Happy Hour Thursday Sale

Happy Hour Thursday is Here! This special sale runs from 4 pm to 7pm today only. So here’s the special, all Laguiole Corkscrews are marked down a whopping 20%. All you need to do is come back and visit us between 4pm and 7pm to get the coupon code. So this is your chance to get a high quality Laguiole Corkscrew at a great discount but remember the sale ends at 7pm today. There’s no time to wait any longer buy your gifts now at a great price. Limit 2 Laguiole corkscrews per customer. Free Shipping does not apply to happy hour sales.

Happy Hour Thursday Sale

Come visit Twisted Corkscrew for our 1st Happy Hour Thursday sale.  It starts at 4pm on Thursday Aug 25th and ends at 7pm.  This is a 3 hour sale only.  I promise you won't be disappointed,  Go to our home page at Twisted News to find out all about the sale.  Remember it starts a 4pm and ends at 7pm, so be sure to check it out.

Weekend Sale

Twisted Corkscrew is hosting a Wacky Weekend Whale of a Sale form Friday 8-19-2011 to Sunday 8-22-2011.  All the Decorative Metal Wine Bottle Holders are being discounted an additional 7% by just using this coupon code (wbh525).  All you need to do is enter this code in the coupon box during checkout or in the floating shopping cart and you will receive the 7% discount.
     These decorative metal wine bottle holders from Berkeley Designs are unique, fun and priced to sell.  The metal character wine bottle holders are our newest top selling product.  These are great gift items, and noe is the perfect time to buy before the rush begins.  So visit Twisted Corkscrew and checkout all the different character wine holders we carry.  Visit often because we are getting new stock all of the time.  Keep up to date on our sales promos and new products by reading The Twisted News and our Product Reviews on the home page.

Twisted Tuesday Sale

Twisted Corkscrews 1^st  Twisted Tuesdays sale starts now and is offering the Artful Winemaker Deluxe kit for a super low price of $98.00 including free shipping.  This offer is available today only until supplies are depleted.  Normally priced at $159.99, so take a look at one of the most innovative products on the market today for personal wine making is the Artful Winemaker Deluxe system.    Each all inclusive Artful winemaker package includes: instructional DVD, premium wine refill kit your choice, 12 bottles, toppers (corks), closures (bottle dressing), funnel, spoon, adhesive thermometer and ingredient packets.

Look for Twisted Tuesday Sale on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. One item will be on sale at a super low discounted price until the supply is depleted. So look early and buy before our supply runs out. Visit us on our first Twisted Tuesdays Sale (Aug 16th) to find out about the special.  


Get more information about Twisted Tuesday Sale by visiting our Twisted Corkscrew Home page and read the Twisted News section.


Remember Twisted Tuesday Sale happens the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month.

Wine Aerators - How They Work or Do They Work?

Experts say your wine needs to breathe and for most red wines and some white wines that’s true.  All wines have some tannins but more so in red wines especially noticeable in young red wines.  In an older red wine the tannins will soften whereas in young wines the tannins are strong and may give the wine a harsh taste.  

Let’s talk about red wine aerators first.    Red wine aerators do make a noticeable difference in the wine in that it will smooth out the harsh tannins and improve the taste.  I have personally done taste test with the Vinturi and Franmara aerators and they work well but do I use the aerator with every bottle of red wine, no I don’t.  Wine drinkers all have different pallets and taste buds so what I perceive to be too tannic may be just perfect for someone else.  That’s why I always taste the wine first to see if it is pleasant and smooth tasting to me.  If I feel it has a harsh or biting taste I will the use my Vinturi aerator to smooth out the tannic taste.  It’s about your taste and what you prefer but I recommend red wine drinkers buy an aerator to have on hand when you feel the wine does not meet your taste pallet. 

What about white wine aerators, do you really need to aerate white wine.

I drink more red wine than white but I do like some whites.  If you prefer white wines and like a bold full bodied white like Chardonnay or Viognier then a white wine aerator might be worthwhile.  This again depends on you taste preferences.

I like the crisp taste of Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, which are light and medium bodied.  I don’t believe aerating a light or medium body white wine is worthwhile for me. 

What is the difference in the red and white wine aerators?  Can one work on both red and white?  I tried using a red wine aerator to aerate white wine (Sauvignon Blanc) but I couldn’t distinguish any difference even when I ran it through a 2^nd time.  I’m not a Sommelier so I may not be the best person to make this determination and I also used a red wine aerator but I would think that would make a more decisive change.  The question is how many wine drinkers have the taste buds of a Sommelier my guess is not very many.  So if you are the average person drinking white wine unless it’s Chardonnay, you probably won’t benefit as much buying a white wine aerator as you would buying a red wine aerator.

Can you over aerate?  Absolutely, try leaving a bottle out all night without preserving it.  It is exposed to the air, which will aerate it all night long but it will be flat in the morning.  The Vinturi , Franmara, Soiree, Selection decanting pourer and other aerators will not over aerate your wine.  Some are more aggressive aerators (Franmara) than others but all of them perform the worthy task of improving the wine to match your taste.

What about decanting wine?  Decanting is a perfectly acceptable to aerate wine but it takes longer (up to an hour for bold reds) and doesn’t have a cool sound like the Vinturi.  Decanters can be are very elegant looking and make a great presentation but we will talk about decanters in another article.

Bottom line is that the more tannin in the wine the more benefit you will receive with aerating the wine.
Visit Twisted Corkscrew for all your wine accessory needs.

Wine Bottle Holders Styles, Types and Function

So let’s say you want to display a special bottle of wine but you want to do it in a unique way, something that suits your style or personality.  Well, that’s easy get a wine bottle holder. That was the easy part now you just need to decide on what type and style of holder.  The styles and varieties are almost endless.  Let me put this into the following categories:

Resin wine bottle holders are funny quirky characters, professions, animals and more.  These quality resin wine holders are painted multi colors and hold a wine bottle, usually with a topper and sometimes wine glasses.  I must not forget to mention the shoe wine bottle holders specifically the high heel wine bottle holder, which are extremely popular with the ladies for obvious reasons.  Display your favorite wine in one of the stylish high heels and you will get lots of smiles.   These resin holders are a great way to display your wine in a fun and kooky way for only about $30 to $40.

Molded plastic wine bottle holders come in similar styles as the resin holders but they cost about the same and don’t present as nice a display as the resin holders.  The upside is they won’t break if you drop them.

Metal Wine Bottle Holder or Caddies also come in fun and crazy characters and are another great way of displaying wine with a funky kind of flair.  These metal wine bottle holders come in polished, unpolished and painted metal and the prices vary greatly depending on the manufacturer.  Prices can range from $20 (unpolished) to over $80 for some highly polished versions.  It ‘s up to you how much you want to spend on wine art.  Whatever you decide these decorative wine caddies are another great choice to display your personality and favorite wine.

Balancing Type Wine Bottle Stands give a magical illusion that’s initially eye catching because it doesn’t look like it’s possible.  A number of these are made of wood like the golf club or curved wood stand but there is also a magic metal chain holder, which is very unique.  These are a fun and inexpensive way to display your wine.

There are a lot of choices available and I’m sure some at a price that will fit you budget.  Visit Twisted Corkscrew to see our selection of wine holders.

Wine preservation tools – Why are they needed and which one is right for me?

If you are a frequent wine drinker you are probably aware that air will deteriorate the quality of the wine.  Leaving a bottle sit out open over night will change the taste and not in a good way. So wine preservation is needed to preserve the partially consumed bottle until a later date.

Wine preservation pumps are the least expensive way to preserve wine and they work well if you drink the preserved wine within a week.  These pumps suck the air out of the bottle but the number of times you need to pump to properly preserve the wine depends on how much wine is left in the bottle.  You will feel a difference when pumping the air out of the bottle, each pump will get harder but it’s a judgment call to know when you have removed the air from the bottle.  Better to error on the high side when pumping, as I said you can feel the difference.  The pump comes with a rubber stopper, which stays in the bottle.  When you’re ready to drink the wine, remove the stopper by pushing the button or squeezing the stopper to release the pressure.   There are many different manufacturers of these wine preservation pumps with varying prices but they all work basically the same.

Another style that works the same as those I just described is the Metrokane Gauge Wine preserver.  The difference being the stopper has a gauge and tells you when you've pumped enough vacuum to preserve the wine. In this way you can be assured that the wine is preserved but also you can check the bottle days later to see if the gauge still shows the wine preserved.  You are not able to do this with the wine pumps previously described.

I have used both the pump with the gauge and the pump without the gauge and both work well, but I usually drink the preserved wine with in a day or two but as long as the vacuum holds you should be able to store it longer without any problem. 

Suppose you decanted your wine and you have some left over, well you can pour to back in the bottle with a funnel although that could get messy.  Well, Metrokane has come up with the Metrokane V1 Wine Preserver Decanter, which comes with a pump and a gauged stopper specifically designed for their decanter.  This actually is a very good idea.  It works in the same manner as any of the preservation pumps.

Another method of preserving is by adding harmless inert gas to bottle just as Vintners does with wine barrels. Inert gas is added to the bottle to displace oxygen, the same oxygen that causes wine to spoil.  You have the option of buying a can of inert gas that comes with a straw that you can spray into the partial full bottle of wine then immediately recap the wine.  If you intend to recap the wine a second time you will need to repeat the process.  This will preserve the wine much longer than the preservation pumps.  It’s advertised that a can should last 80 to 100 applications. I don’t know call me crazy but that sounds like a lot but even if it’s half that it’s still worthwhile.

Wine Keeper Wine Preservation system is another option for preserving your wine.  This is a more expensive option but on the home system a gas canister will preserve up to 25 wine bottles.  You can also buy a manifold kit that will preserve 3 bottles at one time this allows you to preserve multiple bottles of wine.  This system has a faucet or tap, which dispenses the wine, very convenient.  This is the same system restaurants and bars use but on a much smaller scale.  Avid wine lovers would find this system very beneficial.

There are a number of different tools for wine preservation to protect the quality of your wine with a wide price range.  You just need to see which ones right for you and your budget.  The thing to remember is if you don’t preserve your left over wine you won’t enjoy it later.