Patent Application
20170165618
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N/A
This invention relates to the method and apparatus for wine and spirits aeration as may be found in current U.S. classification 99/277.2.
This invention was not made under contract with an agency of the US Government, nor by any agency of the US Government.
Aeration of wine and spirits is a common technique for improving the flavor of wine and spirits largely due to the oxidation of tannins. Tannins are present in wine and spirits, particularly full bodied, red wines that have been bottled within a few years of consumption. Tannins make the flavor of wine and spirits more astringent or bitter. Tannins slowly break down in the anaerobic environment within unopened wine and spirits bottles as years pass, but the process is accelerated to seconds in an aerobic environment. Dissolved oxygen quickly reacts with tannins, effectively accelerating the aging of wine and spirits. There is an optimum range of time as over several hours of exposure to oxygen, the flavor of wine will turn negatively.
There are many methods of aerating wine and spirits. The most basic method is to open the wine or spirits bottle and let it sit for 30 minutes to hours prior to serving. However, a wine or spirits bottle has such a narrow profile that it provides very little wine or spirit to air surface area to dissolve oxygen from air into the wine or spirits to oxidize tannins. Moreover, with no stirring or agitation, only the layer of wine or spirits near the air surface is oxygenated. Thus, the process is often too lengthy for practical use.
A somewhat improved method of aerating wine and spirits is decanting. A decanter is an open container with an enlarged lower section designed such that its widest area occurs at the 750 mL volume level, the typical volume of a bottle of wine or spirit. A decanter thus provides enlarged wine or spirit to air surface area for enhanced aeration of wine or spirits. Disadvantages of this method include the volume of wine or spirits aerated per batch is fixed at 750 mL, while wine drinking continues to migrate away from bottles to single serving since the invention of bag-in-box packaging (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,474,933, Oct. 28, 1969, Malpas, et al.). Other disadvantages of decanting include the time required for effective aeration is lengthy at 15 minutes to hours, decanters can be fragile, large to store and carry, are thus not easily portable if traveling and require cleaning after use, especially considering that sediment from wine will settle in the bottom of the decanter.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,807,358 (Aug. 19, 2014, Joseph Devoy, et al.) teaches an aerating bottle spout. The spout is affixed to the wine bottle after opening. While pouring, wine passes through the spout as air displaces its volume in the wine bottle, momentarily passing one another. The actual time of this operation is quite short and the volume of air to which the wine is exposed is the same as the volume of wine in the bottle due to direct displacement. As a result, no appreciable effect is realized by this or other aerating spouts. Aerating spouts are only applicable to wine packaged in bottles.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,925,443 (Jan. 6, 2015, Dhruv Agarwal, et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,614 (Nov. 10, 2009, Sabadicci et al.) each teach a wine aerator apparatus wherein the flow of wine through a Venturi tube creates a slight vacuum consistent with Bernoulli's principle. Passages allow air to flow into the slight vacuum and intermix with the wine. In practicality, the change in velocity of flowing wine over the short height difference is ineffective to develop a strong vacuum induced air flow for thorough aeration of wine. Additionally, the small air passageways are difficult to clean and thus commonly plug.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,567,305, 8,561,970, 6,508,163, 5,595,104, 4,785,724 and 4,494,452 and US Patent Application numbers 20140263461 and 20100058933 all teach to various methods of aerating wine while still in the wine bottle, using an immersed bubbler. None offer thorough aeration to the extent required to make a noticeable reduction in astringency due to oxidation of tannins since only a central column within the wine is exposed to a few large bubbles without much wine to air surface area. These devices are only applicable to wine packaged in bottles. If these devices are inserted in a freshly opened bottle of wine, displacement from the device and bubbles will cause overflow of the wine from the bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,543,978 (Jun. 9, 2009, Lisa W. Clement) teaches a wine stopper with a traditional hand operated whisk attached to the top. It lacks motive means, energy supply, aeration head and drive-shaft. Substantial time and effort would be required to operate the whisk to the degree required for effective wine aeration. If the user was traveling, the device would be difficult to clean and would be somewhat awkward to carry, especially when dripping with wine from recent use.
One recent discovery was that an entire bottle of wine could be poured into a food processor and mixed for a few seconds (see http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/magazine/how-to-decant-wine-with-a-blender-09222011.html). The inventors tested the process and found it is quite effective. The short time of operation is counteracted by the thorough aeration inside of the food processor. Disadvantages of this process are food processors are large to store, treat large volumes of wine incompatible with current trends toward single serving from bag-in-box packages, are not easily portable if traveling, are not self-powered, and require thorough cleaning after use.
US Patent Application Number 20050029685 (Feb. 10, 2005, Hang Zhao) teaches a long cowl from an air inlet port to an air outlet port, an agitator, and a rotational drive-shaft. For motive means, it mentions only a separate “hand held motor” without further explanation of how it would work. It is specifically designed for “temporary connection” to a motor housing with a motor to be coupled to the drive-shaft. It makes no mention of wine or spirits. Note that the wide cowling will prevent it from actually entering most wine glasses. Since it teaches toward the frothing of milk, it cannot teach toward aeration of wine or spirits.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,035 (May 6, 2003, Gary Arron Lane) teaches an electric mixing whisk, specifically directed toward “ . . . frothing milk for use in specialty coffees . . . ”, and thus cannot teach to a method of aerating wine or spirits.
It is well established doctrine that a new use may be made for an old device, in fact, Congress codified this well established doctrine in 1952 as 35 USC Sec. 100 (b): “The term “process” means process, art or method, and includes a new use of a known process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or material.” It is worth noting that nothing in recent court cases regarding “abstract ideas” can overturn this statutory authority.
IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology (see: http://goldbook.iupac.org/) defines “froth” (used interchangeably with foam) and “aeration” as follows:
It would be preferable to provide a self-powered, hand-held wine and spirits aeration apparatus and method of use, substantially similar to an electric mixing whisk directed toward the process of frothing milk. Such an apparatus would allow wine and spirits to be aerated in a single serving size container, with intense aeration for a short duration of seconds, offering portability and easy cleaning by simply centripetally spinning off excess wine or spirits.
The present invention teaches a method of aerating wine and spirits, and thus reducing the astringent flavors, using a hand held unit having an electric motor, battery, switch or button and supporting electrical circuitry to cause the rotation of a drive-shaft affixed to an aeration head that is immersed in wine or spirits in a single serving container. When activated, the aeration head creates a plurality of fine air bubbles resulting in large wine or spirit to air surface area simultaneous with stirring to ensure uniform aeration of wine and spirits throughout the container. As bubbles rise to the surface and collapse, the process may be extended introducing fresh air bubbles until the desired reduction in tannin derived astringency is achieved to the user's personal discretion, usually in a matter of seconds.
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The housing 102 may be constructed from any number of structural materials including metals and plastics. The battery support may also be constructed from any number of structural materials including metals and plastics provided there is electrical isolation between the electrical contacts, sufficient restraining force to support a standard battery or batteries, and maintain sufficient pressure on the electrical contacts to sustain electrical current at low voltage (<20V). Wiring may be of any electrically conductive material such as copper or aluminum, and is typically coated with an electrically insulating material such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The wiring may be crimped, soldered or any other means of creating electrical contact to the battery support, switch and motor. The switch is a subassembly of components that create an electrically conductive path when closed and are otherwise electrically open. The switch may be of the momentary type wherein constant pressure is required to remain in the closed position, or of the maintained type wherein a single actuation closes the switch and another actuation is required to open the switch. The motor is a direct-current, low voltage type appropriate for operation by standard batteries (<20V). The drive shaft and helical aeration head may be plated steel, stainless steel, other metal or plastic that are safe for food contact and durable.
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Note that these methods are not mutually exclusive and in embodiments may be used together. Throughout this application, various publications, patents, and/or patent applications are referenced in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. The disclosures of these publications, patents, and/or patent applications are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties, and for the subject matter for which they are specifically referenced in the same or a prior sentence, to the same extent as if each independent publication, patent, and/or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.
Methods and components are described herein. However, methods and components similar or equivalent to those described herein can be also used to obtain variations of the present invention. The materials, articles, components, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.
Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above, other embodiments are possible and the inventors intend these to be encompassed within this specification. The specification describes specific examples to accomplish a more general goal that may be accomplished in another way. This disclosure is intended to be exemplary, and the claims are intended to cover any modification or alternative which might be predictable to a person having ordinary skill in the art.
Having illustrated and described the principles of the invention in exemplary embodiments, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the described examples are illustrative embodiments and can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. Techniques from any of the examples can be incorporated into one or more of any of the other examples. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
