Wine Oxygen Uptake

This graph shows how wine absorbs oxygen when a Zorb isn't utilized. Specifically, it plots the concentration of oxygen in a half-full 750-ml bottle of wine at a temp of 65º F over time. The graph is instructive in that it shows a steep decline in concentration, initially about .7% per hr., as the wine soaks up oxygen in the headspace. The graph levels off, and the then around the 50-hr. mark, there's a decline in oxygen concentration - around .04% per hr. as dissolved oxygen starts reacting with the wine, which reduces dissolved-oxygen levels, allowing further absorption into the wine. The oxygen uptake eventually tapers to about .014% per hr. at around 130 hours where the oxygen concentration has dropped to 11%.

Keep in mind that pouring a glass of wine will result in much faster oxygen uptake from what is shown in the graph, as a result of agitation and the exposure of more wine surface area to air. One approach to staving off the eventual oxidation of the remaining wine in the bottle is to pour it into a smaller bottle where the reduced headspace translates to less potential O₂ absorption, but that doesn't address the O₂ that wound up in solution from having poured the wine, twice!

Another common approach is to pull a vacuum on the bottle. This is not recommended because the vacuum pulled by the typical wine device is not deep enough to pull oxygen out of solution; and worse, even partial vacuums can extract aromatics, which will deaden wine. Ideally, we only want an oxygen vacuum, and one that gets as close to 0% as possible. Further, any O₂ that comes out of solution needs to be captured, thereby maintaining the oxygen vacuum. The good news is that this is exactly how the Zorb works!