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We are here today at Huber Orchid And Winery in Starlight, Indiana taking a look at the [UNKNOWN] smart wine bottle.
This is how it works.
You order each cartridge through [UNKNOWN] which is partnered with about fourteen California winerys so far.
The [UNKNOWN] bottle fits over the aluminum cartridges And activates the valves in the neck of each cartridge, but only when you tilt it to pour.
That way, though normally you'd be exposing the wine to air and it would start oxidizing in the bottle, with Kuvée it doesn't.
Thus, the wine degrades over 30 days rather than the typical two or three.
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It's a cool concept, and from a tech journalist's perspective it works decently well.
But I'm no sommelier, so we came here to get an expert's opinion on how well this thing actually extends the life of an open wine bottle, and to see how well they do in a blind taste test.
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Do you want to talk a little bit about what oxidation means?
For wine.
For us in the wine making feel like oxygen is kind of the enemy of wine.
We want as little oxidation during aging as possible so we have to preserve the character of the wine and the flavors.
So essentially what we're gonna be doing here is taking you over to a table and doing a taste test if you're okay with that, and basically taking a look at this device that helps avoid oxidation for wine
After they've been opened.
Do you think you'd be up for that?
I'll do my best.
Alright, essentially what we've got is three wines here.
They're all the same.
Same vintage and everything.
This right here is a newly opened bottle, and then these two are both three days old.
But you don't which one has been preserved and which on hasn't.
Okay.
If you want to start off you can just
Try that one and talk a little bit about the tasting as you do it.
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It's very nice, it's full bodied, has good structure.
It's a very nice bottle of wine.
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So if you had to guess between these two over here, which one was which?
What would you think?
The number two is the preservation system and the number one is the bottle that's been opened for three days.
So you think that number two is closer to a just opened bottle of wine?
Okay, so number one is actually the preservation system.
Nice.
[LAUGH]
[LAUGH]
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You can see the color and the aroma of number two are somewhat more muted, and you get more of the oak, and not as much of the fresh fruit.
How do both of them compare to the freshly opened bottle?
The aroma is just a little bit more fresh in number one then number two compared to the freshly opened bottle.
Of course the freshly opened bottle, in my opinion better than either one of the other ones.
At the end of the day, the cuvée bottle retains some of the flavors and the aroma of the wine better.
But the other bottle retained other flavors better.
So, neither one really lived up to the newly opened bottle of chardonnay.
So, right now, for me, I'd have to pass on this product until the message of preservation improves.
For the people at Hubert's who hosted us and participated in our blind taste test we would like to give you a big thank you.