Lousy sommeliers can let D-vine pour the perfect glass of wine

Wine, what’s not to like? Well, plenty if you serve it wrong or, gasp, serve it with the wrong food. No one wants to be the guy that turns up with a warm chardonnay for your fancy chuck steak dinner. Enter D-vine, a smart wine dispenser that not only serves up perfectly chilled tipple, but will help you pair it with food, and even order more plonk when you’re running low. This is the future, and we like it.

D-vine isn’t new to the game. The company already had been showing an early version of its smart wine dispenser at CES last year. Over the last 12 months, though, there have been some useful upgrades, especially for the wine-dumb among us. These include a large touchscreen with easy to navigate menus (perfect for once you’ve got a little rosy-cheeked). The main options are for the afore-mentioned food pairing, but there’s added details like the history of the wine, and video clips from 10-vins (the company behind D-vine, “dix vins” it’s confusing) in-house oenologist.

You might be thinking that you’ve got this far in life just serving red at room temperature, and chilling a white. That’s fair, but 10-Vins, goal is simple: to help you enjoy a glass of wine anytime you want, but served how a sommelier would do in a restaurant.

I fell on my sword and tried a glass of shiraz at room temperature, and then one that had passed through the D-vine’s cooling and airing mechanism (it’s a long fancy pipe). The difference between the two is immediately clear. The untreated wine was warmer (obviously), heavier in taste and more alcoholic smelling. The wine that had gone through the machine was fragrant, much easier on the palette, and just generally more quaffable.

There are a few things to consider before you get one for your next dinner party though. The price of the screenless machine starts at around $1,000 — enough to stock up your cellar in and of itself. The version with the panel and companion app will be considerably more. Then there’s the price of each 10 CL tube of wine (one glass’s worth) which is $5. Not pricey for a glass of wine in a bar, but it will soon add up when you have some friends over (which will happen if you have one of these).

While the process of chilling and pouring the wine takes less than a minute, if your party if full of thirsty resellers, it’s not the ideal set up. 10-vin recommends it’s more suitable for a party of about four.

So, it’s not entirely practical, and not the most affordable, but if you love wine and technology this should be singing to you pretty hard right now. At the very least, you can expect to see a few of these popping up behind the bar at certain establishments. 10-vin says there are orders from multiple bistros right now, and pre-orders for us, the public, have just opened up now. You’ll just have to wait until after summer before it lands in your kitchen.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.