Why You Can Trust CNET Kuvée Bottle review: The Kuvée Bottle boasts freshness but not depth
The Kuvée Bottle has promising tech, but breaks its pledge to hold off oxidation
What if, when you opened a bottle of wine, you didn't have to worry about finishing it within a few days? What if you could have a glass from five different bottles throughout the week, and not waste any of the excess wine? Using a dual-valve system that supposedly lets into the bottle .01 milligram of air per glass poured, Kuvée's smart wine bottle -- now available on Indiegogo for preorder at $199 for the device plus four bottles -- claims to extend the life of the opened bottle of wine considerably.
Kuvée Bottle
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
I had reservations about the system right away, simply because the bottles of wine themselves must be purchased through Kuvée, which provides specific cartridge-like bottles that fit into the Kuvée device. But the bottles were just under market price and had competitive shipping rates (free for four or more bottles), and using the device was slick. The only remaining question: does it work? The answer: not well enough.
Right now, I can't recommend the Kuvée Bottle -- especially given the planned, decidedly less-appealing retail price of $250 for the device alone. But if Kuvée's wine selection expands and the valve system on the cartridges improves, it could become a cool product for intermittent wine-drinkers and those interested in household wine technology.
How does it work?
The central mechanic of the Kuvée Bottle has a simple underlying concept: use valves to block air from entering the bottle as you pour a glass of wine. That way, oxidation doesn't set the bottle's quality on a slow path toward spoiled wine. Instead, the bottle should last for weeks.
Kuvée isn't the first developer to combat oxidation. For less than 10 bucks, you can easily get a canister of argon or another inert gas. Spraying one of these into a bottle before re-corking it will slow the oxidation process, lending the wine a few more days of freshness. On the other hand, you can buy a device like a Coravin for $350. The Coravin uses a hollow needle to pump argon through the cork, pressurizing the bottle of wine. Then you can pour the wine out through the needle. And when you're done, the naturally elastic cork reseals.
Inside the neck of each cartridge is a set of valves that block air from contacting the wine. On the outside of each cartridge is a small chip that tells the Kuvée Bottle which particular wine's information should be displayed on the touchscreen.
Kuvée doesn't concern itself with replacing the displaced wine with anything. Instead, each canister contains a collapsible bladder -- a similar approach to box wine, only with higher-quality components. Kuvée surrounds this basic mechanism with some clever technology.
The bottle that houses each cartridge has a slick touch screen, on which you can peruse information about the plugged-in cartridge's winery, tasting notes, and suggested food pairings. You also order new cartridges from this touch screen, since the Bottle is Wi-Fi connected.
The Kuvée Bottle is a sleek device, no question. I like the information it offers for each wine, and I like how easy it is to snap a cartridge in and out of the sleeve while serving people with different tastes. But a couple big questions gave me pause, even with such a clever device. First off, how's the wine selection?
On the Kuvée Bottle's touchscreen, you can scroll through each of the wines available for order, examine their prices and details about them.
For serious aficionados, a limited library of wine curated and brokered solely by Kuvée should raise some eyebrows. I found the prices of every bottle to be equal to or less than market price for the wine. But the competitive prices don't make up for a current selection of 14 wines, and a planned selection of forty-odd wines from fewer than 20 California wineries. Of course, Kuvée says those numbers will rise over time, but I would need some old-world wineries before even considering a product like this.
Such limited selection doesn't preclude the product from everyone, though. In fact, I could see a lot of younger adults like me who casually want to get into wine, and for whom a slick device like this could make learning about wine fun and easy. Plus, entertaining a crowd with varied tastes won't leave you with too much excess wine to handle.
The second big question is more important:
Does it work?
Here's how I tested the Kuvée Bottle. First, I bought a few bottles of 2014 Schug Carneros Chardonnay -- a good wine that was in one of the cartridges sent to me by Kuvée. Then, each day for a week, I opened a new bottle to use as a control, and compared it to both the Kuvée cartridge opened at the beginning of the week and a normal bottle opened at the same time, re-corked, and refrigerated. The goal was simple: to determine if the Kuvée Chardonnay degraded along with its normally bottled counterpart, if it retained the flavor and aroma of the fresh bottle, or landed somewhere in between.
The Kuvée Bottle also features a simple aerator, which can be removed and washed separately to ensure no mixing between cartridges.
Day 1: For the first day, we had no control. It was simply a taste test between a normal bottle of Schug Chardonnay and a Kuvée cartridge of the same. Out of six tasters in the office, the responses were mixed. Everyone agreed that they were nearly identical, but some preferred the bottle, and some the cartridge. Because the aluminum cartridge and the glass bottle also insulate differently, the minor differences in flavor could be due to slightly different temperatures. Conclusion: The cartridge and bottle are essentially identical in flavor. Kuvée doesn't lose any flavor points despite being stored differently.
Days 2 and 3: Both the day-old bottle and the Kuvée cartridge were noticeably degraded by the second and third days. The differences were subtle: the Kuvée cartridge retained better freshness, but lost some of the full-bodied flavor of the fresh Chardonnay. The bottle retained some of the flavor, but the nose was more subdued, and it tasted a little less fresh and less oaky. Responses from tasters were again mixed -- some preferring the Kuvée and some the bottle. Conclusion: The cartridge is doing something to the Chardonnay, but what exactly is unclear. It isn't simply preserved.
Day 4: For the final day, I went to a local winery to get the opinion of experts. After three days, both the bottle and cartridge were still drinkable, though neither was close to the quality of a newly opened bottle. Both the professional and I preferred the Kuvée cartridge over the three-day old bottle, but only marginally. Conclusion: The aroma and certain flavors were better preserved in the Kuvée cartridge, but the result was an unbalanced structure -- not the full body and bright character of a quality Chardonnay.
After testing the Kuvée Bottle, it seems semi-effective. But when it comes to preserving wine -- especially a Chardonnay that depends on freshness -- semi-effective is the same as ineffective. The reason I won't dismiss the Kuvée technology outright is primarily because the disappointing valve system is built into the cartridges, not the Bottle. So the cartridges could be redesigned and improved at no cost to users. For now, though, the wine isn't adequately preserved.
Is the potential worth the price?
The Kuvée Bottle displays information about whichever wine you slide into it, including details about its winery, appellation, tasting notes, and even suggestions for food pairings.
The $199 preorder price for the Kuvée Bottle and four assorted wines on Indiegogo before it releases in October is a pretty good deal -- if you want to invest in the company's potential. If the valve system of the cartridges improves and the selection expands considerably, the Kuvée Bottle could be a great deal. But until it realizes that potential, the retail price of $250 is just too high.
In addition, for anyone serious about displaying bottles in their homes, or aging wine before drinking it, the Kuvée smart wine bottle just won't work. And for many who drink wine regularly, finishing a bottle over the course of two or three days really isn't enough of a problem for the price.
After working with Kuvée for a week, I can't recommend the device. That said, Kuvée has the potential to improve greatly as its cartridge technology develops. In other words, the Kuvée is bright and fresh as Chardonnay, but lacks the depth of a good Cab. Here's to its potential.