Pek Preservino Hand Held Wine Preserver

I love how well this system works! I've been using one for three months and recently bought another for a friend. I have opened a "saved" bottle a week after using the PEK system and it still tastes exactly as it should. It's amazing. I had been using a vac-u-vin by the same company and now when I use it I can clearly taste the difference in the wine the next day.The one downside is that the argon is fairly expensive. You can buy a pack of 4 cartridges for approx $12. The party line is that you can store 8-10 bottles with a cartridge. Although I am far from an expert and probably use more argon than necessary, I only get 2-3 bottles per cartridge. At first I wasn't using enough so I am certain to count to the upper end of what they recommend. If I manage to eek out 3 bottles, it's still $1 per bottle saved. Worth it to me, but maybe not to everyone...

This system works amazingly well. I have been using one of these for years and have run at least two dozen refill cartridges through it. I just bought a second dispenser to keep at the beach house.The secret here is that the stoppers are nothing more than a "security blanket" for those who don't understand what this system actually does. Many people believe that they must use the "special stoppers" so that the gas doesn't escape. That is completely untrue! I threw away the stoppers almost immediately.This dispenser injects argon gas into the wine bottle. Argon is an inert gas which heavier than air so it naturally sinks to the bottom of the bottle forcing air out of the top. The gas settles on top of the wine to form a thin, invisible, protective layer. This layer separates the wine from the oxygen in the air and effectively suspends the oxidation process.You don't actually need their stoppers at all. I just insert the metal stem of the dispenser into the neck of an uncorked bottle and squeeze the trigger for about 1 second. Remember, you don't need to replace all of the air in the bottle. You are just injecting enough argon to create a thin layer on top of the wine. I then insert the original wine cork back into the bottle. Believe it or not, the cork isn't actually necessary for the argon to do its job. You could leave the bottle on the counter, uncorked, and it would still be preserved but the cork prevents the bottle from spilling if it is bumped and keeps dust and debris out.When you pour the next glass of wine, the argon will harmlessly spill out of the bottle as well. So once you pour another glass out of a preserved bottle, you must re-preserve the bottle if you wish to save the rest for another day.If you have ever sat at a wine bar at closing time you may have notice the bartender holding open bottles of wine up to what looks like a beer tap with a small hose sticking out the bottom. They insert the hose into the neck of the bottle and pull the handle then recork the bottle. That is the commercial sized version of this system. That tap is connected to a large tank of Argon and the bartender is preserving the wine with the EXACT same system that Preservino uses. You will notice that they don't use any special stoppers in the wine bar because the stoppers don't serve any real function.

Product is made of plastic that feels extremely cheap - akin to disposable toys from McDonald's. One of the 2 stoppers arrived broken in 2 pieces. I used this on the remaining half bottle of $35 2003 cabernet and followed its instructions for "best results".After 4 days, I tried the wine: no fruit presented - instead just a strong smell of alcohol in glass(Riedel Vinum). Couldn't take more than 1 drink as the wine tasted off and seemed to "singe" the sides of my tongue and the back of my throat.I should've stayed away when I didn't see any endorsements by wine experts!

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my wife. It was expensive and fancy looking, but does it work? I think the results are inconclusive, certainly not clear one way or another. That being said the majority of the wines my wife drinks are sub $10 bottles, so it may be that the wine is questionable to begin with. I have used it on some quality wines and I would still be hard pressed to determine if the argon made any difference. I would not make this purchase again unless the price was cut in half.

Have only used a few times, but so far it has allowed me to wait a few days before finishing a nice bottle! Especially helpful since no one else in the house drinks wine!

We have used this wine preservation kit for about a year and a half now, on an almost daily basis and have nothing but good things to say about it. At first, the stoppers felt a little flimsy, but after 18 months of use being jammed into wine bottles and then thrown in the dishwasher I have yet to see any signs of fatigue or possible failure.We drink a glass of wine with dinner and that's about it, so this system has been a life-saver for keeping wine good for 3-4 days while we finish it - or even longer because we can now open a bottle of white, as well, without worrying about it going bad.The cartridges seem to last for about 3 weeks or so, in my experience, so the cost isn't exactly that prohibitive for the gas. Maybe I'm miserly with it, but it seems to last just fine.I haven't had any experience yet with the customer service department at Pek, so if and when one of the stoppers fails, I'll update my review with that info.

I wanted something more reliable than the vacuum stoppers for my best wines. This is not it. The stoppers are flimsy plastic, as is the preserver that holds the cartridges. The gas cartridges, once inserted, seemed to leak empty within days. They don't seem to form a tight seal. The worst part is the gas didn't preserve the wine as expected even for 1-2 days. There seemed to be an unpleasant odor compared to wines preserved with my vacuum stopper.