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BevWizard Wine Smoother

Wine Wizardry Or Wine Gadgetry To Soften Tough Wines

CAPSULE REPORT: BevWizard is a $28 gadget that claims to soften red and white wines and make them fruitier. If your wine is too hard, too tannic, too acidic, snap the pouring unit onto your bottle, pour the wine through it, and it will be altered into a better state by the magnets inside. In some cases, it works. Should you have a BevWizard? If you enjoy gadgets, why not!

Introduction

If your bottle of wine isn’t to your satisfaction—either by “accident” (you were expecting a much better wine in that bottle), because it’s too young, or because you’ve bought an inexpensive wine—BevWizard was designed to smooth out the edges and make your wine taste good. The “gadget” is a plastic pouring spout that encases magnetic discs, which are in some way supposed to alter the tannins as wine is poured past the “high-intensity magnetic field,” making them softer and more palatable—a “silkier mouthfeel,” in the words of the manufacturer. The claim is that wines that are made to taste softer and fruitier when they have bottle age become more palatable when young. The experienced oenophile might raise an eyebrow and pass it by. Beyond what help aeration provides, there is no “magic” to make tough wines taste good.

Patrick Farrell, a Master of Wine who knows wines as well as anyone, was equally cynical when he met the inventors of the technology, and was convinced that it worked. He endorsed the product. Hence, we investigated further.

The original idea behind BevWizard came from a debunked theory behind a magnetic device (costing hundreds of dollars) that was sold in the U.S. as a fuel efficiency enhancer. So with a faulty premise behind the wine gadget, I was extremely skeptical of the claims of its makers...but always hopeful of a “miracle cure.”

Is BevWizard a miracle cure? No. Does it help in some cases? Yes.

Our Test

My wine friends and I tried BevWizard on dozens of red wines over the course of a month (never on a Shiraz, because who wants to make what is generally a “fruit bomb” more fruity?). We came away perplexed. Somehow, the taste of the wine that was poured using the BevWizard did taste different. It isn’t a universal solution, but it does work in situations.

• BevWizard works best to make young wines (less than six years of age) seem softer, and in our tests, brought out the fruit where there seemed to be little or none. Our experiments here made us think that there is something valid in the “science” after all.
• However, on a couple of 2001 Barolos (young, big, tannic wines), which I chose as the ultimate test, it made what were classically-structured wines discernibly softer. In theory, it did “succeed” in softening a tough wine. However, the result, I thought, was un-Barolo like, reducing the naturally dryish character of the Barolos. This was not for the better, in my judgment, so I wouldn’t call BevWizard a “Barolo solution.”

The makers of BevWizard acknowledge that not everyone will agree that a wine poured through its spout will like its taste better than the “untreated” version.

Conclusion

I think this gadget is best for those whose reaction to anything slightly astringent, minerally or tightly knit is usually negative; and those who prefer their red wines fruity. There are a whole lot more of these wine-buyers than tasters who accept wines in their astringent, mineral states. But the latter group, with stronger stomachs and a general desire to taste wines that are “classic”—a term can be debated, but this is not the place for it—will most likely find this gadget frivolous.

Still, many wine buyers will enjoy playing around with BevWizard. At $28.00, it isn’t the cheapest toy in the world. But when you open a bottle that isn’t working for you, it’s another piece of ammo in your arsenal to salvage the experience.

One final thought. The gadget does have a small air hole, and it is conceivable that this does some oxygenation to the wine that makes the wine seem different. I, for one, am not sure this alone is sufficient to do much for wines like Barolos, which usually need hours of aeration to tame their strong tannins. And somehow change them, it did. I believe there is some gustatory proof for the claim that the BevWizard can yield, on occasion, wines that are fruitier and less tannic. But it is a proof in search of a valid hypothesis.

There’s also a BevWizard Spirits Smoother which we haven’t tried yet.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES BevWizard WineSmoother $29.95 SpiritsSmoother $29.95 Purchase online at BevWizard.com Price and product availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. Shipping is additional.

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