If you’re really serious about your wine and don’t mind splurging on your hobby, then you might fancy the Vivant Venus G2 wine chiller that not only keeps your wine at the right temperature but also suggests food pairing through an AI sommelier chatbot.
The portable electronic wine chiller, which goes on sale in Singapore today, keeps wine at a constant temperature of between 8 degC and 20 degC, depending on your preference and the type of wine involved.
White wines are typically served colder between 7 degC and 13 degC, while reds are better at 13 degC to 18 degC.
Even in an air-conditioned room, not to mention Singapore’s warm tropical weather in an outdoor area, wine drinkers here usually find their wines getting warmer over time.
The Vivant Venus G2 helps cool your wine at the right temperature using a Peltier active cooling surface, along with infrared sensing to ensure things run according to your preference.
Being portable, the Venus G2 lets you have your drink anywhere at home. Just slot your regular-sized (750ml) bottle of Domaine de la Romanee Conti (DRC) into the wine chiller at your favourite spot.
Do note, however, that the wine chiller’s 5,500mAh battery lets it run for between 2.5 hours and four hours, according to Vivant, a Taiwanese company. If you need to nurse your drink over a long evening, consider plugging it in.
Unlike an iced bucket, the Vivant wine chiller doesn’t worry you with pools of water (from condensation) or having to empty a big tub of melted ice after a champagne party. With it, you won’t have your DRC wine label all wet, either.
The Venus G2, the latest in Vivant’s range of wine chiller, comes with what the company calls an AI sommelier as well. Okay, it’s a chatbot that won’t replace a real expert, but it’s a fancy feature for a fancy gadget, you can say.
Available on the Vivant app, the AI sommelier promises pairing suggestions if you describe a food menu to it. It also syncs the recommended temperature with the wine chiller, and offers a suggested decanting time for your bottle of wine.
How much do all these features cost? A cool S$700. For that price, you can also buy a quite stunning Bordeaux first-growth wine, though not a DRC (which costs thousands).
Notably, Vivant also has another more expensive – and elegant looking – wine chiller that costs S$1,000. That one chills a decanter instead of a bottle of wine.
So, the Venus G2 is a slightly more affordable option. Will it sell? Well, it could attract wine lovers who love the latest gadgets, or those with cases of DRC at home who just want to wow their guests. Restaurants might fancy it too.
