Wine Business Monthly (WBM) discusses a new device manufactured by Coravin, LLC “that allows users to pour and enjoy the wine from their favorite bottles without pulling the cork.” According to WBM, the device relies on a “thin, hollow needle” which is inserted through the capsule and cork. Argon gas is injected, and the pressure inside the bottle pushes the wine through the needle and into a glass. When the needle is withdrawn, “the cork (natural or technical) reseals itself.” The same bottle can be sampled repeatedly “over weeks, months or longer without wasting any wine.” The price of the Coravin Wine Access System is $299 (argon canisters are purchased separately).

The pros and cons of the Coravin device are debated in Decanter. They quote the inventor, Greg Lambrecht, as claiming: “I drank a bottle of 1961 Château La Mission Haut-Brion with about 14 people over the course of four years.” Stephen Finch of UK merchant Vagabond points out that “avoiding oxidation” is only one issue. As the volume of wine in the bottle decreases, he states, the dissolved gas may lead to ‘deadening’. For this reason, Vagabond removes bottles from their Enomatic system once the fill is low. In short, Finch doubts Coravin’s ability to assure fully reliable preservation.

In a subsequent article, Decanter adds that the system could “enable wines to be sampled and tested prior to an auction.” On the other hand, they quote David Elswood of Christie’s, who is worried that fraudsters could adapt the technology to put wine into a bottle.
 

Quoting a study conducted by the Bordeaux Wine Council (CIVB) since 2001, Wine Business Monthly reports that the incidence of wine contaminated by cork taint and TCA has diminished. The drop is the result, it appears, of “the improved quality of natural corks as well as the use of synthetic closures.”
 
From 2008 to 2011, the CIVB selected 9,143 bottles of Bordeaux wine at random from retail stores and wholesalers in France and other countries. In the full eleven years of the study, 2.38% of all wines “were identified by tasters as tainted by cork or mold.” Chemical analysis confirmed that the tasters were correct in 95% of the cases.
 
Agglomerated corks were found to have the highest rate of overall contamination, partly owing to “a polluted environment,” whereas natural corks contained the highest levels of TCA. “The analyses revealed a definite decrease in the levels of TCA found in wines” over the past decade, WBM writes.
 

In the Financial Times supplement entitled “Buying & Investing in Wine,” Jancis Robinson suggests Bordeaux vintages which are “fit to drink now.” She notes that the 2010s “are looking better and better,” but “it would be a shame to open them now.” Wines from the lower ranks in 2009 “are already a pleasure” due to their bountiful fruit.

The 2008s “will probably benefit from prolonged ageing.” 2007, on the other hand, delivers “some of the best drinking” as the wines have evolved quickly in the bottle. She compares 2005 with 2010, saying most are in “a quiet lockdown phase.” The best 2006s also “need time.” The 2004s are fresh and drinkable whereas the variable, heat-wave 2003s should generally be consumed now.

The wines of 2002 appear “lighter and leaner,” and the 2001s can be “rewarding” and in some cases “more elegant and rewarding” than the “delicious” 2000s. Among older years, the author recommends 1996, 1995 and 1986 for “fully mature drinking now.” Finally, 1990, 1989 and 1982 “are still great at the top level” but “many a lesser wine” from these three celebrated years is “fading.”