A clever new contraption that lets you sample the wine you're saving without risking spoilage.

Picture the scene: you’ve acquired some pretty snazzy bottles of wine over the years and you’re dying to know what they taste like, but you just can’t bring yourself to pop the cork.

Maybe you’re scared you won’t like the result, or you don’t want to have to consume the whole bottle, or you just want to see how it’s developing. Well fret not. Now, thanks to an incredibly nifty invention called the Corovin, you can sample wine without even having to remove the cork.

Available for the first time in New Zealand, it’s already being embraced by restaurants and collectors who wish to be able to sell just a few millilitres of wine at a time from prized bottles in their cellars, without wasting a drop.

The Coravin is clamped around the neck of the bottle and works by plunging a fine, hollow needle through the capsule and cork before pumping inert argon gas inside which forces a stream of wine from the bottle and preserves the remaining wine from oxygen spoilage. When the needle is removed, the cork naturally reseals itself.

It’s already being touted as the most important invention in the wine industry in decades. It retails for $675 – for more information contact ayla@stvincentscave.com.