In the last few years, my husband has developed an interest in wine. He’s far from becoming a wine snob, but he does enjoy a good glass, and has amassed a nice little collection of California reds. Along with the wines go a few accouterments, of course: a small climate-controlled wine cellar under the house, some proper racks to store the bottles in, some good crystal glasses, a decent opener...

Last Thanksgiving, we had several members of his family visit for the holiday. One of his brothers-in-law had recently returned from a business trip to France. Knowing Penguinman’s fondness for reds, he had to show him a gadget he’d picked up in Paris. It was a Clef du Vin, and we were both impressed, he because it seemed to work, and me because I love gadgets.

Please note that the size pictured is called the Service Elegance, not the Elegance Service.


WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO USE IT

• The Clef du Vin is designed to predict how well a wine will age.

• It's advertised for use with any wine - red, white, sweet, or dry - but most non-reds aren't aged after purchase, so we've never tried it on one.

• It does this by means of an alloy which, when dipped into a glass of wine, “ages” it approximately one year for every second it’s held in the wine.

• It’s about 8" long. (Ours is packed away while we remodel the kitchen, so I’m working from memory here.) It comes in an elegant presentation box with a velour-lined interior.

• It’s made of a metal alloy, and has a lovely dark wood knob at one end to hold it by.

• It's easy to clean. We just run it under warm water and dry it. I don't recommend putting it into the dishwasher.

• To use it, dip it into a glass of red and count a second. Taste the wine; it should have smoothed out somewhat. For every second you hold it in your glass, the wine should “age” by a year. The maximum recommended is about four or five seconds.

Please note that, contrary to some of the publicity about the Clef du Vin, it is NOT meant to be used to age inadequate wine. You can’t buy a bottle of rotgut and expect to pass it off as fine wine. All it does is predict how well the wine will age, and for how long.

• It comes in several sizes, including one for bottles and a folding one to carry in your pocket when you go wine-tasting. You can buy them separately or in various combinations.

• I paid about $200 for the set that included the glass-sized (“Service”) and folding pocket ones. It’s available all over the Internet, but I haven’t seen that set for less than that. I"m not sure how much the Service Elegance size sell for by itself, but I think it's about $100.

• For more information, go to http://www.clef-du-vin.com/english/presentation4.html


WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT

• It’s easy to use. All you have to do is dip it into a glass of wine and count a second or two. You should notice a softening and smoothing of the tannins. The Clef du Vin isn’t foolproof, but it’s better than nothing in helping us determine which wines to buy and how long to lay them down.

• It’s aesthetically pleasing. The shape is long and sinuous, and the “handle” end is smooth and rounded. (The folding one, which I’m not reviewing here, folds up into a little crescent that fits easily into a pocket and is equally pleasing to the eye and hand.)

• For its stated purpose, it works well. I don’t care for very tannic wines, and sometimes I can’t tell whether or not the tannins will soften enough for me before the wine loses its character. That’s when the Clef du Vin comes in handy. And that's just for the reds; it should also work on whites, or sweet wines, but they aren't tannic to begin with. So keep in mind that it's not just about tannins, but rather about how well a wine will age in all its aspects.


WHAT I’M NOT WILD ABOUT

• You’ll get a lot of dirty looks in the tasting room. Wineries usually release most of their wines when they’re at least minimally ready to drink, although they do advise laying some down, sometimes for as long as ten years. If you’re buying futures, the rule is that if you like it today, it’ll only get better, so should be safe to buy.

The ancient art of wine-making doesn’t lend itself too easily to new trends and newfangled gadgets - witness the uproar over screw-caps. So most serious wine snobs sneer at the idea of the Clef du Vin. But for the rest of us, who want to know what we’re buying, it’s a handy gadget. The heck with the tasting-room snobs.

• Its purpose is misunderstood. Through no fault of the developers or the product, a lot of people think they can use it to age their wine and thereby bypass the natural aging process. You can’t. That’s not what it’s for. You can’t buy a case of Two-Buck Chuck and persuade your friends that it’s a 1954 Romanee-Contee. What you can do is predict, with some degree of accuracy, what a wine will taste like after X period of aging. You can’t fool Mother Nature, and you can’t rush the aging process, and the Clef du Vin isn’t designed to attempt either. So for its stated purpose, it’s a perfectly legitimate tool.


SUMMARY AND VERDICT

For a gadget-hound like me, this one works better than most, even without any moving parts. And Penguinman likes it for its predictive qualities. It’s a great party trick, and is simple to use. As long as you don’t try to age your wines, it should serve you well. Five stars.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 100?