Coravin: A wine bar in your house

Greg Lambrecht, the founder of Coravin, speaks to dbHK about his inspiration for inventing Coravin and his vision for it to be on everyone’s kitchen top.

An inventor since the age of 17 and an entrepreneur at 23, Greg Lambrecht comes across as sincere and eager to help and deftly comes to my aid when I feebly attempt to operate a Coravin myself.

He started off designing medical devices with a background in physics, mechanical engineering and nuclear power – a powerful mix when it comes to creating his own consumer product later on.

“My first love is science and medicine,” he says. “My goal is to positively impact as many people as possible and I realised how I could transfer this ethos into my newer love which is wine.”

Growing up in Southern California and going on innumerable tours around Napa Valley instilled in him a fondness for wine which only grew more acute when he had amassed some 30-40 bottles a few years later in 1998; however this  remained untouched as his wife was pregnant with their second child and he was travelling a lot for work.

“The bottles were all just sitting there in my rack and I thought to myself that my entire wine consumption is controlled by the packaging. I drink by the glass and but wine is sold by the bottle. Why is 750ml the optimum consumption? If I open this bottle tonight, it will change overnight and if I leave it for another few days it’ll be off.”

Even for those who happily drink more than a glass, Lambrecht also points out the sagacity in using Coravin in a single varietal tasting – something he confesses he’s keen on at home.

“I have a poor memory,” he reveals. “I won’t be able to remember a Chardonnay from Italy or a Chardonnay from Australia. Why also should we limit ourselves to just one bottle at dinner? At home I like to taste Chardonnay for example, from Italy, California, Australia, France, New Zealand… I think more and more people have the same problem.”

Taking inspiration from medicine and after multiple prototypes – Lambrecht vividly mimes holding up a bottle of wine and a needle and surmising how they could work together – Coravin Model 8 was launched in 2013 in America, followed by Europe in 2014 and Hong Kong last year.

London’s mature wine market led to it being the “fastest adopter” with Harrods being the very first retailer to sell Coravin. Just recently, Coravin fondly released its exclusive Model 2 in ‘Harrod’s Green’.

With headquarters in Boston and offices in Amsterdam for the European market and Hong Kong for the Asian markets, Coravin has strong distribution networks for a product which is still extremely young.

“You can’t market from the US alone,” says Lambrecht. “You do too little in each market and you destroy the product. Undoubtedly you need representation in each market you’re active in.”

It hard to find a wine-consuming country in fact which doesn’t have any of the Coravin models, whether it’s the early Model 8 in silver and black, to Model 2 in ‘dark graphite’ to the Model 2 Elite which is offered in a jazzier range of red, silver and gold.

The colourful new range of Model 2 Elite

“Chile and Argentina are very promising. They produce wine and they drink a lot of it. We’re extremely strong in Asia and Europe – Switzerland has the highest per capita consumption of Coravin in the world,” he continues.

“Anywhere where this is a strong on-trade market, old wine culture and aggressive auctions which is particularly relevant in Asia.”

Model 1 has just been launched in America and Europe targeted at the biggest wine consumers – millennials – and priced “accordingly” in an attempt to reach as many people as possible, demonstrating a shift in focus towards consumers as opposed to the trade.

“I look at Coravin like it’s a wine bar in your house, and the only limit is how many bottles you actually have. Everyone has a need for it – producers need to taste their library stock or before sending samples for competitions, people just want a glass of something special at dinner. Wine consumption is evolving to be faster, easier and more fun, as it should be.”

So far Coravin works on all formats from half bottle to magnum with the only limitation being that the clasp can’t fit around larger bottles sizes.

Also synthetic corks can’t reseal once the needle has been taken out and New World screwcaps remain the last bastion – though the indefatigable Lambrecht is positive that one day “something will happen with the Australians.”

“My ideal is that for everyone to drink all wine, at any size, any age, with any closure,” he finishes before stating the three golden rules for operating Coravin.

1) Coravin is more like a wine glass than a corkscrew so flush hot water through it after everytime and wine can build up on the inside.

2) Press the gas trigger to clear the needle before pushing needle into wine otherwise you’ll inject old wine into the glass.

3) It’s not impervious to heat and needs to be treated like a wine. When not in use, keep it away from extremes in temperature.