Mar. 17, 2010 - Issue #752: Enomatic system

Forever young

A new device keeps wine from spoiling and has the potential to remake Edmonton's wine scene

I've seen the future, and it's by the glass. Gone are the days when restaurants and bars only offer one thing by the glass: some generic plonk doled out of magnum bottles.

The arrival of the Enomatic Wine Preservation System to a handful of bars, restaurants and wine shops in Edmonton marks a new era in our city's wine culture. The Enomatic allows an establishment to serve several bottles—four, eight, even 16—by the glass, without any worry of spoilage for nearly an entire month.

Think of the Enomatic as a way to have wine "on tap" like beer. Essentially, you plug an open bottle of wine into a slot in the Enomatic and the machine draws the wine out of the bottle and dispenses it from a separate spout. An inert gas, usually argon or nitrogen, is used inside the machine to keep the wine from coming into contact with oxygen. The machine also allows you to regulate the size of pours—it can be programmed to dispense precise amounts, such as a one-ounce taster or a six-ounce glass. Several models are also temperature-controlled, meaning that they keep the wines at proper serving temperature—15 C to 17 C for reds and 7 C to 10 C for whites. The Enosystem works for any still beverage, so you can use it for most wines, as well as sakés, liqueurs and spirits, but sparkling wine, beer and other carbonated beverages are out.

By keeping it oxygen-free, the Enomatic allows wine to stay fresh and drinkable for three or four weeks, something previously unprecedented. Normally a bottle of wine spoils after only a day or two of being open. Though previous preservation techniques like vacuum pumps and inert gas sprays may keep a wine drinkable for about a week, spoilage is still a huge issue for any establishment serving wine—in fact, it is arguably the determining factor in a restaurant or bar's by-the-glass offerings.

The Enomatic has had a rather slow entrance to this city. One arrived in 2007 at the Liquor Depot Magrath, but over half of the local places that have Enomatics received them in the last four months. The delay was partly due to the nascent state of Edmonton's wine culture—only recently has the city seen a handful of wine bars open their doors. A few specialty wine stores have been around for longer, but only by a couple years. With Edmonton's ever-increasing number of wine stores, bars, festivals and other wine-related happenings, the time of the Enomatic is newly-arrived.

"If you're going to carry wine, it doesn't matter where you are or who you are, you should have one," declares Douglas Townshend, owner of the Bothy Wine & Whisky Bar. "It guarantees the wines are going to be the way they should be." The Bothy opened its doors at the beginning of December and the Enomatic has been there from the beginning. Though the Bothy has certainly made its name as a whisky bar, it also offers plenty of wines by the glass—almost all of which are housed in its dual eight-bottle Enomatic units.

Moriarty's Wine Bar and Bistro is another wine bar that opened just weeks after the Bothy. Moriarty's also had an Enomatic installed from the beginning; general manager Michael Taufer notes that in addition to minimizing the spoilage issue, "the Enomatic also allows us to serve high end wines that other places would only serve by bottle." Moriarty's opted to have one eight-bottle unit for reds and another eight-bottle unit split between red and white wine.

Certainly it makes sense for wine bars to use the Enomatic, but the system is also extremely useful for the restaurant industry, especially higher-end restaurants that invest extra time, money and care into creating a superior wine list.

"For a restaurateur they are a godsend," declares Larry Stewart, owner of Hardware Grill. "I know I don't have to take a financial loss to serve somebody a special glass of wine." A spoiled bottle is a measurable monetary loss, and one that adds up very quickly in a restaurant. The Enomatic offers financial insurance against such losses, and the impact of this cannot be taken too lightly. Stewart also notes that many people would rather pay more money for a really good glass of wine than less money for a bottle of sub-par wine. "It's tied in with the recession," he notes. "It's no secret that restaurants are an area people have cut back on—people go out for dinner and they don't want to spend the money on a really expensive bottle of wine, but if they can get a good glass for $25 they are very happy with that. It's buying quality versus quantity; they can still treat themselves to a fine glass of wine with dinner."

Though the Enomatic clearly speaks to the restaurant and wine-bar industry, it also has a welcome home in wine stores. Gurvinder Bhatia, owner of Vinomania, received his Enomatic just over a year ago and has been thrilled with what it allows him to do. "I first saw it in Italy about four or five years ago, in a little wine bar in Como," he recalls. "Immediately my thought was, 'I have to get one of these!'"

The average liquor store probably won't have as great a use for the Enomatic, but boutique wine stores will definitely be able to put it to good use. "Our philosophy has always been to expose people to different wines and allow them the opportunity to taste a range of different wines. The Enomatic fits in very well with that," Bhatia notes. The same issues of spoilage and wanting to offer customers a greater selection are present in any specialty wine store, so having an Enomatic is a practical business decision.

Wine shops will also find the Enomatic invaluable for its ability to provide a useful insight into how a wine will age; for customers planning to make a serious investment into their wine cellar, the Enomatic allows a unique glimpse into how wine might change over the years. "The machine allows for a very slow oxidation process, similar to decanting," explains Bhatia. He offers a useful analogy: if you were to decant a bottle of wine at noon and then drink it at dinner, the changes in aroma and flavour over the course of those seven or eight hours are the same changes that happen in the Enomatic over a week or two. Furthermore, each hour that a bottle of wine is decanted roughly translates to about a year in the cellar, so having a wine open for a couple weeks in the Enomatic is like aging it for several years. "It's interesting to see what lasts and what doesn't last, because I think it gives you a little insight into how long you could keep that bottle," notes Bhatia. "The wines that tend to do really well in there are the same wines that tend to age well." He goes on to note that well-structured, full-bodied wines—and not necessarily the expensive ones—tend to fare best over the few weeks they are in the Enomatic.

Perhaps the only real downside to the Enomatic is the price, which isn't cheap. If properly implemented and marketed, however, the machine will more than pay for itself in a relatively short period of time. Most restaurants and bars that have an Enomatic offer a separate "Enosystem" wine menu to highlight the machines; wine stores could integrate the system in a variety of ways, such as Vinomania's club card system.

Though it may sound a bit hackneyed, the Enomatic represents a new era in wine culture. You can literally taste the benefits of this system. With any luck, in the coming months we'll see these things popping up all over the city. Who knows, in a few years they may even be something that die-hard wine enthusiasts purchase for their own private use. I know I would love to be able to choose from a handful of wines for my evening glass of vino. As it stands, however, I'm more than happy knowing that there are at least a few places out there finally offering a decent and affordable by-the-glass wine menu. V

The science of spoilage
Oxygen is the biggest enemy of an open bottle of wine, aside from a thirsty person. Oxidation is the reaction of oxygen molecules in the air with chemical compounds, namely phenolics, in the wine and, once a bottle has been opened, happens immediately. Phenolics are largely responsible for the structure, aromas and flavours of wine; when they're broken down by oxygen a wine loses much of its structure, aroma and flavour. Oxygen also acts as the catalyst for various enzymatic reactions and protein decay, all of which alter the chemical makeup of a wine. Flavour is a casualty of these processes.

The first few hours of oxidation can be quite pleasant—in reacting to oxygen, wine evolves in flavour and taste; in well-made, well-structured wines this process is both delicious and fascinating.

Anyone who has left a bottle of wine open overnight, however, knows that wine tastes very different the next day; after a few hours of exposure a wine loses its primary flavours. Most of its subtle nuances are gone, and the longer it stays open the more it loses its primary flavours as well. After a couple of days, you're left with a bottle of unrepentantly acidic salad dressing. With the exception of the odd unique bottle, most wines taste decidedly worse the day after they were opened.

Refrigeration slows the process of oxidation, so storing wine in the fridge will keep it fresher for a bit longer. A few other methods, such as the vacuum pump and inert gas sprays, also help extend an opened wine's life. These methods, however, will only keep the wine fresh for a week at most. Furthermore, you can always detect distinct changes—usually for the worse—within a day, no matter what method you use. V

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