Way more fun, at least.

> It’s better suited for restaurant use,

I'm a wine enthusiast with a restless palette. Even if I adored the last glass, I'll want something different next. This makes me a bad fit for bottles (in small groups).

Consider the restauranteur offering wine by the glass. On the upside, glasses (should) deliver a larger margin than whole bottles. On the downside, unsold product is thrown out. This is why high-volume low- and moderately-priced wines sell by the glass. Lower-volume wines would be thrown out too often. The higher price point would make that wastage more painful.

In New York, the Coravin system has saved me from having to choose between often mediocre wines and locking down to a bottle. It makes volume less critical, to the wine bar, in choosing which wines to offer by the glass. The palette thus broadens.

That's a great link, thanks. Wine goes bad so fast that I was giggling in excitement when I watched the video. But then my jaw dropped when I saw the price of the machine. And it drop again when I saw the cartridge price.

I can't help thinking that this is a product planned by MBA type. But I rarely spend more than $20 on a bottle of wine, and if the product is head and shoulder above competition out there, the company can pretty charge whatever it wants for people who routinely drink expensive wine, or restaurant establishments.

I was going to say that a $300 one-time cost plus under $1 per glass is totally within reason for someone who has many bottles of good wine. But $10 for 120 bottles is shockingly cheaper.

On the other hand, unsurprisingly, the length of preservation varies. Private Preserve keeps it for a few days; Coravin seems to work for a month or more.

Super, thank you for the heads up

I don't know about running cost but there's already a commercial system intended for restaurants etc. called Enomatic. It differs in being continuously attached to open bottles, but it has multiple taps per device. Comparison here: http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2014/05/is-coravins-new-win...

I wonder if there will be a grey / black market for non-original capsules. Seems promising since, as far as I know, argon is not _that_ expensive to buy.

Chinese knockout will use helium gas :-)

Eh, any $1 hypodermic needle is sufficient to inject poison into wine. If you're worried about potential poisonings, your first priority should be to eliminate what's worrying you about potential poisonings.

I remember a very old episode of Columbo where an air capsule system to open wine bottles was used for poisoning...

Private Reserve works for this as well - but really, the most important thing when it comes to whisky is how you store it. The less air that's in the bottle, the longer it will last - also keeping it out of light. If your bottle is down to 1/3rd or 1/4th remaining it will change sooner than a full bottle. Changing isn't spoiling though - it's somewhat the same as the wine oxidation issue, but it has a different chemical reaction to the oxidation. It's still OK to drink, and some whiskys actually improve this way.

The high levels of ethanol in spirits slow the oxidation down tremendously. Unless you're taking over a year to go through a bottle I wouldn't sweat it. If you're worried about it, you could always transfer the spirits to smaller bottles after opening to minimize the air space.

The cork should be on its way out, but if it is, it will be really slow. The better technologies (screw tops, bag in a box) are associated with cheap wines. It will be a long time before any substantial number of $20+ wines use them as a result. The wine makers would quite rather 10% of their product go bad and have to be refunded than have it be thought of as Franzia. (I have seen a lot more synthetic corks popping up, and this product might work with those.)

It's the same with beer and cans.

Cork only. Read how it works and you'll see that it can't work with a screw top. You can use Private Preserve with screw tops.

No, air in the bottle after opening it still affects the wine, even if you put the cork back on. That's why they use argon.

And who wants vendor lock-in with "proprietary argon gas capsules".

Well, to be honest, they also managed to pull off another feat: They overcosted initial price PLUS insanely costed consumables.

Truly, a gadget fit for a king(or people that don't like money).

I really consider this a failing of the browser. Clicking back should take me to the previous page I interacted with, never a redirect page.

I was able to get back with the back/forward pulldown(on Firefox).

Yes, I finally gave up and re-typed the HN URL.