and Guild of Sommeliers.

Wine Games

Download some FREE wine word search games to alleviate cabin fever or to pass time in the car or airport!

Wine Tasting

Learn about local wine tasting events, both free and with fees, through this great site.

Wine Magazine Subscriptions

Decanter

This leading wine magazine from the UK offers a European perspective on wines and is often regarded as the world’s leading magazine on wines. The magazine covers many areas, including vintages, winemakers, destinations, farming practices, and industry news, as well as wine ratings.  

Wine Spectator

The leading wine lifestyle magazine in the United States with a US consumer focus. Short stories and features on winemakers, wine regions, and wine collectors. Also includes wine reviews.  

Wine Spectator
Shanken Communications
Buy on Amazon

Wine Gift Books

Snob-Free Wine Book 

By podcaster and Raleigh, NC resident Elisabeth Schneider, this book is great for GenXers and your favorite sceptic.

New Wine Book

The perfect wine book for a visual learner.

Becoming a Sommelier

Go behind the scenes with Somm Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking With Men: A Memior.

World Atlas of Wine 8th Edition

Just in time for the holidays, an update to the beloved Wine Atlas. 230 maps!

And that’s a (gift) wrap!

We look forward to adding to the 50+ items on this list as new, high-quality products become available. What will you be gifting to that special wine lover in your life this season? Let us know in the comment section below!

And yes, several of these links are affiliate links.  What that means is that we get a small commission from some sellers at no additional cost to you.  These commissions allow us to buy and try products and give you some insight on these products from the perspective of a fellow wine lover.  

Happy shopping!