Coravin and portwine

[Nikolaj Grundtvig]

hello all

i got a coravin this Christmas(im spoiled)
however im suddenly having doubts about keeping it.

im afraid i wont use it enough however im the only port drinker(and Wine drinker in general) in the House and therefore i rarely enjoy ruby port on my own.

however does anyone have coravin and use it for Vintage port?

i have seen some threads in here but no real replies from
coravin users

[John Danza]

I have a Pungo instead of a Coravin, but the concept is the same. I don't use it to try different bottles and put them away, which is what Coravin seems to leverage as a benefit. For me I use it to allow me to drink a single wine over time, where I know I won't be drinking a bottle all at once. That seems to be a perfect use with Ports.

Right now I've got the Pungo in a bottle of 1992 Quevedo Colheita. I grab a glass about once a week and have been for about a month now. The wine is still drinking perfectly, with about 1/3 of the bottle left.

I've not use the Pungo with a vintage port, but I'll do that next to try it. My primary concern there is the sediment continually getting stirred up. The Pungo comes with a stopper for bottle that have a screwtop, so that you can drink that wine over time as well. What I'm planning is to gently decant the VP into another bottle and then stopper it with the Pungo stopper. This should allow me to drink the VP over a month or two with no degrading of the wine.

[Andy Velebil]

John,
I've heard others mention that when you use such a system and the liquid starts getting low it seems to degrade faster. Have you noticed that when you get near the end of a bottle?

[John Danza]

John,
I've heard others mention that when you use such a system and the liquid starts getting low it seems to degrade faster. Have you noticed that when you get near the end of a bottle?

Andy, I've not really tested that condition. By the time I'm down to about a quarter of the bottle left, I usually just pop the cork and finish the bottle off.

[Nikolaj Grundtvig]

thanks a lot for the reply.

I was indeed thinking about using it with vintageport.

however fragile corks tend to worry me.
loads of People are having good luck with Wine
however i suspect that most of them are younger with good corks.

in reguards of sediment, it is explained that
the Wine should be "coravined" while laying down(with as little moving as possible).
so the sediment is not being whirled around.

[Andy Velebil]

John,
I've heard others mention that when you use such a system and the liquid starts getting low it seems to degrade faster. Have you noticed that when you get near the end of a bottle?

Andy, I've not really tested that condition. By the time I'm down to about a quarter of the bottle left, I usually just pop the cork and finish the bottle off.

Good to know, thanks

[Andy Velebil]

thanks a lot for the reply.

I was indeed thinking about using it with vintageport.

however fragile corks tend to worry me.
loads of People are having good luck with Wine
however i suspect that most of them are younger with good corks.

in reguards of sediment, it is explained that
the Wine should be "coravined" while laying down(with as little moving as possible).
so the sediment is not being whirled around.

I'd be curious as to how well these systems work with an old Port cork. If you do try it, let us know how it goes.

[Nikolaj Grundtvig]

I started out trying it on a Fonseca Guimarares 1995.

I will follow it though some time with tasting notes every time.

A wonderfull port btw! im considring stocking more up.

Think i will will try a Quinta do Javali 30 year old tawny next (it has been corked with regular cork and a T cork included)

[Al B.]

I started out trying it on a Fonseca Guimarares 1995.
A wonderfull port btw! im considring stocking more up.

I think 1995 in general is a very good vintage - one of those, perhaps, which might have been declared if it was not just after a great vintage.

[Stewart T.]

While not directly related to the Coravin, I have wondered this about similar types of commercial argon preservation systems. When we were visiting the Mark Ryan winery in Walla Walla, they had one of the 6 bottle Argon systems in the tasting room. I asked how they liked it, and they said they don't use it much during the off season. Seemed like if they were going through a lot of bottles of wine and swapping them out regularly, it was ok, but if the bottle sat in the system for too long they could notice a degradation of the wine. They did say it might not be noticeable to everyone, but they certainly could tell. They also said it was tough to get someone to come out to Walla Walla to service it! LOL

[Frederick Blais]

A friend of mine got the Coravin 3 months ago after visiting a wine bar in Italy that was serving over 300 different bottles by the glass!!! He told me he tasted a Barbaresco 1990 from Gaia that was still fresh. So he ended up opening a few bottles over the last few months at his place.

Last week I visited him and I tried 3 bottles that have been opened for 1-3 weeks. 1 red and 2 whites that I have happened to know very well! 1 Niepoort and 2 Burgundy from Buisson Charles.

I will not deny the fact that the 3 bottles did not show any signs of oxydation flavours. However the red was super tannic and the 2 whites had a bitter tense finish, like if they had longer skin contact. Definitively the sensations on those wines was off for me compared to the same wine decanted and drank over 3 hours or from different years with bottle age. I'm curious to try more wines stored with Coravin but from this evening, so far for me it's a nay.