The Coravin allows wine drinkers to transcend the limits of the cork.

Despite its romance, the corked bottle presents myriad challenges for winemakers and sellers. Once the cork is out, oxygen flows freely into the wine and begins to change the flavor. After about a week, the wine has made several evolutions and runs the risk of going sour.

For food and beverage managers this chemistry requires a calculation: Bottled wine served by the glass needs to move quickly. However, Jeff Birkemeier, co-owner of Amapola Kitchen and Wine Merchant in Salinas, employs a relatively new technology that has “revolutionized” the way he is able to sell wine and build a menu. Released in 2013, the Coravin Wine Preservation System offers a chemistry solution to the wine bottle’s chemistry problem. The hand-held device is attached to the neck of the unopened bottle and a long, slender needle punctures the cork and pushes down to the wine. With the wine bottle tilted over a glass, the server presses a button on the Coravin and wine slowly pours.

The trick is that the Coravin pushes the wine out by pumping argon gas into the bottle – odorless, tasteless and heavier than oxygen, which means oxygen cannot penetrate the argon layer and impact the wine. Using the Coravin, wine can be served over the course of months, or longer.

Birkemeier began using the tool while at Casanova in Carmel. “We immediately went from being able to offer wines that were, at most, $20 per glass, to wines that were upwards of $100 per glass,” Birkemeier says. “As long as the Coravin was being used correctly, the wine remained sound.”

Coravin is available to at-home wine drinkers for between $130 and $400.