A Sassicaia, a champagne, a Ceretto Cannubi from a 2009 magnum. Important bottles, jealously guarded in the home cellar or on display in restaurants and wine bars. Is it possible to consume them by the glass? And if there are two or three of you, can you choose to taste a different glass each, without having to open or buy all the bottles? The answer is yes. Or at least, this is the direction in which the consumer's demand is going, increasingly supported by places that are expanding the offer of wines by the glass.

But how is it possible to uncork expensive bottles and prevent the wine from spoiling? The dilemma was solved by an American scientist, Greg Lambrecht, a physicist specializing in medical engineering, famous for inventing revolutionary prostheses, heart valves and medical devices for cancer patients, but also a particular type of cap that has managed to overturn the perspective of wine consumption: Coravin. Lambrecht himself tells his story on the pages of I piaceri del Gusto, the monthly magazine of ilgusto.it, the hub of the Gedi Group, a paper insert that tomorrow (Thursday 12 May) will be attached to la Repubblica, La Stampa, Gazzetta di Mantua and the Provincia Pavese: 48 pages full of travel ideas, in which the editorial staff has selected the 100 dishes that are worth sitting at the table in Italy. And of testimonies, such as that of the scientist of corks, who has in his curriculum up to 5 years at Pfizer: "Today you are no longer forced to wait 5 or more years for the wine to be ready: you can taste a glass now and one in the future, from same label, to experience its evolution. As a scientist, I am not patient ... ".

Passionate about wine since the age of 16, starting in 1999 he realized he wanted to create something special that involves the world of wine, something capable of improving people's quality of life. This is how, after years of testing, Coravin was born in 2011, a company of wine technology, active in 60 countries, which, thanks to hyper-sophisticated corks, allows you to drink a glass while maintaining the quality and conservation capacity of the bottle intact. A technology that reaches its apex in a device equipped with a needle that passes through the corks without removing the cork. The extracted wine is replaced with pure argon gas, so the oxygen does not come into contact with the remaining liquid.

"The needle we use in the Coravin - says Lambrecht - is the same as my device for chemotherapy. The first product I developed was for chemotherapy: a subcutaneous prosthesis with a tube that reached the heart through a needle. I started to do trials. clinicians around the world. I met several surgeons, and they all gave me a wine "to drink in the future". But I wanted to understand immediately what it tasted like. When you uncork a bottle, you have time counted: one or two days to drink it to the top. That's why the idea of ​​Coravin was born. I made the first thirty devices in my tavern, in Boston. Today we have consumers in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney, New York, Paris ... 80 people work in the company and we have served more than 150 million glasses: many to young people who want to experiment. The global headquarters are in Boston, the European one is in Amsterdam, the Asian one is in Hong Kong. And we are about to open in Australia ".

In this historical moment, people are very attentive to well-being, being able to drink just one glass is a great opportunity, but very expensive. "It's an investment for life - replies Mr Coravin - the cheapest model is the Timeless (the one with the needle): 149 euros. An iPhone costs 1000 euros. How much is the quality of life worth? 99 and 299 euros. But my aim is to bring it down ".