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After much agonising and thought, along with random bits of advice, I have at last come to a conclusion. It is to be a magnum of 2011 Gevrey-Chambertin from Bruno Clair in the hope that may hit the ‘goose’ spot. I flirted with the 2017 Burgundy Hautes Cotes de Nuit, Les Dames de Vergy, Dominique Guyon, for a bit, but thought that probably it would improve with another few years of bottle age. Since we are both deeply into the NHS ‘DO NOT RESUSCITATE’ zone, perhaps at our age, pushing eighty, having drunk a quick bottle of Pol Roger before lunch we may not be able to finish a whole magnum during lunch. Please do fellow members think that the remaining wine will last overnight? Other than medical advice, all comments and suggestions are most welcome. Thank you all.
Worth investing in a vacuvin just to enjoy an equally delicious wine the following day
Yes it should certainly last to the next day. Stick the cork back in the top and leave it somewhere cool and it should even last a day or two longer. You may find it’s even better the next day!
There are those of us who think that the vacuvin makes things worse rather than better (at least for 1-2 days).
Interesting. I have not had that experience. What problem did you find?
It seems to be to dampen the aromatics. I did a couple of side by side comparisons and then stopped using it.
Interesting. We have just enjoyed a wine we opened yesterday which was ok but a bit disappointing. Poor match with our food. Tonight after a day under vacuvin it was delicious and a really nice match with our food.
Freddy, Thank you so much for your reply. That is my unspoken concern. Perhaps I should open the bottle at noon on December 24th., or even open it on Christmas Day and give it the ‘balloon whisk’ treatment. This process may be new to you, yet 95 times out of a hundred it really improves the wine, possible exceptions being many older vintages that are fragile and thus ‘fugitive’, rather akin to some J.M.W. Turner watercolours. From experience, such delicate vintages need to be drunk within an hour of opening, sometimes rather less. Merry Christmas to you!
Thank you. Not an experience we have had but we will have to experiment as you suggest.
Me for one. Horrible things, and useless too. Worse than nothing.
Not sure I agree. Have been using a vacuvin for years and always found it kept the wines well. I have had a bottle of Zuccardi Q under the vacuvin for last 4 days and not noted a significant degradation in the wine. I know that this wine does degrade significantly after 24 hours if not preserved. That said, I will look for other ways to experiment with it.
There’s a whole thread about this: Wine preservation
For what it’s worth, I use a Vacuvin, and have never noticed any deterioration, but that may just be my poor palate 
. As a couple of posts of mine on that thread show, I don’t buy the putative reason why a Vacuvin should remove volatiles - the science just doesn’t back it up. And the science certainly doesn’t seem to back up Private Preserve being effective, which I know others on here use.
Ultimately, though, that may not matter. All of our sensory experience is mediated through a myriad of filters - we are very far from being the perfect sensors that our brains tell us that we are. If you expect that wine which has been under Vacuvin will be inferior, then you will genuinely taste and smell it that way.
Enough seriousness for a Sunday…
I have no scientific knowledge or background, but I’m also someone who - based on anecdotal evidence only - find the Vacuvin to work for me/my palate. I am yet to detect the removal of aromatics, or to notice the flavour degrade.
But agree that this is very much a subjective assessment.
This debate doesn’t seem to be going anywhere useful…
@Robin63 if this discussion has made you doubt the use of Vacuvin, the only way to resolve it scientifically is to do a simple experiment using a control.
Simultanously open two same bottles of your favourite wine (Christmas is the perfect time to do this given supply/demand requirements!); sample both and then put one under vacuvin and simply recork the other. Re-sample the next day and repeat.
Do it for a further twin bottles of even more expensive wine – New Year celebrations demand it! You will then be content in what you do in future.
[Please report results. 
] Sante!
Yes, will have a play.
I missed this thread but from my anecdotal experience if the wine is a point (pardon my french) then vacuvin won’t be a good idea - it does seem to strip aromatics after a day or so - if it seems a bit underwhelming then it might help (and why not give it a go?). Disclaimer: I don’t use one anymore, can’t be bothered to keep an opened bottle undrunk
Many thanks to everyone for their kind replies.
I am happy to report that the goose was perfect, my brilliant wife had dried out its skin so as to make it very crispy.
The magnum of 2011 Gevrey-Chambertin from Bruno Clair was such a good match that we somehow finished it without realising that we had done so.
Today was the very best Christmas lunch I have ever eaten.
As to the vacuvin debate, the best answer seems to be, either finish the bottle or stuff the cork back in and drink the next day.
Hopefully, all who read this have had a Merry Christmas.
I send everyone the very best of wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!
We do use a vacuvin sometimes. We also keep a couple of half bottle empties that we decant unfinished wine into on the assumption that leftovers filling a small bottle leaves less room for oxidation.
The very essence of a perfect bottle, well matched with delicious food. Sounds wonderful!
Have played (very unscientifically - you would not trust me with a COVID vaccine!) with a few wines over the holiday period I can report the following results:
- cheaper wines (under £10) appeared fresher when using vacuvin than when closing with just the cork. Indeed, a majority of the latter became undrinkable the following day.
- More expensive wines survived for 24 hours with just being reclosed and one even appeared to improve. When closed with vacuvin, we noted no difference, but non of the wines enclosed using vacuvin improved.
- As @theclaphamomnibusman says, all wines were better finished on day of opening.
Have a great, if quiet, New Year everyone.