Bottoms Up

Lots of wine paraphernalia is hitting the market at a dismal economic time. I know one manufacturer who can’t get his fantastic product into the market place. Despite continued wine sales, most merchants he’s targeting say they aren’t taking any new products any time soon. And his product works!

Unfortunately, others don’t. I love the concept behind Wine Wipes, which are manufactured by Oceano-based Borracha, Inc. The wipes smell like orange blossoms and are designed to remove red wine stains in a jiffy from the teeth and lips.

On two separate occasions, including Thanksgiving, I tried the wipes and had four friends guzzling Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Alicante Bouschet try them as well. We’re not all supertasters, but those of us who do have sensitive palates could not tolerate the salty taste. The press literature  says “the flavoring is a bit salty to help neutralize the palate” but I would call it extremely salty, which, along with bitterness, is actually death to most wine palates.

As for the mirror, it’s one of those fake foggy kinds, so we all had to use the mirror in the bathroom to judge the effect properly. Overall, we found that the wipes removed the stains from our lips but not our teeth. One friend whose teeth turn black with red wine (poor guy) noticed an improvement, but the stains didn’t go away. Those of us with minor to medium stains didn’t notice any improvement.

Try it for yourself. Twenty wipes come in a pocket-sized compact with a mirror and retail for $6.95 on the Wine Wipes web site.