CORAVIN HAS SOME QUIRKS

The Coravin – a device that sought to revolutionize the wine industry by allowing wine to be poured from a bottle without re moving the cork – has officially been recalled.  The Consumer Products Safety Commission website states that the product “can cause wine bottles to break during pressurization, posing a risk of lacerations”.  Even though the company found that there was pre-existing damage in all of the bottles that broke, the makers of Coravin stopped sales of the product due to safety concerns.  According to the CPSC, there have been 13 reports of wine bottles breaking because of the device, including “one in which a bottle burst into four pieces and resulted in an injury involving two chipped teeth and a laceration that required stitches, four in which the bottles cracked and leaked, and eight in which bottles broke into two pieces”.  Earlier in June, Coravin sent customers “neoprene wine bottle sleeves” to remedy the issue and protect customers.  According to the company, those sleeves are also its solution for the recall.  They will be sending all customers a “Remedy Kit” which features a sleeve, a safety label and “revised” warnings and instructions.  The recall doesn’t seem to have affected the company’s future plans.  Coravin announced that it will start shipping the systems again once it has sent every one of its customers a bottle sleeve.  All new devices will “come standard” with a bottle sleeve, as well as new safety warnings and instructions.