Coravin Experiment

[DRT]

The Coravin was launched about a year ago amid claims that it could be used to avoid opening expensive (or inexpensive) bottles if you only wanted a glass or two.

The company has now issued this warning as a result of some bottles breaking under pressure.

This month's Decanter magazine includes an article describing an experiment being conducted by Stephen Spurrier that might be of interest to people here, particularly as the experiment includes a bottle of mature VP.

I would love to be able to post the article here but it would no doubt result in some copyright shenanigans so you will have to cope with my summary or buy a copy.

The experiment is to be conducted over a year with the wines being tasted at three month intervals. Spurrier has already tasted the wines once and his notes have been published in the latest edition. These are the control samples. The wine was extracted using the Coravin and the space in the bottles is now filled with argon gas. The same process will be repeated on these same bottles four more times. When the final samples are taken there will be two other bottles of each wine opened and Spurrier will taste each set of three glasses of each wine blind. The reason given for using two freshly opened bottles in the final tasting is to allow for bottle variation.

The wines being used are:

Chateau Lynch-Bages 1996, 2000 & 2006
Shafer Hillside Select 1996, 2000 & 2006
Warre 1983

I suspect that others here will share my disappointment that vintage port was not considered worthy of three-bottle representation.

All seven notes from the first tasting are complimentary.

I will report back as the results of each tasting are published.

[djewesbury]

Is Warre 83 a slightly strange choice? A bottle from a slightly wonky year such as this could give unusual results.

[DRT]

Is Warre 83 a slightly strange choice? A bottle from a slightly wonky year such as this could give unusual results.

I think Warre 1983 is probably as good a choice as any as I haven't heard of it having any particular problems with taint or bottle variation. My frustration is that Warre 70, 77 and 83 would have given comparable coverage to that given to the other two wines at similar or lower cost.

[djewesbury]

Agreed.

[DRT]

But at least they are doing it, which should provide some insight into whether or not the device is worth the investment.

So, being kind, bravo to Decanter - almost.