As a wine writer, I’m occasionally queried about trying samples of new products that hit the marketplace. This is one of those stories.
[Both the Kelvin K2 and and the delicious Barrel Road Red Blend are samples in this story.]
It all began in early September:
Hi Jo:
I’m hoping that I can send you a Kelvin K2 to review. The Kelvin K2 is a smart wine thermometer with Bluetooth 4.0 wireless connectivity. It combines the recent advances in aerial technology to send the temperature information to a smartphone (often from the inside of a refrigerator). The free iOS or Android app then monitors the wine as it chills and provides as much or as little information needed to get the best from every bottle of wine. Ask any wine expert, and they will tell you that wine taste is made up of a combination of numerous key elements, each of which is dramatically (and uniquely) affected by temperatures – so it makes sense that any wine is only at its best at the correct, recommended serving temperature. mykelvin.co.uk
Hum… I’m not an Android geek, barely turning my phone on – for emergencies only – but I’m living with one. And I’m a bit of a wine geek; perhaps I could combine the two and come up with a new adventure?
Hi, Robin,
Sure, you can send one to me. With the holidays coming up, gadgets are always a fun blog story, especially when they’re this unique and techno…
When the Kelvin arrived, Jose saw me open the package:
He: Whatcha got?
She: A Kelvin Smart Wine Thermometer
He: Can I see?
She: Sure
He took over, faster than a Puerto Rican Second…
A Puerto Rican second is faster than the speed of light, making a New York minute look like a millennial of time… Jose was born in Puerto Rico, brought to the US, and raised in both the Bronx and Manhattan. So, I’ve seen it all for the last 40+ years, and feel confident that I can define a Puerto Rican Second. This new gadget instantly became his new best friend.
Jose followed the directions, after choosing the wine he was going to open. It was room temp, so it was easy to begin:
- Turned on the Kelvin Band and clipped it to the bottle.
- He downloaded “Kelvin K2 from an app store. (The Ks connected to his app automatically and then showed up on his Dick Tracey watch.)
- Anticipation and excitement followed.
- I was also fascinated.
- He selected the wine style, as it read room temp of 81 degrees – quite warm, late summer day.
- He put the bottle in the refrigerator [above photo], as described. Kelvin calibrated it in just five minutes, as the instructions claimed.
- Then he just monitored it until it was the perfect temperature. [Image to the right with 64 degrees.]
- Yes, we totally “got it.”
He did just what Kelvin claimed would happen… He completely “unlocked the full flavors of the wine.” It was delicious and smooth, as if we had pulled it from a wine cellar, with the caveat that the Kelvin will function even better than a wine cellar before the opening of a bottle. Why? Because each wine has its own optimal wine temperature preferences… Most whites are slightly more chilled, to be really enjoyed at their best; versus a red wine, better performing at a wine cave temp of 55F to 60F degrees.
Your app gives you so much more than just the signaling that your bottle is at it’s optimal best, too.
- Tasting notes
- Food pairings
- Glassware guide
- Wine facts to impress
- Common label terms
- And you’ll dare to expand your palate with new wine varieties
So, I was just in Italy, gratis of Mick Yurch of Bluest Sky Group. I now have many stories to share of being at Castello di Meleto in Chianti and Colonarra Viticultori in Cupramontana… This one relates to a Kelvin conversation, and is worth sharing, because it relates to New York retailer Daniel Posner of Grapes The Wine Company, located in White Plains, New York… another wine and techno geek.
I asked Daniel if he has any items in his store, besides wine. (Just curious.) No, he doesn’t, but I still explained why I had asked. I told him about Kelvin K2 and I saw his heart skip a beat, as his eyes opened wide. “It does what?” he asked.
I’ve already ordered one for him as a thank you, because he was looking out for me as I dropped behind on all tours, while taking copious images. I know I’m spreading more joy in the wine gadget department, and now Kelvin is going to be really fun for him, too. (It’s now my go-to gift for When a Wine Lover and Electronic Geek Collide.)
If you’ve got a wine lover, who’s also very techno geeky, this is better than giving diamonds to him or her, seriously.
Image: Jose and friend Sue Straight, The Wine Wench. This made Sue’s visit with us pretty memorable, just as it claims to do. Although, instead of “wine facts to impress,” it was “wine gadgets to impress a fellow wine geek” this time.
Either way, it’s win-win… Or, in this case, wine-wine… Ciao!
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