Wine is great to share with others, but what happens if you want one or two glasses with dinner? Often, the wine sits on the counter slowly decaying. Some call it a "vinegar taste" that wine develops after it has been exposed to air for the first time.
This tricky bit of wine culture often led to waste in our household, and I went looking for something to solve that need. We shouldn't have to toss a half bottle of wine because we didn't drink it fast enough to combat time and air's effects.
On a recent trip to Napa, my wife and I noticed they were using this contraption in some of the tasting rooms. We immediately found that this little device uses argon, an inert gas, to fill the wine bottle without actually opening it. The benefit is exactly what we wanted, one to two glasses without ever opening the bottle to air. Imagine sharing a bottle of wine for weeks rather than just days!
The only downside I see is the need for the argon canisters, but luckily they seem to last quite a long time!
There is an article that claims you can use standard argon canisters by using the Coravin plastic cap from an official cartridge, which cost significantly less. I will update this post once I try that myself =)