Coravin Wine Preservation System demo with inventor Greg Lambrecht

It was so interesting to learn of the development of the Coravin System of wine preservation and to meet its founder and inventor Greg Lambrecht.

Coravin Founder Greg Lambrecht with Celia Hay, Puneet Dhall

Tasting of Flowers Chardonnay, held under Coravin

Coravin has revolutionised how we drink wine. It enables us to draw off a glass, store the bottle in a fridge and extract and savour the balance over a number of weeks or months. I remember, when I first purchased Coravin in 2016 and how it transformed the service of wines especially for wine tastings, without pulling the cork. In restaurants, Coravin has avoided significant wastage and expanded the number of wines that can be offered by the glass which is great news for the consumer.

How it works

By inserting a needle that we know today was developed by Greg for medical purposes, the wine is extracted through the cork. At the same time, the volumn inside the bottle is replaced with a layer of argon gas which prevents oxidation and the deterioration of the wine still left inside the bottle.

What a great story and there was so much to learn from Greg and his other career as a biomedical engineer and inventor of medical devices. I asked him how he balanced his time with two entrepreneurial businesses? He commented today he is no longer the CEO but the Chairman of both companies. His other business, Intrinsic Therapeutics is a spinal implant business.

At our presentation, Greg told the story of how he developed the Coravin because his wife was pregnant and he did not want to waste premium wines by opening them and not being able to drink them at one time. Coravin has transformed how wine is sold by the glass in restaurants and consumers can have more confidence that wine under Coravin has not been exposed to oxidation.

Coravin Founder Greg Lambrecht

Celia Hay with Coravin wine founder Greg Lambrecht

Tasting of Billecart-Salmon Nicolas Francois 2008 under Coravin

At the seminar, I did learn that there are two camps of Coravin users: those that cut off the foil that surrounds the cork, and those that do not.
Greg informs us that this does not matter. Coravin works best with cork and Diam closures but not corks made of sugarbeet or plastic. Coravin has also developed a closure to work with screwcaps.

The most important thing is to store the wine, whether red or white or bubbles in the fridge. He recommends that red and white wines are stored on their side.

Yes, the Coravin system is expensive, however in a restaurant, it prevents the expensive waste of wine becoming oxidised if it has not sold. In the home, Coravin ensures that wine retains its quality once opened and stored in the fridge. In other words, you can extract multiple glasses of wine from a bottle without the risk of oxidation and loss of quality.

Available in NZ through Dhall and Nash.

Celia Hay
17/10/2025