$1,000 Bottle Preserver Gives Winos Gadget Envy

We all have the friends who pull out the fancy wine decanters to let the pinot noir "breathe" or the wine openers you would need a degree in mechanical engineering to be able to use without detailed instruction. But gadgetry for wine lovers can go even further than that. For example, the Coravin is an opener that doesn't even open your wine. Instead, it shoots a needle through the cork: enough to let the wine pour out, but small enough that the cork stays wholly intact afterward. The Coravin also shoots a puff of argon gas through the needle through the cork to help vacuum-seal in the freshness. No longer will you have the day-old flat wine wasting away in the fridge or on the counter. This way, it will always taste brand-new!

Truth be told, the Coravin debuted a few years ago. But right now at the fancy CES 2018 show in Las Vegas, CNET reports that company founder Greg Lambrecht is showing off the Coravin's Model 11. Not unlike a Cylon, this machine keeps improving with each subsequent round, and Model 11 is fully automated, making the needle-cork process even easier. Engadget adds that there's also a Coravin Moments app to augment your experience, enabling you to "keep tabs on how much gas is left and other valuable info. It also offers suggestions for a specific event or food pairing based on what you have in your cellar."

This fancy latest Coravin model, though, stretches into the four-figure range (well, $999), so it's for affluent devout wine drinkers only. The rest of us may want to kick off with the more measly Models 1 and 2, which start at a few hundred dollars. Just wish I'd known about this device before I kicked off Dryuary this month, because there's an open bottle of delicious chardonnay in my fridge right now that is straight-up taunting me, and it's bound to taste like ass by the end of the month. And yet, will I still have it with my dinner on February 1? Most likely.