Representative example:
This looks like woo – but is it?
Highly likely to be woo but they are very unlikely to want to do any testing to prove it.
As they are making clear claims regarding the chemical alteration of the wine and positive physiological effects then a properly constructed, double-blind test using readily available benchtop equipment and a sturdy protocol will show if any of their claims hold water.
I’m betting no.
But the process is Patented! And there are almost 10,000 ratings with an average score of 4.3 out of 5!
One-time (i.e. one per glass of wine) use, and the cheapest they get with bulk buying is still nearly $2. I think I know everything I need to know.
I’ve read a number of reviews for this product, and here is what I’ve gathered…
It might do what claim it does, in as much as that the product claims to remove sulfites. I haven’t found anything to discredit that claim.
However, the claim that it prevents hangovers is bunk. Hangovers come primarily from alcohol itself, and as the product creators themselves admit, it doesn’t change the alcohol amount. (This is actually something they claim to be a benefit, actually.)
The usefulness of removing sulfites is debatable. People who are sensitive to wine consumption and get sick usually do so because of the tannins in wine, and this does nothing to counter that. Maybe 1% of the US population has a sensitivity specific to sulfites.
The product itself consists of single-use disposable filters that are very expensive. Even if the product gave all the benefits they claim, just the cost of them makes me question why you’d bother.
I haven’t found any tests that support or debunk whether the item removes sulfites, but even if it does, so what?
Without evidence of any peer-reviewed studies (there’s no indication they were done, though there are graphs on the company’s website purporting to show marked removal of histamines), I’m skeptical that either of the company’s products, the stirring wand* or filter 1) do an effective job of histamine and sulfite removal, and that 2) people’s tolerance of wine improves after use.
*you’re supposed to use the disposal wand to stir the wine in your glass for three minutes, which should make you popular with guests you dine with. 
And just think of the sneer you’ll get from the sommelier.
With the filter, you just insert it into the bottle and pour out the wine through it.
By sheer coincidence, a PureWine ad just turned up on my Facebook feed.
About what I figured. Thanks, you all.
(Removing histamines? Like what? Actual motes of pollen?)
Well I could tell in a single weekend at some point, my roomie is allergic to sulphites and all we would need is to give her a glass of wine and one of those sticks on Saturday, and 24 hours later have her drink an identical glass [brand, year whatever] of the wine without the stir thingy. If she gets a headache both days, it doesn’t work.
There are lots of devices that work to filter this or that chemical from water. I would think “removed sulfites from wine” is a perfectly plausible claim that would be easy to get a reputable lab to test. No double blind study necessary. Just like the water filters that claim to remove lead and chlorine. (Those are all chemical filters, not mechanical ones.)
I wasn’t aware that sulfites in wine caused any harm, except to the tiny fraction of the population that’s sensitive to them. I suppose you might want a study to verify that claim.
Here’s their main patent:
It doesn’t immediately strike me as bunk. They use resin ion exchange beads as the absorption medium. They have experimental data to back up their claims.
Whether there is any real-world effect (i.e., reduction in headaches) is less clear.
Hard to imagine that an ion exchange resin can be selective enough to target histamines but not grab a whole host of other components.
Furthermore, an exchange resin releases something back into the solvent. That is the whole point of exchange.
None of this is going to leave the wine unchanged and I doubt the changes are all good.
Sulphites are pretty reactive (it’s part of what makes them work as preservatives), so it’s theoretically possible that they could be significantly reduced in a solution by passing it through some medium to which the sulphites would react and bind insolubly…
… do I believe that’s what is happening here? Not really, although I am surprised that they’re making a claim about mitigation of allergic reactions; Mrs Mangetout has a life-threatening allergy* to sulphites. I would not for one moment think that stirring wine with a fancy stick is going to make it safe.
*Sulphite allergies are weird - it’s not actually the sulphites that the victim is allergic to, but rather it’s an allergy to proteins from their own body, after they have been denatured by reaction with the sulphites - so it’s sort of like a sulphite-mediated autoimmune reaction.
However none of this fascinating detail matters when your airway is swelling shut - treatment is as for anaphylaxis as it is with any other allergy where the cause is directly related to an ingested protein.
I was thinking along the same lines- how are they going to filter/adsorb/whatever the sulfites/“histamines” without materially changing the character of the wine?
Agreed. And to be clear, by “bunk” I meant something along the lines of homeopathy or magnets or crystals or pyramid power or the like. None of which would have any effect on the wine whatsoever, even in principle. That’s my general starting expectation for this kind of thing.
Their product is doing something; whether that something is good or not is a different question entirely.