The First Self-Opening Wine Bottle

Unveiled to much excitement at a press conference this morning, Avrilpuleg 1.4 is the revolutionary wine bottle closure that is self-opening. No corkscrew or other gadget is required since as soon as a wine glass is waved in front of it – as if it were a magic wand – the wine bottle opens itself without the need to even touch it.

The company’s CEO, Hugo Ebrill, who showed the first case of wine bottles sealed with the new stopper, says the new closure is “powered by an imploding mechanism hidden in the bottle’s punt or bottom” – think opposite of explosion. “It proposes a ground-breaking trigger mechanism” as an alternative to corks which needs pulling and screwcaps that needs twisting.

Manufacturer Avrilpuleg has been talking about its self-opening bottle closure for over two years and actually working on this technology for ten years.

The ultramodern bottle plug, which surprisingly looks like a natural cork, allegedly uses an inductive charge system and magnetic cup which is powered by minute solar panels and sensors hidden in the capsule covering it. It would take about three hours for a full charge.

Which made me raise the question, what if the wine bottle has been stored in a dark cupboard or cellar; would the battery have died by the time you are ready to open the botte?  A spokesperson for Avrilpuleg rebutted that you can still easily pull out the ‘self-opening cork’ yourself.

Winemakers seem hesitant to switch to this innovative closure. Yet production is underway and Avrilpuleg 1.4 is expected to come in various sizes for various types of bottles, from the claret shaped to the low-shouldered burgundy bottle as well as for bocksbeutel and hock. The double magnum I was asked to self-open at the unveiling released easily with a regular sigh even though the glasses lined up nearby were – rather unprofessionally, I point out – of the Paris goblet type.

At the launch, the company also presented the accompanying smartphone app that can project a virtual image of a suitable wine glass should none be available when the bottle needs to be opened ahead of time as in the case of decanting.

This spoof article by Georges Meekers appeared first in the Times of Malta, 1st April 2016