wine

Kitchen gadgets are often designed to do one thing and do it well (hopefully). Sometimes, however, that is simply not enough. Rather than use one gadget to do one thing and another gadget to do another, sometimes it's nice if all you need can be found in one place. Especially when the good times are waiting.

Standing by at the ready, the Waring WC400 Professional Wine Center comes in handy at the beginning of the night, the end, or both. Consolidated into one convenient unit are a wine opener and a wine preserver. Included along with the base display … Read more

Opening a second bottle of wine takes careful consideration. Not surprisingly, these considerations can be somewhat clouded. We are talking about another bottle of wine, after all. Yet, despite these hesitations that commonly vex oenophiles, the real question isn't whether to open the bottle, but what to do with it after.

The Summit Appliance STC1 Thermoelectric 8-Bottle Wine Cooler stores either open or closed bottles of wine. The impressive display is wider than it is tall, with the tops of bottles exposed, allowing room for corks or other wine sealing solutions. A large front-viewing window and LED lighting add … Read more

Cluttered kitchen countertops don't exactly scream out for new gadgetry. Even when the learning curve is small, space may simply be an issue. So when an interesting appliance comes along, sometimes it can fall upon deaf ears. Change it up and make it into a form factor that can be held in the hand and suddenly people might start to listen.

For many, the concept of a vacuum sealer is sound, but the space the large, blocky appliance normally requires makes it a no-go. The Caso Hand Held Vacuum Sealer features a rechargeable battery and cordless operation. Docking into … Read more

There are seemingly endless varieties of wine. Before one even considers the distinctions between red and white, the maze of choices that are available in just one branch can be dizzying. (In a good way.) But when it comes time to choose what to open, sometimes that can be the easiest part. The answer is yes.

The Vinotemp VT-100WINEDISP4 Dual-Zone Wine Dispenser and Cooler supplies room for up to four bottles to be dispensed at a time. After opening, wine is kept drinkable through the use of argon or nitrogen and a refillable gas system. The stopper and dispenser parts … Read more

Red Wine Audio makes some of my all-time favorite headphone amplifiers, but they're pretty expensive. The Isabellina HPA LFP-V Edition, for example, runs $2,500; it was designed and built in Vinnie Rossi's small factory in Durham, Conn. The Isabellina is more than just a headphone amp, it features a spectacularly good digital-to-analog converter and a hybrid transistor/vacuum tube audio amplifier. While the amp can be run off an AC power outlet, it sounds best powered by its built-in 25.6 volt Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack. The battery can play for up to 10 hours, and … Read more

Wine and good times go hand in hand, but where else can wine go?

The pairing of food with wine can be as simple or as complicated as need be. Sticking to the old rule of thumb that says to serve red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat is usually a pretty safe bet, but there is a third factor to consider and that would be the company; wine always tastes better when shared among friends.

What could be better than good friends and a bottle of wine? Good friends and six bottles of wine, of … Read more

Food (and wine) storage requires a commitment. The big appliances that house our food and drink often do so with little regard for their surroundings. Considering that these appliances dominate the kitchen landscape, it should be easy to make them act and look like we want them too. The Thermador 2012 Freedom Collection would agree.

The ability to customize the kitchen according to how we see fit is an achievable goal thanks to the modular styling of the collection. The built-in appliances include customizable refrigerators, freezers, and wine-storage units with a host of improvements that have been applied to the … Read more

Who the heck wants to shop for wine on their mobile phone? All the pinch zooming, typing "Domaine de la Vougeraie Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru" and then having it autocorrected... ugh.

But today I have been converted. Now I think shopping for wine on your smartphone isn't such a bad idea. In fact, it will help Wine.com, an online wine retailer, close the nine percent of shoppers that log onto its website with their smartphones. Now there's a chance they'll actually make a purchase, thanks to Wine.com's just-launched and fully functional mobile website. … Read more

When you go wine tasting--which is compulsory if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area--sometimes the very same wines don't taste the same at home.

Perhaps the winery has slipped you an old bottle containing new wine. Perhaps you're just a little more sober at home. But it could be all down to the music that happens to be playing.

It might sound odd. However, professor Adrian North of Herriot-Watt University in Scotland had his suspicions, so he created an experiment to see if music influences a drinker's perception of the wine.

Published by the British Psychological Society, … Read more