Refrigeration – Cooled enclosure – Portable receptacle
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-26
2003-05-06
Esquivel, Denise L. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Cooled enclosure
Portable receptacle
C062S003640, C062S457800
Reexamination Certificate
active
06557369
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates in general to an apparatus for preserving and dispensing wine or champagne and in particular to a cooling system for the apparatus. One or more wine or champagne bottles may be stored in the apparatus for preservation and future use by a wine or champagne consumer.
Millions of people throughout the world drink wine and champagne. Numerous types of wine and champagne are produced in many countries throughout the world. Most wine and champagne are distributed to consumers in bottles. Wine and champagne bottles are usually sealed with a cork to prevent exposure to the air and to preserve the wine or champagne. Consumers of wine or champagne may drink an entire bottle, a significant portion of a bottle or only one glass of wine or champagne. Some consumers may drink a glass of wine a day while others may only drink one glass a week. When a bottle of wine or champagne is opened, the seal formed between the bottle and the cork is broken, air enters the bottle and the quality of the wine or champagne remaining in the bottle begins to degrade due to oxidation.
Wine begins to oxidize when it comes in contact with air and more specifically, with the oxygen present in the air. For a short period of time, oxygen and the process of oxidation benefit wine. With many types of wine, it is recommended to let the wine “breathe” before drinking. Breathing or exposing wine to ambient air for a short time allows a small amount of oxidation to induce the release of certain volatile compounds in the wine, which wine drinkers find to have a desirous effect on the wine's taste. Continued oxidation, however, eventually degrades every type of wine. To slow the degradation of the wine, a majority of wine is stored and preserved in bottles that are sealed with a cork or similar sealing device. However, uncorking or opening a wine bottle generally initiates the beginning of the end of a wine's useful or tasteful life. Red wines often degrade faster than white wines. Sweeter white wines tend to last longer, or degrade slower, than other white wines. Once the bottles are opened, most wines last less than a day even if the cork is properly replaced or the wine bottle is closed in a suitable period of time. In fact, the taste of some wines such as pinot noir, begins to degrade within thirty minutes after opening the bottle. This is problematic because, as indicated above, often times people do not finish a bottle of wine or champagne on the day the bottle is opened. Accordingly, wine and champagne are often wasted because people only consume portions of the wine or the champagne in a bottle and the remaining portions in the bottle lose their taste.
Attempts to reduce the oxidation and degradation of wine and thus to preserve wine have involved either limiting or eliminating the presence of oxygen to exposed wine surfaces. Since air includes approximately twenty-one percent oxygen, the attempts to preserve wine have involved either limiting or eliminating the presence of air to exposed wine surfaces. Simple procedures such as tightly replacing the cork and reducing the amount of air space or head space above the liquid level of the wine in the bottle are marginally effective at limiting the wine's degradation.
The problem with these simple procedures is practicality. Since wine is acidic and has a low pH, wine attracts oxygen from the open air. The extra hydrogen molecules of the wine seek electrons from the oxygen in the air. Longer exposures of wine to the open air increase the ionic balancing that takes place. Consequently, when a person forgets to immediately replace a cork after filling one or more glasses of wine, the degradation progresses and increases.
Other more complicated solutions for wine preservation are also known. The Vacu-Vin® Vacuum Wine Saver System manufactured by Vacu-Products B.V. Corporation is a device that manually evacuates the air from the head space inside a wine bottle to slow the degradation of the wine and to extend the preservation of the wine after the wine bottle is opened. This device includes a rubberized stopper that fits within the neck of a wine bottle similar to a cork. The stopper forms a seal in the neck of the bottle to prevent air from entering the bottle and remains in the bottle until the bottle is empty or discarded. A separate mechanical hand-held vacuum pump is attached to the top of the stopper and draws the air from the head space inside the bottle through the stopper and out of the vacuum pump attachment. A user pulls on a handle on the vacuum pump to draw the air out of the bottle. The user continues to draw the air out of the bottle by pulling on the handle of the vacuum pump attachment until a vacuum is created inside the wine bottle. Other known wine bottle vacuum devices combine the vacuum pumps with a dispenser, which enables the wine drinker or server to leave the stopper in place until the bottle is completed. If the stoppers do not have a dispenser, then the stoppers have to be removed and replaced in the same manner as a cork. Even with the stopper, the person must remember to intermittently evacuate the head space.
Head space evacuation also has a number of inherent problems. First and foremost, an evacuated head space has a sub-atmospheric pressure that works against whatever sealing device the stopper provides in an attempt to draw in oxygen laden air. In contrast, some nitrogen systems (described below) operate at a slightly elevated pressure inside the head space. These systems also work against the sealing device, but maintain a substantially inert atmosphere even if depressurized to atmospheric pressure.
Evacuating the head space is also a manually operated, mechanical and imprecise procedure. More head space requires more pumping, and people attempting to judge whether they have pumped enough are likely to pump too little, leaving air in the bottle, or pump too much, and unduly stress the stopper and the pumping mechanism. In short, known head space pumps do not consistently and reliably eliminate oxygen, do not provide positive pressure systems, require a separate pump or stopper for each open bottle, and require undesired manual operation by the wine drinker or server. Thus, trying to replace the head space in a bottle of wine is logistically difficult. People enjoying a glass of wine typically do not want to contend with such detailed or specific procedures.
Other known wine preservation and dispensing devices use an inert gas to blanket the head space in a wine bottle. These systems use an inert gas such as nitrogen from a large gas storage cylinder or smaller portable containers. Several types of such nitrogen preservation systems are known. Some systems preserve only one wine bottle and others preserve a plurality of wine bottles. Examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,477,477; 4,595,121; 4,691,842; and 5,139,179.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,477 discloses an inert gas such as nitrogen dispensed into a wine bottle from a gas storage container such as a gas cylinder or gas cartridge. The inert gas travels through a tube and into the wine bottle. A sealing member is positioned around the tube and fits into the neck of the bottle to seal the bottle opening. The sealing member allows air to pass out of the bottle and the inert gas to be supplied to the bottle. The inert gas replaces the air, which would otherwise exist in the head space. Once the inert gas fills the head space of the wine bottle and a significant amount of the air inside the bottle is displaced, the sealing member and tube are removed from the bottle and the cork is replaced. This manual process is repeated each time the user desires to preserve the wine in the bottle after the bottle has been opened.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,121 and 4,691,842 disclose devices for dispensing and preserving degradable liquids such as wine. These devices include a cap or stopper having a gas supply tube and a wine dispensing tube which is inserted into the opening of a wine bottle. The cap seals the o
Deller Robert R.
Lydon Justin R.
McGuire Timothy C.
O'Connor Daniel N.
Phelps Johne
Esquivel Denise L.
Norman Marc
Vin Valet, Inc.
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