Where were you 10 years ago? Some days I have trouble remembering where I was 10 hours ago (let alone 10 years), but in this case, about 10 days ago, I had the distinct pleasure of celebrating Coravin’s 10th anniversary with founder, Greg Lambrecht. It was a wonderful evening spending time with the intelligent and personable Lambrecht as we learned about the genesis of this unique wine device, designed to preserve the integrity of an “open” bottle of wine.
As an inventor and MIT-trained physicist, Lambrecht develops medical devices for spinal injuries through his company, Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc. When one has such capacity, it’s hard not to use those same skills to solve your own “problems”.
His “problem”? How to enjoy high quality wine in a single serving without negatively impacting the rest of the bottle/wine (once a wine is opened and has exposure to air/oxygen, it will eventually begin to oxidize). The situation was exacerbated when his wife became pregnant and gave up drinking. A devout, long-time wine aficionado (Lambrecht first fell in love with wine at age 16 on a trip to the Napa Valley), he wanted to be able to enjoy a glass or two with dinner. Thus, he sought to address the problem for his own daily enjoyment.
His initial thoughts on how to build a better mouse trap (such as mimicking tools like the Vacuvin) didn’t seem to yield the correct solution. Thus, while he felt that he needed a better way to solve this conundrum, it wasn’t until he came upon the key thought – to not open the bottle – that idea for Coravin came about.
The first prototype debuted in 1999 and was dubbed the “mosquito” by his young son. Prototype 1.5 included the all-important regulator, which he quickly discovered was essential due to the extreme pressure of the gases (argon or nitrogen) being pumped into the bottle to replace the lost (aka drink) wine.
It took 14 iterations to get it right. But, despite the time and energy invested in these iterations, it wasn’t until 2011 that he founded the company, Coravin, recognizing that it could become a commercial product able to solve the same issue for other people. The Coravin product was officially launched in 2013.
Building on that success, his latest product is Vinitas, which came about as a request from wine director, Daniel Johannes during the Pandemic. Johannes wanted to be able to send out samples of high-end wines for his La Paulee event since meeting in person wasn’t an option. Lambrecht took on the challenge, but it took a full three years to develop the tool. The resulting machine breaks down the volume of a bottle of wine into fractions, while ensuring that the wine remains unharmed by exposure to air. Lambrecht joked it is the “smallest bottling line”.
While not ready in time to address Johannes’ quandary over La Paulee, Vinitas is useful for wineries and wine stores to permit the customer to more easily sample wine with a smaller commitment and is currently available to be leased.
Today, Coravin is available in 60 different countries and Lambrecht now spends only 50% of his time in medical devices development, traveling worldwide to promote his vinous inventions.
Not surprisingly, as someone who invents devices that improve people’s health, Lambrecht has always been motivated by the desire to positively influence people’s lives. Consequently, he is extremely gratified by the positive impact that Coravin has had on the wine world and in the way that people drink wine. is also proud to be a disrupter and shared stories of how he was initially met with skepticism or even outright disdain. In this regard, the sommelier of a prestigious German restaurant refused to take a meeting with him and the owner of a French chateau threatened to thwart his product by the insertion of a metal strip under the capsule. Both of whom eventually saw Coravin’s benign benefit. Similarly, wine critic Robert Parker made it clear that he had no interest in “gadgets” yet by the end of the meal he shared with Lambrecht, he was a true convert.
Which brings me back to the Coravin celebration with Lambrecht at Le Pavillion restaurant in New York City, at which we tasted a 2001 Bordeaux, which had been “opened” 19 years ago under Coravin. It was still very enjoyable and showed no signs of oxidation. It was quite a triumph, even to Lambrecht who had only previously anticipated a 15-year window. Equally impressive, if not more so, we tasted Rare Champagne 2008, which had been opened under Coravin for two weeks and was still very effervescent, displaying small, persistent bubbles for over an hour in my glass!
Coravin is not particularly intended for the average consumer to purchase directly (although if you have the means, I am sure they would be happy to sell it to you). Rather, the average consumer can certainly benefit from Coravin by having the opportunity to taste high end wines at restaurants and wine bars without having to invest in an entire bottle.
So, on the arrival of Coravin’s anniversary, I invite you to raise a glass and toast the ingenuity of a wine-obsessed physicist. Cheers to Lambrecht and cheers to Coravin!
