Greg Lambrecht and the Coravin Vinitas. Coravin

Wine technology company Coravin, has just launched a clever device that will allow wineries, distributors, retailers and wine schools to transfer wine from bottles, tanks or barrels into 100ml sample bottles that they claim will preserve wine for at least 10 months.

“Until now, there has not been a scalable automated product that creates single-serve formats and maintains the quality of the wine inside for months, as opposed to weeks,” said Greg Lambrecht, Coravin founder and inventor.

The Coravin Vinitas machine can fill 90 Sample Bottles in an hour without contact with air using food grade inert gas, avoiding the need to ship full-size bottle samples when only a taste is needed.

Coravin claims that shipping up to seven 100ml sample bottles will reduce the shipper’s carbon footprint and drop freight costs by more than 85%. The sample bottles are made of 100% recyclable glass and capping material although, sadly, they cannot be re-used.

Coravin Vinitas is not yet available in New Zealand But has recently been released in the UK where, according to Harpers, the filling machine is available for rental at around GBP £750 a month, with the cost of GBP £1 per sample-size bottle, making the system cost-effective for more expensive wines where the sending of, or opening of, 75cl bottles for samples is prohibitive for many.