I have always had just a sliver of doubt as to whether a wine bottle that has been coravined might be affected negatively in some way…especially when a significant portion is taken. I don’t have any justification for this doubt, but just wonder if all that space in the bottle is really gas and that no air got in. Well, I was doing some cellar inventory and discovered five bottles of a 2010 Gigondas I didn’t realize I had.
One of them was coravined with about 40% of the wine gone. It has to be at least four years ago that I coravined that bottle. So, I had some outside skirt steak ready for the grill last night and decided to pop that bottle. I honestly didn’t expect it to be good…even though it was a Wine Spectator 95 and Parker 94 rated wine…there was that little sliver of doubt because of the coravin. Was I ever wrong. It was absolutely delicious and didn’t even show signs of age. Moving forward I have 100% trust and confidence in my coravin!
How do they actually age after Coravin has been used on them?
Given this experience for me, that is the whole point…the coravin has no affect whatsoever on the aging of a wine. At least that is what I now believe.
Interesting. Just last evening I finished a bottle of Brunello that I had coravined on Monday evening. The sampling Monday showed tight and ungiving while last evening’s sampling was evolved and beautiful. I think there must be some air in there, how much, who knows.
this is interesting to read as I stopped using my coravin a couple years ago. (caution -anecdotal experience:) we jumped on coravin the first month they were available and used it for a high-end tasting program. we accessed probably a thousand wines over three or four years. i found that almost every wine behaved differently in response to coravin, and it really mattered how often it had been accessed. a few wines were indestructible but most wines evolved gradually - faster than they would have without accessing. we typically pulled corks on wines that had been tapped more than a month ago or several times in close succession
That’s good news in this case, but I’m not sure it proves that Coravin is reliable or consistent, particularly over that time span. Some wines are more resistant to oxygen exposure than others because of their chemical make-up, and 2010 was a pretty structured year in the Rhone, I believe (ample tannins and acid).
Moreover, you didn’t taste it blindly next to one of your other bottles. That would have been the real test!
Finally, preservation isn’t just a matter of exposure to oxygen. The evaporation of aroma compounds is a major factor, and injecting inert gas doesn’t stop that process, which can result in a less potent nose.
There’s lots of counter-evidence from others here, who have seen some Coravined wines deteriorate over several weeks.
I pulled a Quivet Cab from my cellar a couple months ago that was only 1/2 full and I don’t own a Coravin! Had to have been from a tasting with Mike a few years prior due to the vintage. Anyhow the wine was fantastic.
Then again I have had wines go bad after having been stuck with the needle only a few weeks prior. I think it depends in your cork and it’s a case by case thing.
Awe shucks! You guys have reinstalled some of that sliver of doubt I freed myself from. If I hadn’t posted my experience I could have lived happily ever after in my little bubble of coravin confidence. Darn it all!
probably bottle by bottle depending on cork.
For me observing one bottle where it stayed fresh is not something I would extrapolate as proof it can do this for all bottles and repeatedly. I love these type devices but have certainly seen cases where the wines have been exposed to some oxygen and taste accordingly. These are the minority but it does happen. I also typically drink these bottle over a few weeks and it works wonders. In my experience older corks are more prone to potential oxygen exposure and would have to guess repeated samples would do the same.
What do most of you feel is the general amount of time Corvain is good for? To stretch a bottle out over a week? Month? Longer?
I’ve had the same experience albeit less than 5 years. But I’ve also had bad experiences in much less time.
I think one example is not “proof” other than to say it’s possible to Coravin a bottle and have no issues. I think a lot is dependent on the cork type and condition as well as ensuring you use the Coravin properly to prevent oxygen from being introduced.
Someone did a study on it: http://www.techniquesinhomewinemaking.com/attachments/File/Coravin%20Performance%20Study%20Paper%20v0.1.pdf
Based on that, shouldn’t go much more than a month and lines up with my practical experience—it doesn’t go “bad” that quickly but you can tell it has matured more than should be expected.
If someone is curious, they should buy a case of cheap wine, Coravin half the bottle from half the bottles and then do a blind tasting a year later. My guess is there will be a noticeable difference in half of the glasses.
You nailed it John. I love my coravin but use it as a short/mid-term preservation device on 'younger bottles (call it 20 years or less). In that sense, it works incredibly well! I’ve had more variable results with older bottles due to the corks being unpredictable, and as such have stopped using it with those. I also pop the cork once it’s down to about 1/4 of the bottle, as i do notice the wine start to detereriate quicker once the fill level is that low.
Funny this topic hit today. I was planning a coravin sampling evening tonight with six of my best pinot. I’ve noticed comments based on “make-up” of wine. Does anyone think pinots are more susceptible to bad performance after being coravin’d?
Paul,
Kind of like asking the question - how long can you still continue to drink a bottle of wine once you’ve opened it? There are countless potential answers and it’s hard to generalize based on the chemistry of the wine, the wine the wine was made, the closure, etc.
What I generally find is that once a bottle is more than 40% consumed or so, it doesn’t matter what system you use - the wine generally does not hold up that well. Are there exceptions? Of course there are - but in general, that’s what I’ve found . . .
Cheers!
This is amazing. It completely confirms my experience, and it’s nice to see the science behind it. I try not to access more than 1-2 times before opening the remainder and to not keep longer than 3 weeks based on personal experience. But despite the limitations, I still love and use my Coravin regularly especially on young wine.
Key is to do a quick purge of the needle before you access the wine. When I do this, the wine holds up indefinitely. If I forget, it seems that small amount of oxygen introduced starts to affect the wine. Just my experience.
Some other things to think about:
- Was air expressed from the needle prior to cork insertion?
- Was the wine stored on its side or standing upright?
- Temperature of storage after puncture?
4.cork condition- I have actually jammed toothpicks into the hole in the cork. I do not bother anymore.
Having used a newer model and the model 11, I have yet to have a bottle taste as fresh as day one with only 2-3 days of being back in the cellar.
Put differently, every coravined bottle is more advanced after the second day.
That is not the end result I am looking for.