Coravin – keeping wine fresh indefinitely

I went to the launch of Coravin in Ireland yesterday – a revolutionary pouring device that has been the talk of the wine world over the last few years. Founder Greg Lambrecht was there to give a very persuasive argument in favour of his system over anything else that has gone before. He is obviously a very bright guy, working as a nuclear engineer before starting several companies that invented new medical devices. Lambrecht became frustrated when his wife was pregnant. A wine-lover since his teenage years, he couldn’t drink an entire bottle of wine every night over dinner. Besides ideally he wanted a glass of white wine, then one of red, and possibly a glass of dessert wine too. And so he started off on a twelve-year process that was eventually to lead to Coravin. Having contacts in the medical world proved very useful; the Coravin uses a fine Teflon-coated needle and high quality argon gas.

Greg Lambrecht and the Coravin

‘We remove the best wine preserver – a cork – to get at the wine’, says Lambrecht. ‘But what if we didn’t have to? I wanted to be able to drink whatever glass of wine I felt like, and then move on to something else. I wanted to try six different wines if the mood took me.’ He focused on how to extract the wine without introducing any oxygen. The upshot is a very smart small piece of equipment that looks a little like a microscope. It has clamps to grip the bottle, a long thin needle that goes through the cork, and a capsule of argon gas that automatically replaces the wine as you pour out the desired quantity through a spout. Once you remove the needle, the cork springs back to reseal itself. It doesn’t work on screw caps and with difficulty on plastic corks, but apparently does on DIAM and composite corks. Coravin claims the wine will remain fresh for months if not years.

There are other wine-preservation systems such as the Enomatic, but that is expensive and works best for multiple bottles; good for restaurants but not practical for home use. The Vacu-Vin and related Verre de Vin systems work for a short period. Nothing else performs for as long or as reliably as the Coravin promises. If it works it will be a real boon for a wine enthusiast; imagine being able to pour a glass of you’re a particular fine wine, reseal it and then try it again six months later. It will certainly offer great opportunities for lovers of vintage port and dessert wines; you really only ever want a glass or two after dinner. It should allow restaurants to offer a huge range of wines by the glass without fear of being left with an opened bottle that is rapidly oxidising. It could also allow wine shops to offer their customers multiple samples before they buy. And does it work? Well Jancis Robinson and Robert Parker are both big fans. Ch. Margaux uses it to test their wines before sending them abroad for tastings. At the launch we tried four wines before the bottles were sealed again. Apparently we will be invited back in three months to see how the wines are faring. I was also promised a trial model to use at home. I will keep you posted!

The Coravin
Photo: Paul Sherwood

The Coravin is distributed by Findlaters WS, and is available through various retail shops including Jus de Vine, Redmonds and O’Briens for €299. A replacement capsule costs €19.99 and will work for around thirty glasses of wine.

TWO AUSTRIAN WINEMAKERS

Two of my favourite Austrian wine producers were in Dublin this week conducting tastings and holding dinners with people from The Corkscrew. I got to one in Thornton’s. Some great wines.

Fritz Wieninger and Johannes Hirsch

WIENINGER

Fritz Wieninger has 35 hectares of vines up in the hills surrounding Vienna. His family ran a heurige, a Viennese tradition of winery/pub/wine bar that offers wine by the glass or bottle along with some food. Fritz has taken the winemaking side into a different league and is today the best producer in Vienna and one of the greatest in Austria.

We tried several of his ‘Gemischter Satz’, wines made from a field blend of many different grape varieties. This is another Viennese tradition. The first, from several vineyards, was a delicious fresh spring-like glass of wine; the sort that makes you want another sip, and then another – the kind of thing you would love to come across in a Heurige. The second from his Nussberg vineyard, reckoned to be the finest site in Vienna, was altogether more serious, a rich concentrated wine with lovely mineral traces too. We then moved on to his Nussberg Riesling 2013, a wonderful pure textured wine with racy green fruits and excellent length.

Later in the tasting (the two winemakers tic-tacked) we returned to Wieninger’s Chardonnay Select 2013, his Trilogie (Zweigelt/Merlot/Cabernet) and his Pinot Noir Select. Apparently he made his name in Austria with these three wines. I enjoyed the Chardonnay, but was less impressed with the two reds; possibly the Viennese prefer this style and have too many great white wines from others? Good wines but I thought the first three white wines were the standouts.

Kevin Thornton’s Smokin’ Scallops

HIRSCH

I have been visiting the Hirsch stand at Vievinum, the great biennial Austrian wine fair, for many years now. I have a soft spot for the Kamptal anyway – the more elegant refreshing style is right up my street, and the region boasts some of Austria’ greatest producers – Scloss Gobelsburg, Bründlmayer, Loimer, Jurtschitsch and others besides. I have always put Johannes Hirsch right up there with the very best, and it is great to see his wines return to Ireland after a few years absence.

At the tasting we worked our way through three vintages of his Zöbinger Gaisberg Riesling, one of his two great single vineyard Rieslings. The 2008 and 2009 were very good and very different in style, with a little more residual sugar, but the 2010 was the star wine of the entire day, a youthful but beautifully structured wine with distinctive flavours of orange peel and juice, a refreshing acidity and wonderful length.

Three 2013 Grüner Veltliners, from three different vineyards were fascinating, but here the Lamm was a real star. Hirsch has 33 hectares of vines. He was one of the first to put his wines under Stelvin (screw-cap) and says one Austrian magazine asked his readers to boycott his wines for this crime! As a result he suggests decanting his wines before serving to allow them develop.

STAR BUYS

I would certainly love a few bottles of the Wieninger Gemischter Satz 2014 for €17.50, and the excellent Nussberg Riesling €28.50 seems very reasonably priced.

The Corkscrew has the Hirsch Riesling Gaisberg and the Grüner Veltliner Lamm from 2013, both for €47.95 – expensive but well worth it, and a match for most burgundy at the same price or more. The Riesling Zöbing 2013 at €24.95 would serve as a very good introduction to the house.