With a boozy family Christmas in store, this seemed like the ideal time to try my new home bar gadget; the acclaimed Winewizard. Supported by the likes of Dmitri Perlutchi, Head Sommelier at Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Group, the device is said to not only tremendously improve the flavour of wine but also reduce the perils of the post-wine hangover, the holy grail to wine-o’s like myself.

The patented new technology aims to replicate the aging and decanting process of wine in just two seconds ultimately improving the taste of wine almost instantly. Opening a bottle of Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon, the bottle at hand seemed unusually acidic, so this seemed like the perfect time to open the Winewizard and give it a crack. Beautifully presented in a black windowed box, nestled into a bed of tissue paper, visually the contraction makes a brilliant present to gift to that wine lover in your life.

Consisting of the core Winewizard canister, a velvet bag with a connecting tube to bridge between wine and cannister and an extensive list of instructions both on the inside of the box and a laminated sheet, it’s a simple enough device to work. Taking a glass of wine out of the bottle as per the instructions, we all had a swig of the untreated wine for reference before putting the nozzle into the glass and whizzing up for a couple of seconds. I have to say the difference was really quite incredible. Most prominently the high acidity level which had originally disappointed us had dropped tremendously, resulting in a far more balanced drink with a clearer taste of the wine’s nuanced flavours and complexities. It really did taste like a completely different bottle.

Utterly impressed with how the first glass turned out we turned to the full bottle. My dad got a bit overexcited and forgot the part of the instructions that said to squeeze gently. This resulted in a hilarious but inconvenient explosive burst out of red wine (luckily not on anything that would be stained). After killing ourselves laughing he returned with a softer touch and finished with the bottle, minus the theatrics, and the Winewizard had an equally transformative effect on the remainder of the bottle. Having a somewhat restrained Christmas this year I didn’t have the opportunity to explore the other main product claim; the reduction and severity of dreaded wine-overs, but the science seems to be there. The product neutralises sulphites, which are added to wine and are a renowned cause of headache-inducing hangovers, so drinkers are much less likely to experience the nasty sulphite-induced effects of hangovers.

Wine aeration devices have been available for some time but have merely looked to mimic the effect of decanting. The Winewizard replicates the decanting process instantly and far more effectively than its predecessors and rather more remarkably, it’s the first-ever device to successfully replicate and accelerate the effect of traditionally bottle-ageing a wine.

For more information and to get your hands on the Winewizard visit www.vinalchemy.com 
Price: £49.95

Written by Jordan Crowley

Photo courtesy of Winewizard