Greg Lambrecht enjoyed drinking wine but didn't want to commit to a full bottle every time he had a glass. The founder of Intrinsic Theraputics , he was already familiar with needles and their uses. He tells the story of holding a wine bottle in one hand and a needle in the other, convincing himself that there had to be a way to get the wine out without pulling the cork.
The Coravin system works by passing a thin medical grade needle through the membrane of the cork and then pressurizing the bottle. Argon gas is used to increase the pressure in the bottle when a trigger is pushed, and letting go of the trigger causes the wine to pour out into your glass.
Cork's elasticity allows it to reseal after the needle is removed, and the wine can be enjoyed again without the contents becoming oxidized. Any communication from Coravin or Lambrecht is quick to remind us that argon is a gas naturally found in the air we breathe and therefore not harmful.
Wine has existed for around 8,000 years and the concept of the cork most likely was developed in England in the 1600s. Cork's cellular structure allows it to have a high elasticity and can sometimes be compressed to just ten percent of its volume.
Coravin was featured on the August 7th edition of From Scratch on National Public Radio - I heard the article this weekend and was immediately drawn to the concept. The company has seen a lot of buzz on the Coravin and the marketing campaign is slick and pushes across several social media platforms.
Lambrecht is an MIT trained engineer and has developed several products in the last few decades, founding several companies that continue to exist today. This is a great example of engineers not inventing a completely new product but using current technology in new applications.