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Air Cork keeps your wine fresh – using a balloon

Air Cork keeps your wine fresh – using a balloon
The Air Cork is a device that keeps wine fresh by sealing it with a balloon-like bladder
The Air Cork is a device that keeps wine fresh by sealing it with a balloon-like bladder
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The Air Cork is a device that keeps wine fresh by sealing it with a balloon-like bladder
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The Air Cork is a device that keeps wine fresh by sealing it with a balloon-like bladder
The latex used for the bladder meets U.S. FDA standards for food contact, and is said not to affect the taste of the wine
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The latex used for the bladder meets U.S. FDA standards for food contact, and is said not to affect the taste of the wine
The bladder can be deflated via a release valve on the pump
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The bladder can be deflated via a release valve on the pump
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When it comes to resealing an opened bottle of wine, most people either use the cork that the bottle came with, or a hand-pumped vacuum stopper. Now, however, there’s another option – it’s called the Air Cork, although we also kind of like its previous name, the Wine Balloon.

The Air Cork consists of an inflatable latex bladder, attached by a hose to a squeezable hand pump. To use it, you lower the bladder into the bottle until it touches the surface of the wine, then pump it up until it seals against the insides of the bottle. It should remain sufficiently inflated for about three days, although you can just give it a few more top-up squeezes at that point, if you wish to keep the wine for longer.

The bladder can be deflated via a release valve on the pump
The bladder can be deflated via a release valve on the pump

When you do want to finish off the bottle, you deflate the bladder via a release valve on the pump, then pull it out and rinse it off. The latex used for that bladder meets U.S. FDA standards for food contact, and is said not to affect the taste of the wine.

The device’s big reported advantage over a cork is the fact that the wine remains completely sealed against the bladder, not coming into contact with air trapped inside the bottle. While vacuum stoppers work by removing that air, the makers of the Air Cork claim that some of the wine’s aromatics also get pumped out in the air-removal process.

The Air Cork is available now, for US$23.95. You can see it being demonstrated in the video below.

Source: Air Cork via 7 Gadgets

Air Cork 30 second demonstration.wmv

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5 comments
5 comments
Tony Smale
I saw this on the pilot episode of invention hunters in October 2011. I'm surprised it took this long to market.
Gadgeteer
Seems to me a simpler and less expensive solution would be to store the wine in a flexible polyethylene bladder inside each bottle. As wine is poured out, the bladder shrinks but still maintains an oxygen barrier against the air introduced into the bottle, keeping the wine fresh. That would cost only a few pennies per bottle and you wouldn't have to worry about residual taste from one wine contaminating the next bottle since you wouldn't be transferring any devices between bottles.
Doug MacLeod
Ha ha ha! The thing looks like some bizarre sex toy!
We have a simpler solution in my house, we just drink it all.
Martin Gough
So, how do you sterilise it between bottles, because if you don't you are going to transfer bacteria and fungi and the wine will go off faster than if you just put the cork in or the screwtop back on.
esar
How about a c02 canister that forces out the wine on demand - no oxygen to worry about !!