Clef du Vin – Play With Your Wine

I’m a huge skeptic. I blame my marketing background where I’ve observed one too many mediocre products being spinned as life-changing in beautiful, glossy print ads and commercials. Riiiiiight. But when I saw the Clef du Vin (which “ages” wine by the second) featured in the latest Cambria Cove gift catalog, I knew that there had to be substance to this product: I trust that Cambria Cove would only choose products that they can stand behind.

So I tried the Clef du Vin (a French product by Peugeot, translates to “Key of Wine”) and am back, skepticism vanished, to tell you about it: it’s fantastic and so much fun!

I haven’t been able to find out the secret behind the patented technology, but it essentially works by dipping the dot (a unique metal alloy which aids in the oxidization) into the wine for one second per year of “aging”.

We first tested the Clef at home with a young Cabernet Sauvignon by pouring three glasses. The first was left intact as our control, then we “aged” the second glass by one year (with a one second dip)and the third by five years (a five second dip). The results were stunning. We could immediately tell, even with the one sec/year aging that the “nose” was different and a taste revealed the tannins much softer. The five sec/year aging tasting showed changes even more pronounced and more of the wine’s characteristics had shifted. If I were more of a wine expert, I would be able to tell you about how the wine’s notes (oak, berry, honey, etc…) had been revealed or had evolved… But, please excuse me, as an untrained amateur, I can only talk in more approximative terms.

Other testers also cheer about this product. Though it is not exact science, they say that it can provide a good peek into what wines will look like as they age. This makes the Clef perfect for wine collectors to gauge their wine collections’ aging potential.

Indeed, this is a perfect gift for the wine collector. Or even for the amateur like me, it makes wine tasting even more fun and dynamic. I’m pretty sure that I want to organize a wine tasting party around this little gadget. Oh, I can already hear the heated conversations  that it will stir up. Vin Nouveau? Bring it on!

The Clef du Vin can be purchased here for $125. It comes in a gift-ready box and will last a lifetime.