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By Kate Bardessono

There are many unique gadgets, trinkets and accessories that you can purchase to make your wine parties and tastings more enjoyable.
The most common wine accessory is a necessary one most of the time, the wine opener. The new age of the higher quality wine with the screw top opening may or may not make this handy gadget obsolete to some wine connoisseurs, but in this writer’s opinion, that will never happen. So, which ones do you have, or need?

A variety of wine openers

  The most common wine opener around is the basic T-shaped screw pull, which for some unknown reason is called a keychain. These turn up at garage sales, antique stores, and almost anywhere you look, including most kitchen drawers. However, unless you have very strong hands, or are good with the leverage it takes to use this little tool, you might want to invest in the easier-to-use lever pull.
   A lever pull is the basic waiter’s wine opener, similar in design to an army knife, with a sharp cutter for foil, the worm (the industry name for the screw part), and the lever. The lever works against the rim at the top of the bottle to give you leverage without having to place the bottle between your legs, as we have all done and laughed at ourselves doing.
  A cork puller that was designed, I believe, with those shoddy crumbling corks in mind, is the A-so. This is a wine opener that has 2 prongs that slide along each side of the cork, and you twist to pull out the cork. It sounds easy doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t that easy, and although I once shattered the top of a bottle with it, I still use mine occasionally.
  The list of wine openers goes on and on, from the Estate Puller, to the Rabbit, all of which get more and more expensive, and yet, the basics are still there, the worm and the levers. Depending on whom you want to impress, which you find easier to use, and how much you want to spend, you will always find a wine opener that will suit your needs.

Wine trinkets and charms for your stemware

The most annoying, and yet attractive wine trinket to me, is, I believe, the stem markers called charms. Most everyone I know loves charms jewelry, from necklace pendants to charm bracelets, and wouldn’t you know it, this idea has gone to wine glasses! Now you can have your own personalized little wine charm wrapped around your stemware to

denote which glass belongs just to you! You can find these charms in metals, glass, beads, cloth, paper, and probably any other material you could think of that will go around the stem of a glass. Of course, there are different themes or designs to suit anyone and everyone! I, myself, prefer the noisiest glass and metal ones I can find, just to be able to laugh at it when it clicks against my glass with each sip.

This next gadget for assisting our wine tasting adventures is the one I find most useful—the drip stopper! We all know how annoying it is to get the bottle or tabletop or table cloth wet with wasted dribbles of wine, and these neat accessories have saved us much groaning!

Bottle toppers for both wine and champagne

From the small discs of shiny material, to the collars, to the pour spouts, each has a unique system to prevent those drips. I am amazed at each new, technologically advanced pour gadget, and each winery seems to use a different one, which is usually also for sale in their shop! I am amazed at each new, technologically advanced pour gadget, and each winery seems to use a different one, which is usually also for sale in their shop!

Next stop, bottle toppers! My favorite is the champagne stopper. If you are like my husband and me, most of the time unable to finish a full bottle of champagne in one evening, this is a very valuable little contraption that keeps our bubbly bubbling for the next night. Other bottle toppers out there are more for decoration than for preservation, and like wine charms, they come in a myriad of designs and materials. Some have cork bottoms, some are all ceramic, glass, or metal, and all will help you keep your bottles looking pretty as they prevent some oxidation for the evening as they sit open. They typically do not, however, keep your wine from completely oxidizing if you let it sit over a day or two. That depends also on the wine, the tightness of the seal, and whether or not you have kept the bottle chilled before bringing it back up to temperature for sipping.
The list of wine accessories goes on and on, from wine bags and wine chillers, to backpacks and wine racks. Almost everything you can think of to further your enjoyment of that bottle of wine. You can find just about any wine accessory imaginable right here in our beautiful Santa Ynez Valley at one or another of the wine shops and wineries you visit!