Pumping

I was recently given a rather strange contraption. It's a tall device with small rubber stopper shaped accessories, a vacuum pump for wine.

The idea is that you pump out all of the air from a partially finished bottle (not many of those in my house) to keep if from turning into another Sunday roast gravy ingredient.

I found that expelling the air makes you feel a little uneasy, a sort of eye watering malaise of uncertainty as to whether the bottle will implode in defiance. To my dismay, after blindly believing the marketing hype, I have just found out that this is not the best way to keep wine fresh. You are better off replacing the cork and putting the wine in the fridge, remembering to remove the wine early to warm if it is red.

The main benefits of using the pump appear to be an imperceptibly more toned right arm and a nice popping sound when the plastic stopper is removed on drinking.