After the initial breathless praise and what I perceived to be some revisionism that followed, I wonder where users are now on the Corvain. Is it useful? If so, for what? Are there viable (better?) alternatives?
My drinking habits have changed rather dramatically over the last few years and the idea is now far more appealing to me than it once was, so I am trying to catch up. TIA
I have one, however Iām personally not a huge fan of using it. Maybe Iām convincing myself but I swear the quality of the wine changes after I pull the cork of a bottle that I have Coravinād prior
Conceptually I love it. There are lots of time I want to just have a glass but since I donāt seem to love the results I donāt use it much anymore.
Your mileage may vary!
I have used it for years. I stick with relatively young wines. And I donāt let them go more than a month. It is just like having my own āwine by the glass programā at home.
Anything that is older and likely to have sediment I avoid.
For me it is a useful portion control tool as well.
Tell me about the sediment issue. Does it draw from so far down in the bottle that it draws it up? (Iāve never seen the device in use).
I use one regularly when pouring samples of our wines for retailers/restaurants. All our wines are bottled with Diam10 closures. I was concerned that it would not work well with Diam closures, but it has been great and has saved us a significant amount of money on samples.
Using the device requires inverting the bottle almost completely, and you pump in several jets of Argon gas which stirs everything around pretty vigorously. So in my experience, if the wine has sediment it is going to get stirred in very well.
I bent a needle the other day on a Diam closureāthose things are dense!
This likely makes the device of limited utility to me. Thanks! And thanks to all that respond. The information is useful even of the device (to me) is not
I just coravined a chablis last week with a diam10 and felt like it has oxidized to a certain extent. However, I did use it on a grgich hill chard that is also bottled under diam10 that lasted well over two weeks. I feel like it might be a bit wine dependent.
I think this is the best use case, wine bars or restaurants that want to expand their BTG options, especially up market
I have found the sediment issue can be avoided, particularly with Bordeaux shaped bottles, by tilting the bottle just a few degrees past horizontal. No need to flip the whole thing nearly upside down to get it to work. By keeping it roughly horizontal the sediment tends not to come through the needle.
I agree with the comments from Eric. I donāt use mine on older bottles (20+ years) that could have a questionable cork (even though I have the vintage needle) or a ton of obvious sediment, though I often forget to check for sediment and havenāt had it become a problem before. I also tend to only use it for bottles I plan to open within a few weeks to a month as Iāve noticed some bottles feel flat after that threshold. We use it for portion control, for pulling some cooking wine out of a bottle, and so we can have a few different glasses with a meal.
There are some threads that describe the best technique for using the Coravin, and there are some methods like standing it upright for a time, giving an extra shot of argon, tacking the hole for additional sealing comfort, etc., but I tend to forget about most of them when I use it. I think itās been clear to me that, due to some corks or our own operating error, my wife and I have noticed some bottles feel flat, while others feel unaffected.
As Eric outlined above, Iāve found that anything with a bit of age (higher likelihood of sediment) is not applicable, which sucks, as most of the wines Iād like āby the glassā are the rare or pricey bottles, often older. I use the half-bottle method 95% of the time - save my 375ml bottles, pour into said bottle after my first glass to near-full, cork and put in the refrigerator. I then enjoy the rest of the wine in the āmainā bottle, mindful, as always, of sediment, since clarity is king. If itās very likely to be full of gunk, Iāll decant it with a flashlight (iphone) and pour roughly half into the 375ml bottle for later consumption, enjoy the rest.
For younger wines, itās a great way to just have one glass, to be sure.
Great time, Iāve been thinking the exact same thing
Thanks for pointing that out, that would seem to kill the utility for me
and high likelihood youād either 1) use it incorrectly and blame the internet, or 2) break it
This is basically my approach. I am not 100% sure thereās no evolution, but I donāt use it on anything too precious and usually drink up within a couple of weeks on young-ish wines.
Seems like an all of the above situation.
-Al
We use in the restaurant. It does its job in preserving premium wines for up to 4 weeks. I now make sure I donāt use it on wines that are over 10 yrs old as they oxidise more rapidly.
The gas is expensive and we bend needles, but itās a better alternative that shelling out $10 to 20,000 for an enomatic.
I certainly wouldnāt be grabbing glasses out of bottles from my cellar and laying them down for more than 4 weeks.
Come on Todd itās for retirement, Iāll have people for that! Iām not a Neanderthal!
PS. Cheis did buy me one a handful of years ago for Christmas and I just couldnāt figure it out, seemed like a royal pain in the you know what.