
A system that pours a glass of wine without opening the bottle - appplemac
http://www.coravin.com
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tacostakohashi
Drinking the whole bottle seems like a much better solution to this problem.

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jnks
Way more fun, at least.

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wvl
The Sweethome likes it, but it's expensive:

> "We tested the $300 Coravin system against Private Preserve, comparing
> bottles of wine that’d been saved for five days against a fresh bottle.
> While the Coravin-preserved bottle tasted more like the brand-new one, its
> price makes it impractical for many wine drinkers; it’s better suited for
> restaurant use, or serious oenophiles. For everyone else, Private Preserve
> is still the way to go."

[http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-way-to-keep-open-
wine-f...](http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-way-to-keep-open-wine-fresh/)

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JumpCrisscross
> _It’s better suited for restaurant use,_

I'm a wine enthusiast with a restless palette. Even if I adored the last
glass, I'll want something different next. This makes me a bad fit for bottles
(in small groups).

Consider the restauranteur offering wine by the glass. On the upside, glasses
(should) deliver a larger margin than whole bottles. On the downside, unsold
product is thrown out. This is why high-volume low- and moderately-priced
wines sell by the glass. Lower-volume wines would be thrown out too often. The
higher price point would make that wastage more painful.

In New York, the Coravin system has saved me from having to choose between
often mediocre wines and locking down to a bottle. It makes volume less
critical, to the wine bar, in choosing which wines to offer by the glass. The
palette thus broadens.

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_Adam
$11 per proprietary argon capsule. Each capsule can pour 75oz, or about 3
standard wine bottles. Not too bad, if you're serving high end wines.

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appplemac
I wonder if there will be a grey / black market for non-original capsules.
Seems promising since, as far as I know, argon is not _that_ expensive to buy.

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mattmaroon
I've used the Pek Preservino system for years. Their argon comes in the same
little cartridges as N2O or CO2 for siphons. In fact, I just started using N2O
since it works well enough for just a couple days.

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huhtenberg
Looked it up. $12 for 4 cartridges, or $80 for 30 cartridges. That's pretty
humane.

But given that Coravin has a separate page for their board of directors, each
with a full bio and a mugshot, I think it's safe to assume that their
cartridges are non-standard.

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ytjohn
Seems like a great way of injecting poison into an unopened bottle of wine.
I'll have to look into this for my next job.

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danmaz74
I remember a very old episode of Columbo where an air capsule system to open
wine bottles was used for poisoning...

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usefulcat
I remember that episode, it was quite good. Saw it on netflix a while back.

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sz4kerto
I've used this a couple of times. It's good to test whether you want to drink
the wine at a certain; they had some problems with breaking bottles but
according to them it was a problem with the bottle.

I lost my faith in >$100/bottle wines though, so I don't care of this any
more.

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GhotiFish
>Coravin’s proprietary argon gas capsule

good lord. Why must every product do this? Why? Whyyyy? Just make something
good. Make something that works and is practical. I don't want to be taken for
a ride. I don't want to be on a treadmill. I want something that doesn't make
me dependent on a company that could go under at any time.

Every time I see stuff like this, the more cynical I become.

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fredophile
Has anyone tried any of these systems for anything other than wine? I like
scotch but it also reacts with air after the bottle is opened. Obviously this
system wouldn't work because the cork on a bottle of scotch has a plastic cap
attached at the top. At $100+ for a good bottle of scotch I'd be willing to
invest this kind of money for something that worked.

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steveax
The high levels of ethanol in spirits slow the oxidation down tremendously.
Unless you're taking over a year to go through a bottle I wouldn't sweat it.
If you're worried about it, you could always transfer the spirits to smaller
bottles after opening to minimize the air space.

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fredophile
I would say taking over a year to go through an expensive scotch isn't
unreasonable if you have multiple bottles open.

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shalbert
If you're not a wine enthusiast, this simply doesn't seem like a product worth
anybody's time of day. However, it must be noted that this is an excellent
idea for wine preservation. Just think about how great it must be to save an
expensive bottle from needing quick consumption before it experience's the
perils of too much oxygen.

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FigBug
Looks pretty cool, but isn't cork on the way out? Will it work with a screw
top as well?

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mattmaroon
The cork should be on its way out, but if it is, it will be really slow. The
better technologies (screw tops, bag in a box) are associated with cheap
wines. It will be a long time before any substantial number of $20+ wines use
them as a result. The wine makers would quite rather 10% of their product go
bad and have to be refunded than have it be thought of as Franzia. (I have
seen a lot more synthetic corks popping up, and this product might work with
those.)

It's the same with beer and cans.

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sjtrny
Depends where you live. Here in Australia twist top is king. Most bottles you
buy that are <$40 from 2011 onwards are twist tops (excluding carbonated,
people like to pop the cork even if it's a synthetic one). In recent trips to
the US I've noticed that it isn't as popular. People there seem to think twist
top is cheap or tacky.

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kghose
For the person who has no time to put the cork back in the bottle ...

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jsprogrammer
And who wants vendor lock-in with "proprietary argon gas capsules".

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pat2man
I assume they have a patent on it so it's unlikely that we will see any
generic equivalent for a while.

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gyardley
Maybe, but I doubt it - machines using inert gas to preserve and pour wine
have been around since Enomatic in the '70s. The only thing new here is the
cheap price point.

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JonnieCache
The real innovation here is they've invented an even more irritating and
powerful way of breaking the back button.

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deeviant
Well, to be honest, they also managed to pull off another feat: They
overcosted initial price PLUS insanely costed consumables.

Truly, a gadget fit for a king(or people that don't like money).

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xg15
I'm looking forward to the face of the guy who uses this to open the $2500
wine bottle and then gets the needle stuck in it...

