Let's start this with some trivia. What does Thomas Edison's original lightbulb and the Coravin system have in common? Yes, Edison probably had a glass of wine or two in the lab, but that's not it. Edison's lightbulb with the glowing filament inside was filled with argon gas, which is inert and prevented the filament from burning up immediately. The Coravin system also uses argon gas, except it uses it to displace wine in an unopened wine bottle and prevent oxidation of the wine prematurely.OK, enough trivia. Let's dive in. I'm a gadget guy, and I love inventive devices that solve problems in novel ways. With 3 tiny kids running around the house, my wife and I don't pop wine corks as often as we'd like. Ironic, since popping wine corks was what got us into this mess in the first place, but I digress! So, the problem to solve is that if one of us can squeeze in a glass of wine somehow, then we have to open a whole bottle of wine. We've tried other wine-saving gadgets in the past, but they required us to pop the cork and then suck out the air after pouring a glass. They worked OK, but we always had to be careful with the rubber stoppers of half-drunken bottle of wine, as they could easily be bumped in such a way as to let the air back into the bottle. So, when I saw this amazing device that allows you to pour a glass of wine without popping the cork, I just had to have it!For my first attempt at the Coravin One Wine System, I grabbed a bottle of fine wine off the rack--Charles Shaw Napa/Sonoma Merlot, 2013 vintage. I dropped a couple of bills on this wine--literally, a couple of bills! When you have wine this fine sitting around, you don't want it spoiled by oxygen invading the bottle. So, I carefully removed the foil covering the cork, and I began reading the simple, illustrated instructions included with the Coravin system. It was so simple that I had to read it 3 times to try to make it more complicated. Unsuccessful, I finally accepted that it was very simple. In essence, you are jabbing a very pointy needle through the cork, and that needle has an argon gas injector built into it. When you jab the needle through the cork, you press the trigger to inject argon gas into the bottle. Then, you continue to press the trigger to inject more argon into the bottle. This pressure displaces wine in the bottle, which then flows back through the needle and into your glass. I was able to pour about a half glass of wine by pressing and releasing the trigger 3 additional times after the initial press to get through the cork and into the bottle. So, 4 presses for a half glass of wine. Not bad, and it was effortless.Before I jabbed the needle through the cork, I did need to load an argon gas canister into the cylindrical portion of the Coravin device. This is done by hand, and when you retighten the cylinder, it punctures the argon cylinder to provide the argon gas needed for the system to function. The system comes with 2 argon canisters, and each is rating for 15 glasses of wine (5 ounces/glass). Incidentally, 5 ounces of wine is almost 150ml, which means that a standard bottle of wine has 5 glasses of wine inside. So, with 2 argon canisters, you should be able to dispense the equivalent of about 6 bottles of wine. However, if you are smart about it, you will only use the Coravin system when you plan to drink less than the contents remaining in the bottle. Once you get down to a glass or two in the bottle, you might as well pop the cork and not waste the argon in your canister. The canisters cost about $10 each on the Coravin website, and there is a small discount if you buy lots of them at once.Removing the needle through the top of the cork is as effortless as pushing it through the cork, and the cork will not leak wine. No way. The cork is pressurized in the neck of the bottle and the tiny needle won't disrupt the seal. Incidentally, Coravin says that this system is NOT for champagne or other bubbly. They also say it is not intended for anything other than natural cork.Cleanup takes seconds. Just run the dispensing head on the Coravin system until running water for a few second, wipe it dry, and give a quick shot of argon gas with the trigger to clear out the needle. That's it! Couldn't be easier.Interestingly, there is a ballistic nylon sleeve in the kit, and I learned that you are supposed to put the wine bottle into that sleeve, just in case injecting argon into the bottle causes the bottle to shatter. Seems hard to believe that could happen, but OK. Maybe they have a Chicken Little Legal Department that wants to be sure nobody gets hurt. I didn't use the sleeve, and somehow I survived.Overall, I'd say this system is pretty awesome. The biggest drawback, of course, is the cost, but if you drink fine wine little by little, this is a small investment. Once you get past the initial system purchase, the ongoing cost is about $10 for 15 glasses of wine dispensed, which is 67 cents/glass to use the system.On that note, I think I'll have another glass of wine. Cheers!