Wine Gadget: VinTemp



By Kori ~ October 6th, 2008.

As you browse the aisles of your local wine shop or thumb through a wine store catalog, you will see hundreds of wine accessories or gadgets. And you may wonder whether or not the gadget is something that you should consider buying or whether you’d be better served saving your money. Periodically, we will feature a wine gadget that we have personally found to be a helpful item to have in our wine toolkit.

Today’s featured wine gadget is the VinTemp, an infrared wine thermometer. I received the VinTemp for Christmas last year and have found it to be a very handy item to have.

Different wines have different optimal serving temperatures. Here’s a general guideline for approximate serving temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit):

Sparkling wines and sweet wines: 45-50
Dry white and rose table wines: 50-60
Light-bodied red table wines: 55-65
Full-bodied red table wines: 62-68

The VinTemp allows you to check the temperature of your wine from outside the bottle. Using infrared technology, it measures the temperature of the wine inside the bottle and gives you a digital readout. If the wine is not in its optimal serving range, then you can either put it in the refrigerator to cool a bit or let it sit out a while longer to warm up. Then simply test it again using the VinTemp to see if it is ready.

If this sounds like something you’d find helpful, visit one of these online retailers to pick one up.


Filed under: Wine Gadget

Reader's Comments

  1. Sean Sullivan | October 6th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    I’ve actually used one of the VinTemp pens for the last few months and have found it to be quite reliable and useful in determining the temperature of a wine. I highly recommend picking up one of their devices given the incredible impact of temperature on wine.

  2. Dr. Debs | October 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    True confessions time: I have one of these and LOVE it. It is, well geeky, but I like to think it’s geeky in a good way. Besides, 65 degrees is much much colder than I thought it was. It’s made a real difference in the red wine department.

  3. Jared | October 8th, 2008 at 9:39 am

    Have had two of these for about two years and can’t figure out how I lived without them! I’m a temperature Nazi now!!