Kuvee — A New Way To Enjoy Wine At Home (Sponsored Post)
Introducing the Kuvee wine system.
You might not guess from looks alone, but those bottles above are actually the equivalent of boxed wines. Only in clever bottle format.
Kuvee is a new wine system that not only allows you to open a bottle of wine and keep its contents stable for up to 30 days without oxidation, but to access information about that wine on a computer screen positioned where the wine label would normally be. You can even rate the wine or order more of it with a touch of the screen.
The wine system was founded by serial entrepreneur Vijay Manwani, who has already raised $60 million in venture capital investment for it.
So how does it work?
For $199, you get a Kuvee bottle with four wines, a mix of reds and whites, or only red or only white, if you like.
It’s a system that uses specially designed wine bottles.
Each wine bottle holds the equivalent of a standard 750ml bottle. But these are no ordinary bottles. They’re not glass, but plastic. A hard valve is inserted in the neck of each bottle, explains Michael Meagher, a Master Sommelier on the Kuvee team. The valve closes when the bottle is upright, sealing it airtight. But when the Kuvee bottle is slipped over the wine bottle, the valve is opened, allowing the wine to pour out. Inside each bottle is a collapsible food-grade film bag that holds the wine. As the wine is poured, the bag collapses, just like it would in a boxed wine. Once empty, the wine bottle can be recycled.
Meagher knows many folks turn up their noses at boxed wine, mostly because of its plebeian packaging. That’s why Kuvee was designed to more mimic a classic wine bottle.
I had a chance to try out the system for free recently. It’s fairly easy to use. You charge up the Kuvee on its stand, then connect it to your Wi-Fi.
The Kuvee comes with a charging stand.
Place the Kuvee over a wine bottle.
Each wine bottle comes with a screw cap to protect it during shipping. Just unscrew it, puncture a tiny tab on the neck of the bottle and place the Kuvee over the bottle. The screen will immediately light up with the wine’s label. Tap on the screen, and up pops information about the winery, as well as tasting notes and suggestions for food pairings.
The screen lights up with the label for the wine.
Scroll for info on the wine.
Plus tasting notes.
And suggested food pairings.
The wine pours out just like a regular wine bottle. When you want to switch to another bottle, just press the center button to eject the current bottle before slipping in the next one. What’s especially nice is that you don’t have to clean anything if you go from pouring a red to a white. There won’t be any bleed over.
The screen will tell you how many days it’s been since you opened the bottle, too. I kept my four wines around for over a week, and didn’t detect any off flavors or flatness even 10 days later.
The wine pours out of the Kuvee just like with any other bottle.
Even though I was skeptical at the start that the world needs a gadget like this, I have to admit it is rather fun to use. I could see this being a great ice breaker at dinner parties, with every guest wanting to try it out. It would also allow you to open several bottles at once for any occasion without worrying that you’d have to finish every drop that day. Because we’re all so gadget-crazy these days, I’m sure many people would immediately be drawn to pressing the touch-screen, too, just for the heck of it.
The one drawback — and it’s a big one — is that you cannot use your own wine bottles with this system. It will only work with wines you order from Kuvee because they must have the special valves.
On the plus side, there are more than 50 wines offered through Kuvee from more than 20 producers, including Bonny Doon Vineyard, Round Pound Estate, Atlas Wine Company, and Francis Ford Coppola Winery. And those are a massive step up from typical boxed wines.
The selection of wines that came with my Kuvee.
I poured all of these wines, switching from red to white and back again, without any residual wine marring the next glass.
Meagher concedes Kuvee isn’t designed for someone like him — or even me, who has a small closet full of wine bottles already.
“For people who are already collectors, this isn’t for them,” he says. “It’s more for people who want to be part of the wine experience but don’t know where to start. With this, you can try a new salmon recipe and see whether you like a pinot or Chardonnay with it. Or you can even try it with two different Chardonnays to see if you like more oaked or less oaked. It gives people more of an opportunity to explore and develop.”
It’s also made for people who have no intention of aging their wines. Because the wines are sealed air-tight, no oxygen can get in to slowly transform them. At least at this point. Meagher says Kuvee is working on a system to allow some air in without causing oxidation or reduction.
Kuvee is available in California and Massachusetts. It will add New York, Oregon and Washington on Dec. 1, and more states in 2017.
Interesting idea! I haven’t had a boxed wine for years (decades, probably) simply because I could never find one I liked. I do like the idea, though. This is an interesting system — I could see how it’d be really appealing to someone who only has a glass of wine once or twice a week. Too bad it doesn’t work with any bottle of wine (just the special bottles), but one can’t have everything, I guess. Fun review — thanks.