UK launch date of fully automated Coravin model confirmed

In an interview with the drinks business last week, the founder of Coravin, Greg Lambrecht, confirmed that the US$999 Model Eleven Coravin will be launching in the UK in October this year, and said that he wanted to reduce the price of the Coravin in the future.

Coravin Model Eleven

Visibly brimming with excitement, Lambrecht pulled out a case from his bag containing the latest test version of the Coravin Model Eleven, or ‘engineering build three’ to give it its proper name.

Speaking to db in London last week, he ran through the features for the latest model, as well as detailing his future plans for the brand and commenting on how it has been received so far.

Model Eleven

Model Eleven which is due to launch in September this year in the US, coming to the UK a month later, is fully automated and doesn’t have a clamp like other versions.

Among its features, it has the option to pour a glass (150ml-175ml) or a taste (30-50ml) of wine, with the ability to set the volumes via an app.

Demonstrating how it worked, Lambrecht showed db that the pour can be stopped at any time, even if the full volume selected hasn’t been poured out. The needle can then be pulled straight out of the bottle without the need to remove a clamp, which according to Lambrecht, with other earlier models, people sometimes forgot to do, leading to needle breakages.

The new Coravin also has a metal pull handle which can be lifted out and cleaned, while there’s also a sediment filter around the top of the needle.

“Our clients told us they wanted to be able to pour wine one-handed and at a distance,” said Lambrecht.

A new app, which Lambrecht admits has taken more time to develop than the actual Coravin itself, will be released in conjunction with the Model Eleven, although you don’t require the latest Coravin to be able to use it. It has the ability to match wine with food and music, and can select bottles from within personal wine collections or suggest wines to buy.

In developing the app, Coravin partnered with Delectable in order to access its wine database.

“Sometimes people can get very intimidated by buying wine in stores. The app also has a feature which provides known wine terms to describe a particular wine that they’ve enjoyed. That way they will be directed to a wine of a similar style in a shop,” said Lambrecht.

The app will be free and also contains a purchasing facility for ordering more Coravin gas canisters and needles.

Coravin’s reception

Lambrecht produced the first Coravin prototype in 1999 in his garage, eventually developing the first “usable” version in 2003.

Setting out to find “a way to teleport the exact amount of wine I want into my glass without opening the bottle”, the wine gadget is now available in 66 countries with its top markets being the US, France, the UK and Australia.

“London had the most rapid acceptance of the Coravin, faster even than New York, ” Lambrecht said. “Acceptance of Coravin is like a window on a culture”.

After releasing it’s first television advert in the US last year, Coravin is currently showing one in the UK which is running from 11 June to 11 July. “After the advert in the US, Coravin really took off,” added Lambrecht who hopes the UK version will have the same effect.

Speaking about the product’s other markets, he said: “Australia is where it has taken off in the same way [as London] – they don’t care about tradition over there. Germany on the other hand is a very conservative market and multiple wines by the glass at restaurants is rare and the exception”.

He added that gaining the approval of winemakers and the trade was incredibly important to him.

The company has recently completed its 550th blind tasting session, which involves both sommeliers and Masters of Wine. This included a blind tasting involving 76 people at the latest addition of Vinexpo Hong Kong.

Recalling the early days, Lambrecht told db about visits to Château Latour and Olivier Leflaive. The former conducted chemical analysis on wines that had been accessed via the Coravin, finding “no significant chemical variation between control and Coravin samples”.

Greg Lambrecht (centre) after being admitted to the Confraria do Vinho do Porto last weekend.

In wine stores too, Lambrecht told db how he believes Coravin has shaken things up.

“In wine stores I wanted them to be able to serve and sample anything that I want to buy. Not being able to do so is like a shoe salesman telling you ‘you can have these shoes, they’re $300 but you can’t try them on’.

Explaining how Lavinia in Paris had asked him to produce special Coravin carry holsters for its staff, Lambrecht also cited the example of US wine store Total Wine & More.

“They used to have a policy that any wine that you opened, you had to throw away at the end of the day. I even saw one person use the Coravin on a wine but still throw it away when they closed up!

“One guy was illicitly using the Coravin to open high end bottles of wine and sales at his store were rocketing. After sharing what he was doing, it has since become company policy and higher end wines can now be sampled in store via the Coravin”.

Future Plans

Speaking about what his plans were for the future Lambrecht said: “My goal is still to have anything by the glass – I’m going to keep working at it.

“I’m also aiming to get the Coravin cheaper and take this automated version [Model Eleven] down to the other models of Coravin. I’d also like to develop of feature which can tell you the exact volume left in your bottle”.