There is no way a magnet could speed up the aging of a wine.
Personally, I'd run (not walk) away from this shop owner, as who knows
what else he's willing to foist off on you.

I will pass along a way to age a very young wine if you want to drink
it right away. Decant half a bottle, place your hand over the opening
of the bottle, and shake like mad for 10 seconds. Do the same with
the decanted portion. It'll age the wine like one of those
quickly-flipping calendars they used to put in movies to show time
passing quickly. About 2 hours later, the wine will be dead as a
doornail from having been completely oxidized, so drink up! Now if
the $40 buys you a set-up where the magnet is a stir-bar like they
used to use in chemistry class that spins and pulls a vortex of air
through the wine, then the owner is not quite as much of a twit as
they sound, but I kinda doubt that's what they're selling.

By the way, I was told this tip originally by a Napa valley tour
guide, and have successfully gotten this to work twice in the past 6
years. I've also heard that leaving a bottle in a hot car trunk for
an afternoon also ages a young wine quickly, but that's just a rumor
that I'd prefer not to try to prove out. :-)

Rob


"Vic Whirlwind" > wrote in message >. ..
> I recently went into a wine supply store, and the shop owner told me about a
> new product that supposedly "ages" the wine in about 30 minutes. It costs
> about $40 and is made mostly of magnets. Has anybody here had any
> experience with such a device or know anything about it? If it would make
> it quicker to age my wines, I would be more than happy to pay for one.
> However, I do not want to fall for a gimmick designed to lure in winemakers
> who can't bear to wait for wines to age.
>
> I would appreciate any help.
>
> Vic