Sometimes at the end of a long day, you want a nice glass of red wine to relax. The trouble is, once you uncork that Cabernet, you’re suddenly in a race against time before it goes bad. Drinking half (or all) of a bottle isn’t the best idea, and sometimes even after just a day the remaining wine has already gone bad.
Enter the Syphon, which launched its Kickstarter campaign today. It’s a bottle top device that uses argon to make your wine last longer.
Wine reacts with oxygen, which affects its taste. Argon, meanwhile, is an inert gas already used by winemakers for preservation in the bottling process. After removing the cork, you plug the Syphon spout into the bottle. When you squeeze the lever, the Syphon injects Argon into the bottle at the same time it releases the wine. Adding argon keeps oxygen out, and the lack of oxygen in turn keeps the wine fresher for longer. According to Syphon creator, Daniel Fukuba, using the device will make your bottle of wine last up to 30 days.
Fukuba hopes to hit a sweet spot in the wine preserving market, between higher-end products like the Coravin, which starts at $200 and uses a needle to pierce the cork and inject argon gas into a bottle, and the lower-end pumps and sprays that Fukuba says don’t really do much.
Right now, Kickstarter backers can pick up a Syphon and two argon capsules for $119. The product is expected to ship in April 2019. The campaign is looking to raise $350,000, and if funded, the Syphon will retail for $149. Replacement argon capsules, which last for fifteen glasses, will cost $5.99.
With wine consumption in the U.S. hitting 949 million gallons in the U.S. in 2016 (up from 705 million in 2006), there is certainly a big, addressable market to make those gallons last longer. And with millennials drinking almost half the wine in the U.S., that market isn’t going away anytime soon.
Syphon is a passion project for Fukuba, who has a background in engineering and robotics. Reaching his lofty funding goal will probably be a stressful time for him. Thankfully he can relax with a bottle of red that will last him all month.
