For those who don’t know the Coravin system it is a utensil “made in the USA” invented a few months back, allowing for those wishing to drink a glass of vintage wine without opening the bottle.

The system is designed as follows; a long and thin needle is inserted into the cork in order to extract the wine, but without allowing air to enter and hence preventing the oxidation of the wine. The space left free by the wine is replenished with Argon an inert gas that does not affect the wine in any manner.

This revolutionary system had made the buzz a few months back; even Robert Parker had named it “the killer device”! Coravin had received the 2014 innovation prize, as well as the “Edison Awards” gold medal.

However the Coravin system might present a few flaws. Several complaints might have been filed to the makers of the utensil following the explosion of several bottles, with the risk of laceration and cuts. The firm has asked its clients to stop using the Coravin system. It has also stopped the sales and further commercialization of their product. The solution: a neoprene “sock” its purpose being that of reinforcing the bottle and prevent glass shards from causing injury… the firm has advised users not to use the device on bottles larger than 75 cl. Or having unusual or irregular shapes.

Conclusion: for a revolutionary system sold at 250€ and each gas refill at 8€, the use of the device is rather limited since it can only be used on bottles with real cork stoppers, classic shaped and only 75 cl bottles, with a neoprene sock before one even starts using the utensil… rather disappointing, one could say.