Ravi Wine Cooler Chills Your Vino Rapidamente
Living close to Napa and Sonoma has certain benefits (and costs, to be fair)- great wine on hand, wine tours and tastings, local vineyards. We’ve actually reviewed a bottle of wine before, one of our first articles, and it remains to this day one of the primary search terms that brings people here. We really should do more wine and alcohol reviews, and perhaps will, but for now we’ll stick with wine gadgets.
If you drink enough wine, you’ll face the problem of temperature- you just bought a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio from the store, and want to serve it, but it’s been out of the fridge for too long. That’s where the Ravi comes into play- you simply leave the device in your freezer until it is needed. When that too-warm bottle of Riseling or Chardonnay needs to be served, simply pop the cork, and pop on the Zavi. It takes just a bit of finesse- placing your thumb on the air-intake valve then tilting the bottle- but it does all of the work for you.
We should also add that, according to the folks behind the Ravi, it works equally well (better in fact) for reds than whites. See, it can’t quite cool a a crisp, dry white like a moscato to the appropriate temperature (6-8 degrees Celsius) from room temperature. But, it’s perfect for red wines that actually should be served closer to 15-18 degrees Celsius (wine cellar temperature) instead of true room temperature. Overall, we liked the ease of use, and the fact that it could function for up to ninety minutes once removed from the freezer (so, perfect for picnics). You also have some control over the temperature change; by covering the air valve you can slow the wine’s progress through the internal tube. We wish it worked better for our favorite sweet white wines, but it’s still a neat solution and handy to have for any wine drinker. And, at $35 to $50, it makes a great gift as well.
