Customer Review: Wine Squirrel

This is my 2nd product review, and I’m delighted to be writing it.

Sadly I missed the Wine Squirrel when they debuted on Kickstarter back in 2016, which is surprising because I support quite a few projects on there. Recently I was contacted by one of the company’s owners (after he read my ETO review from August this year), and he offered to send me the product for free, which I accepted with the stipulation that I wouldn’t be under any obligation to write a review (and if I did, that I would give my honest opinion). Anyway, here goes:

Prices I found were anywhere between $65-$99, depending on the time of year, so this fits squarely into the mid-priced wine preservation system range. It’s a straightforward design, with a 750ml crystal decanter and a plunger with an expanding seal. The plunger and the seal mechanism are held together by a magnet that’s easily separated for storing. On the wine preserving side of the house, it can store approximately 160-600ml. So unfortunately, it won’t preserve an entire unused bottle or your last glass of wine (150ml=1 glass of wine).

I’ve run this product through numerous tests and have been extra critical in my use of it. I will say that the first few times I used the Wine Squirrel, I don’t think I was using it completely correctly (I wasn’t unscrewing or contracting the seal all the way, so the seal was catching on the side, detaching from the plunger, and falling into the wine). 100% user error there! After these few false starts, results were much better.

Does the product work? Yes, yes it does. In 3 months of repeated use, my stored wines were always as fresh and vibrant as when I first opened each bottle. They advertise it will keep each wine fresh for up to 4 weeks. Some people may feel comfortable storing their wine for up to the full four weeks, but throughout my testing, I could only push it to the 10th day before I had to finish my wine (in my opinion, if you can’t finish a bottle of wine ten days after uncorking it, you may have some other issues you need to work on). I also tested opening and resealing it a few times within that ten day period with no deprecation of flavor.

Pros:

1. Effortless design
2. Doubles as a wine decanter
3. It works!
4. Easy to clean
5. You can store it in the fridge, and you can even turn it upside down like the DQ blizzard.

Cons:

1. Just like the ETO glass decanter, it’s easily breakable. If it tips over, it will probably crack and shatter. I discovered that sticking a 24oz beer koozie over it worked perfectly for transportation.
2. The screw comes out from the seal on occasion. It happened to me twice in 3 months. This was super frustrating because if the level of wine is low, there’s no way you can get the leftover seal out. I end up pouring everything into a large clean bowl, removing the seal, and then pouring the wine back into the decanter and then back into my glass. This is likely a well-known issue because they have a video showing you how to put the screw back in: http://winesquirreldecanter.com/troubleshooting/. I did contact the company about this issue. They were quick to respond and sent me a whole new seal. They acknowledge the defect and reassured me that issue has been resolved and that if anyone is having the same issue to contact them for a new seal.

Vance’s Tips and Tricks for Use:

1. To make sure you get all the air out, depress the plunger/seal passed the liquid line by about 1-2cm. Then tilt everything slightly to one side and tap the glass with your knuckle. Tapping will free any trapped air bubbles. Doing this will cause a little bit of wine to sneak above the seal, but in that case, it’s easy enough to detach the plunger, pour the wine above the seal into your glass, then add some hot water to the decanter and wash out the remaining residue.
2. Another issue I had was where to place the plunger/seal duo when I pulled it out to serve my wine. I don’t like the rubber part of the seal touching my countertop, so I just used a paper towel. Later I started inverting the contraption to stand on its end, and that worked well.
3. I mentioned this before, but it is worth reiterating: make sure you unscrew/contract the seal ALL the way, and then pull straight up when removing it.
4. Get a 24oz beer koozie!

All in all, the Wine Squirrel is a great little product and has earned my full endorsement. I still use mine all the time and it does a better job preserving wine than most pump-and-gas systems. It successfully fills the gap between low and high-end wine preservers and is great value for the money.