Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/288975
april 2014 / the tasting panel / 65 Notes on a Needle "I've had an absolutely bizarre career path," admits Lambrecht, who fell in love with wine as a young man and had amassed an at-home collection that suddenly began collecting dust when his wife was pregnant. "I really wanted a couple of glasses of wine," he explains, "and maybe I could open one bottle, but then I was stuck drinking it. Wine is a thinking beverage —it's something you contemplate, experience side by side, so I wanted to taste three to-four different wines, but I wasn't going to pull the cork on four bottles in one night!" "So here I was, an expert in needles," he continues; "in particular, needles that don't do damage to things. So I came up with the idea of passing a non-coring needle through the cork without removing the cork. I thought if I could just do that, maybe I could drink from any one of my bottles at any time without having to worry about the wine on the other side of the cork." By 2003, Lambrecht had created his first prototype Coravin, and knew that there was one more step in making sure his gadget worked: "I'm a science geek and think in terms of clinical trials," he explains, "and I knew that the only way I could be sure the wine was truly unchanged by access was by doing a blind tasting to see whether I could detect which was the accessed wine and which was the control." Lambrecht's experiment was an undoubted success, and he began making prototypes for friends and fellow collectors. "There was a surprising amount of passion about the proto- types, and I finally realized, maybe this isn't just my problem. Maybe there's a commercial application here." Coravin is Born Ten years later, the modern Coravin operates with a unique non-coring needle that drives directly through the cork—foil and all! The Coravin uses inert argon gas to pressurize the inside of the bottle, forcing wine up through the needle, out a pour spout and into the glass. The best part? After the system is removed, the cork reseals, keeping what's left in the bottle untainted and oxygen-free. "We were thinking that this would be a consumer product, all the way," says Lambrecht, "and then I ran into Floribeth Kennedy, who manages purchases for The Jug Shop in San Francisco. She saw it and said, 'This will change the world!' She introduced us to many of the top somms in New York, and found that they were exceedingly enthusiastic." Coravin On-Premise One account where Coravin quickly won over the staff was restaurateur Joe Bastianich's NYC hotspot Del Posto. "I knew immediately that it was a game changer," said Bastianich when THE TASTING PANEL met up with him at his L.A. eatery, Pizzeria Mozza. "The minute I saw what it could do, I knew that it would be huge. It brings a whole new dimension to wine-by-the-glass sales because it offers wine by the bottle service and quality, but with a wine-by-the-glass volume." At restaurants like Del Posto and Mozza, wine by the glass selections have been expanded greatly: "Coravin allows us to access wines that can range from $40 to $400 per glass," says Bastianich. "People are much more likely to spend additional money on a glass of wine if they know it's something they wouldn't normally be able to taste." While the on-premise application opens endless doors that can impact a business' bottom line, Coravin's an at-home must for the serious oenophile. "It's the key to my cellar, literally and figuratively," says Bastianich. "In any given night, I may be drinking six to 12 bottles of different wine, which is just amazing. It takes the pressure off opening an entire bottle and really just allows me to drink better." Back to Lambrecht and his "scorecard" on life: "I never would've thought this would be another way I could make a difference," he says. "I'm still pinching myself. I am in a constant state of joy." So are we, Greg; thanks for the Pétrus by-the-glass! By-the-Glass TP0414_034-71.indd 65 3/21/14 2:42 PM