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On Wine: Jingle bells and whistles: the latest in wine gadgetry

Published December 13, 2006 at midnight

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It’s time to shop for that wine lover on your list. Next week I’ll bring you carafes, glasses and other serving items. This week you get wine gadgets in all price ranges. I love gadgets.

VinTemp Corkscrew

• VinTemp, $50,

Hold that screw! First, press this up against the bottle to read the temperature of the wine within. The multitasking tool saves you from the faux pas of serving warm Vouvray. The corkscrew is my favorite, but there are also pen and key- chain versions.

Venus Wine Opener

• After 5, $49.99,

I love this gadget for the lithe curve of shining stainless steel but also for the ease with which it decorks 40 bottles on a single charge and spits them out with a flick of the switch.

Pocket flask

• The Gadget Hub, $44,

Another gorgeous hunk of metal, shaped like a wavy, flat doughnut, this flask should probably not be left alone with the Venus Wine Opener. Unless you want lots of little appliances running around.

Wine Scepter

• Wine Sceptre, $170 to $290,

Lord it over your cellar with this regal scepter, a metal wand you freeze and then insert into an open bottle to keep it cold. It forms a seal, and if you push aside the crown of grapes, it’s also hollowed- out for pouring. Choice of stainless or gold-plated with Swarovski crystal.

Lock Stop

• The Gadget Hub, $30,

Live with a bunch of freeloaders? This will keep their maws off your fine liquor. Place it in the neck of a bottle and set the combination lock on top. Then watch them struggle to open it, knowing your Dom is safe for you. If you remembered to write down the combination.

Wine picnic table

• Crate & Barrel, $7.95,

The sun is shining, the blanket’s spread, the rosé chilled and clothes are being shucked. But just as things get steamy, you ruin the moment by knocking over your wine. Next time, tuck this gadget into your basket and simply push it into the grass or sand for an instant glass holder. Now your wine will stay upright even when you don’t.

Golf balls

• Curio City Online, three for $9.95,

If your loved one’s boring tales span the links as well as the cellar, help him stand out from his foursome with these grape-imprinted golf balls. Not just a pretty trio, they’re built with two-piece construction to ensure consistent control, distance and durability. Of his golf shot, anyway.

Wine switchplates

• Curio City Online, $5,

Does your decorating scheme involve bowls of potpourri? Give your home that wine-country B&B ethos by subbing out your tired old switchplates for these pretty ones, featuring corks, grapes and other vinous themes.

Grapevine Bonsai & Tool Kit



• Wine Enthusiast, $129.95

Think smaller with this miniature vineyard, complete with tools to grow and harvest your own tiny grapes and perhaps turn out wine by the thimble. Warning: Bonsai could be hazardous to the attention-challenged.

WinePod

• WinePod, $3,499,

Even apartment-dwellers can have their own personal winery. All contained in a handsome pod with the look and finish of high-quality home furnishing. Everything you need to make fine wine is included, while an onboard computer helps you through the process. But hurry, there’s a waiting list.

The Vines of Mendoza

• The Vines of Mendoza, price upon request.

Escape the snow and jet down to your own winery in Argentina. The Vines of Mendoza offers 50 professionally managed private vineyard estates available in 4- to 12-acre parcels surrounding a five-star luxury spa and resort scheduled to open in 2008.



Jennifer Rosen is author of "The Cork Jester's Guide to Wine," www.corkjester.com, $14.95.