"Plain Jane"
Wine? Poof! Now, You are a "Miss
They
call it the Bev Wiz, I call
it the Wine Wiz. It sounds like a Scam. It is almost like offering someone
a special nozzle to fit on your water hose, and out comes gasoline to pour
into your auto gas tank. Wouldn't that be great !!??
In
this case, it's a simple pour-spout gizmo that claims to take the edge off
cheap wine — with magnets.
The
secret of this device is powerful magnets that are molded into the plastic
sleeve of the BevWizard. Magnets,
that can change the molecular structure of a wine's tannins. Tannins
structure the wine, and their natural astringency is a very important aspect of
how a wine feels in the mouth and how it finishes. Though they're said to have
no taste, tannins seem to greatly affect flavor; they can, for example,
contribute a sensation of bitterness, pleasing or not, to the wine.
Most wines with a lot of tannins feel more tannic in their youth, but tend to
soften with age because with time, the tannin molecules bind with each other
for a softer, more burnished mouth feel. This gizmo accelerates that
process dramatically. The magnet encourages the binding process and wines taste
softer.
With
the volume of less prestigious wine available from
POOF!
YOU'RE NOW A RICH AND SILKY WINE
A
novel device claims to smooth out the rough edges of a young pour.
By
Patrick Comiskey
Special
to The Times
Wish
your Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw Wine that sells for $1.99, and tastes
like wine 5 times as costly, Chuck meaning Charles, and $1.99, very close to
$2, or Two Bucks) were just a little smoother? Now, as crazy as it sounds,
there's a simple pour-spout gizmo that claims to take the edge off cheap wine —
with magnets. The gadget, available in wine shops and online
for about $30, is making waves — and raising some eyebrows — in the
wine world.
When you place the BevWizard, as inventor Patrick
Farrell has named it, on the business end of a wine bottle and pour through it,
the wine becomes rounder, softer and less tannic, as if by some miracle someone
has taken a power sander and smoothed out the rough edges of the wine. In
certain wines, the effect can be dramatic.
When
we were finished with the whites, Farrell opened a Washington Cabernet, and
asked us to pour a taste. Then he pulled out his gizmo, pressed it down on the
neck of the same bottle, and instructed us to pour another taste through the
device into another glass.
Farrell then asked us to try them. The first glass tasted like the decent,
four-square Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon it was, picked up by Farrell
for about $14 on the way over. It had good blackberry fruit and tannins that
were substantial, mildly astringent, slightly harsh and a bit clunky.