Greg Lambrecht, inventor and founder of Coravin, makes an impression from the very first handshake. With drive and that typically American enthusiasm, he’s a force of nature. Seated at the table, he’s eager to understand every nuance of what’s in front of him: he observes, analyzes, and lets himself be surprised by the details. “Little observation and much reasoning lead to error; much observation and little reasoning lead to truth,” said Nobel Prize-winning physician and biologist Alexis Carrel. Greg Lambrecht’s approach to the world isn’t far from that philosophy.
Past, Present, and Future of Wine: The Story and Vision of Greg Lambrecht, Founder of Coravin
The story of Coravin—the technology that truly revolutionized how wine can be enjoyed and tasted—begins with a very practical problem: how to fully enjoy a good bottle, from the first to the last glass, during his wife’s pregnancy, when he couldn’t temporarily share wine with her.
It was 1999, and with the first prototype and a few amusing mishaps during testing and calibration, the transformation began. But it took two years before the original Coravin was ready: in 2001, it was still for personal use only by its inventor. To understand the brilliance of the man behind this invention, one must retrace the steps of a life he himself describes as “adventurous.”
Greg Lambrecht was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1969, and from a young age showed a sharp mind. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother to Newport Beach in Orange County, California. He was so gifted that at age 11 he was enrolled in high school, and by 14 he was already attending college-level physics courses at UC Irvine.
At 16, he returned to the East Coast and was admitted to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), one of the world’s most prestigious universities, where he earned a degree in Nuclear Engineering and, in 1993, a master’s in Mechanical Engineering. His love for wine began with early tastings in Napa Valley and grew over time, fueled by a desire to discover new things. Over the years, he built a collection of fine wines that led him to create a device that simply adapted his knowledge from the medical technology field—his “other” profession—to the wine bottle.
“By eliminating the risk of oxidation, Coravin allows people to experience wine by giving anyone the freedom to drink what they want, when they want,” Lambrecht explains. “Especially when it comes to fine wines, this means you can enjoy a good glass without waiting for a special occasion—and avoid wasting wine. At home, I always have at least six bottles open.”
Because Greg Lambrecht truly loves wine: “I love wine. And my perception of it changed and evolved when I started traveling the world, splitting my time between my medical device company and Coravin. By introducing our system to producers in major wine regions, I finally connected the aromas and flavors of each wine to the landscapes and people. Now, every time I taste a label, the faces and unforgettable moments I shared come flooding back. That’s what makes the real difference: truly talking about wine means living it. And life is made of lasting memories and unique experiences.” The kind of experiences his devices help create.
“People are drinking less but much better: it’s no coincidence that wine sales are declining while Coravin sales are growing,” he notes. “Wine lovers increasingly prefer to enjoy just one glass—but of higher quality. And this is happening not only in historically educated wine markets, but truly all over the world.”
With a presence in 60 countries globally, Coravin has a solid perspective on general trends. “As an integral part of the wine industry, we’re working to contribute more and more to supporting producers in revitalizing consumption in the near future.”
Meanwhile, the revolutionary technology—originally designed for still wines—has evolved since 2021 to include sparkling wines, thanks to the Sparkling system. “Developing Coravin Sparkling was an incredibly fun challenge because we encountered every kind of bottle shape and neck: finding the right solution was complex but exciting,” Lambrecht reveals.
Today, there are three devices: Coravin Timeless, for still wines sealed with cork; Coravin Pivot, for wines with alternative closures; and Coravin Sparkling, for sparkling wines and Champagne.
“In the U.S., 80% of our sales are to consumers; it’s the same in France, while in the UK, sales are split evenly between consumers and trade,” explains the inventor of Coravin.
“In Italy, the number of enthusiasts buying our systems is growing—currently they represent 30% of sales, but that’s rising fast. People see the devices in restaurants and want them at home. In the Horeca and wine retail sectors, our success is also thanks to our partnership with Ceretto, which is truly a key reference for us.”
And what’s in Coravin’s future? “I want to keep improving each of our three devices,” Greg Lambrecht replies. “Then there’s another path I want to explore, starting from the mission that gave birth to Coravin: any wine, still or sparkling, by the glass, without compromise or waste. Today we have the systems to do that, but there’s one last frontier to explore: single-serve.”
A new challenge on the horizon, then. “I don’t know yet if it’s an achievable goal. But I’m genuinely interested in finding a solution that allows someone to walk into a wine shop and buy a single glass. We’re still far from that goal, especially because it involves tackling packaging issues and navigating a series of laws and regulations that don’t make it easy to find a shared solution. I know exactly what I’d want as a consumer—but I haven’t yet found the path that will take me there.” Knowing Greg Lambrecht’s story, though, the solution might just be around the corner.
