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High profile restaurateur Xavier Rousset defends Coravin after bottles explode

Published:  06 June, 2014

High profile restaurateur and master sommelier Xavier Rousset has defended the fine wine opening system Coravin amid news that seven bottles have exploded.

Xavier RoussetXavier Rousset

Rousset, who operates Texture and 28°-50° Wine Workshop and Kitchen in London, dismissed the incident saying, it could be a "storm in a tea cup".

"I'm still using it and I don't intend to stop yet," Rousset told Harpers.co.uk.

Earlier this week, Coravin released a statement advising customers to stop using its product until they recieved a neoprene bottle sleeve and additional safety instructions from the company. This came following news that seven bottles had exploded, including one which caused lacerations, while Coravin was in use. The company said: "We believe the likelihood of this occurrence is very rare since wine bottles are designed to withstand significantly greater pressure than the low pressure the Coravin System places into the bottle."

Rousset added: "Coravin uses very low pressure. [These incidents] could be as a result of faulty glass or how the bottle was handled. Coravin is doing a lot of work and being extremely cautious. It's a one in 78,000 chance that a bottle will explode. We've opened 20 to 25 bottles now and not had any problems. Sometimes when something like this happens it's easy to put the blame on something else - but there may have been pressure on these bottles before they were opened. I'm taking it with a pinch of salt."

He said the device has so far done a good job at his 28-50 restaurant, where he uses it for finer wines which sell at £30 to £40 a glass.

Coravin has voluntarily reported these incidences to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in anticipation of a recall and has submittedan action plan to update the Coravin System instructions and warnings and will provide all existing and future customers with a remedy package that includes a neoprene wine bottle sleeve for use with the Coravin System.

It has also stopped selling its device until its correction plan receives approval, then it hopes to ship remedy packages to existing customers within the next 30 days.

Earlier this week Xavier Rousset and his team won the Harpers Award for Best Drinks Offer in a Restaurant for 28°-50°.

 

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