Here’s How You Can Take Your Backyard BBQ to the Next Level

With summertime comes grilling season; and with grilling season comes a host of questionable Father’s Day gifts like stuffed burger presses or kitschy aprons. But your gift need not fall victim to these trappings. What if you could give your old man an incredible, cult-favorite chilled red, poured from the most advanced wine preservation system on the market? You can, with the Coravin Model Six.

Though it may seem obvious to some, a nice glass of chilled red pairs perfectly with grilling. It’s light and refreshing, but with enough body to complement burgers, grilled chicken, steaks and the like. Still, committing to a full bottle of wine for an activity that may only last 30 minutes can seem excessive — and that’s where Coravin’s Model Six comes in. The Model Six allows you to pour a single glass from a bottle of wine without opening it. Find out how it works below.

1. The Freedom of Wine By the Glass: Why open a whole bottle if you only want one glass? With Coravin’s wine preservation system you can pour a single glass without opening the bottle — allowing you to steal glasses out of even your most valued reserves. It works by inserting a specially designed needle through the bottle’s natural cork closure, pressurizing the bottle with inert, medical-grade argon gas and pouring the wine into your glass. When you’re done, simply remove the System from the bottle; the cork closure will naturally reseal as the argon gas creates a blanket over the wine, protecting it from oxidation.

2. Enjoy a Wine Flight from the Comfort of Your Home: Dads like to think they know everything, but odds are they don’t know as much about wine as they claim. Fortunately, the best way to learn about wine is to taste a handful of bottles next to each other. Then again, if you don’t happen to own a vineyard this is usually difficult, expensive, or both — unless you can pour each glass with Coravin, that is. Taste wines from a certain region or varietal, compare a vertical of different vintages or simply taste a handful of your favorite wines next to each other without having to open six bottles simultaneously.

3. A Nice Bottle of Wine is a Journey: Wine ages gracefully — there’s a reason for the expression “aging like a fine wine,” after all. To that end, tasting a wine as it changes through the years can be a great learning experience. Typically, this would require buying a case of wine and a wine cellar to store them at the proper temperature. But with the Model Six, you can have the same experience with a single bottle. Because you never actually open the bottle when you pour a glass, you can revisit the same bottle again and again, enjoying the flavor evolution over a span of months, or even years.

Build Your Kit

In addition to Coravin’s Model Six, adding a few extra products to your gift list can build the ultimate summertime grilling package. Start with the wine. You don’t have to sign up for a waiting list and spend crazy amounts of money on a nice bottle. Subject to Change’s “Lune Juice” is a follow up to last year’s “Moon Juice” — a unique cult-favorite chilled red that any wine drinker will love. Next, he’ll need something to catch the wine coming out of the Model Six. We recommend Hydro Flask’s 10 Oz Wine Tumbler. It features double-wall vacuum insulation that will keep your wine at the perfect temp. Top it off with the best charcoal on the market and a tier-one steak and he’ll never stop talking about Father’s Day 2020.