The problem with good wine is that once the bottle is open, you can’t keep it for long. Because as the bottle is uncorked, its contents are exposed to air, causing them to oxidize and end up smelling like “sweaty socks or wet cardboard.” Albicchiere, an Umbria startup born two years ago that won the innovation prize at the CES 2020 in Las Vegas offers a solution to keep it longer.
The company has designed a “smart” wine dispenser that can preserve wine for up to 6 months from the opening date. The device called Albicchiere, or Albi for short, is an all-in-one solution that allows you to drink your wine at the perfect temperature and preserves it for up to 8x longer than other devices.
Indeed, the device could be reminiscent of a percolator, a coffee machine, or Soda to make bubbles. And yet, it is a question here of allowing wine lovers to be able to taste their glass of everyday wine while keeping it longer.
The idea behind the Albicchiere is that we open the bottles and pour wine from a bottle into one of the system’s recyclable “smart” bags that will keep it safe, without unwanted oxidation, inside the machine and ready to be served in a glass by pressing a single button.
The NFC (near-field communications) system of the dispenser automatically recognizes the type of wine and automatically sets the serving temperature for that specific type of wine suggested by the winery. However, users can also use the Albi app to manually set the temperature for each individual bottle of wine in the range from 4 to 20°C.
Besides, Albicchiere is compatible with Alexa, Google Home, and Siri. You can also use the pre-filled Smart Wine Bags that you can purchase directly from wineries or your smartphone with Albi’s app.
Note that the product has already received numerous awards. Let’s talk about the price of the device. It will cost you €249 (about $276) to acquire the Albicchiere. The device is currently running a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter and has already achieved its goal.
