Please meet the Coravin, a $300 wine opener that is praised both as “revolutionary” and derided as “superfluous” amongst the wine drinking set. Buzzfeed digs deeper to explore the many perspectives on the gadget that “does a seemingly impossible thing” and allows wine extraction from a bottle without ever opening it. A needle is inserted through the cork, siphons out wine, and fills the space in the bottle with argon gas, preserving the liquid indefinitely.
Through a history of the Coravin (its unsurprising medical origins), splashy photographs that show how the thing operates, and substantial input from industry experts, Rachel Sanders surveys the Coravin’s place in the wine world and beyond. The writer raises the point that “a gadget that measures out individual portions of wine, especially when it resembles some kind of predatory microscope, could just be the latest depressing symbol of a tech-obsessed, deeply selfish, single-serve consumer culture”—whether or not the thing looks unsexy or is transformational on the service end, it is “inherently lonely.” PUNCH’s own Talia Baiocchi admits a bit of romance dissipates with measures of efficiency, but it could prove to be advantageous for the bar and restaurant industry allowing rare wines to be tasted and sold by the glass skirting commitment to an entire bottle. That Barolo you’ve always wanted to try, but can’t afford? That unicorn riesling? Just stick a needle in it. [Buzzfeed]