Coravin Timeless Six+ Wine Preservation System, Limited Edition Ocean Blue

The Coravin is, in stiff competition, one of our own favourite products. With it, you can pour a glass of wine with minimal effort without having to open the bottle. Place the unit on the bottle neck and push the needle through the cork. Press the button, which pressurises the bottle, and wine flows out through the nozzle. When you pull the needle back out, the natural cork reseals itself. The Coravin is charged with gas capsules containing 99.99% pure argon, a noble gas whose atoms have absolutely no interest in mixing with others and therefore leave the wine completely unaffected. The few seconds it takes for the cork to reseal are also not enough for any oxygen to get into the bottle, since argon is heavier than oxygen.

Say you have a bottle on the shelf and you want to know whether it's ready to drink, but you're not sure. Then it's easy to sample it using the Coravin. Say there are two of you and one wants a glass of 1992 Screaming Eagle and the other is more in the mood for Hammerfall's fruity Barbera Crimson XII. With the Coravin, you can both have a glass of your respective favourite without having to argue about which bottle gets opened.

The Timeless Six+ is Coravin's current top model and the Ocean Blue Limited Edition is this year's seasonal release in a deep blue finish with black details.

Included are six screw caps, and the package also contains an aerator and a bottle sleeve. The aerator is a nice addition: it attaches to the nozzle and is equivalent to 60 to 90 minutes of decanting directly in the glass, for those who don't have the time or inclination to wait.

The screw caps are used for wine bottles that already have a screw cap. Unscrew the original cap and replace it with Coravin's screw cap. The wine isn't quite as well protected from oxygen as with the needle and cork method, but it keeps well for up to six months, and each cap can withstand 75 punctures before it needs replacing.

The needle is made from stainless steel with a non-stick coating to slide easily through the cork. It wears down over time and can be replaced with a new needle, available in different versions.

The capsules last for 15 glasses of 15 cl, though this requires a technique that comes with practice. The gadget comes with a two-year guarantee.

In the package:
Coravin Timeless Six+ System with standard needle
3 Coravin Pure Capsules
6 Coravin Screw Caps
1 Timeless Aerator
1 Coravin Wine Bottle Sleeve
1 Carry Case