A small hardware lab · San Diego
Corky opens the bottle, reads the label and tells you what you're drinking — a pairing, a bit of the story, a toast when the evening asks for one.
Working prototype · demonstrated live
Three things in one hand
We are engineers, but this project exists because we love wine. Corky has to earn its place on the table three times over — that is the whole design brief.
It has to be genuinely good at the job — one hand, no wrestling, a clean pull. That alone earns it the drawer.
“Hold it upright. I've got the rest.”It knows the bottle: region, vintage, what to put on the table with it. The host sounds informed without having studied a thing.
“Tempranillo, mostly. It wants something roasted.”A toast, a joke, the story of the vineyard. It warms the table up — and that is why people reach for it again.
“To the friends who show up on a Tuesday.”Thirty seconds at the table
No app to install, no phone on the table, nothing to pair. Corky looks at the label, and the evening carries on.
Corky sees the bottle and greets it by name. Recognition runs on the device itself.
A short, warm note on the wine and what to serve with it — in a voice that belongs to the brand on the body, not to a robot.
“Save it to your account.” One tap links the bottle, the moment and the drinker to the shop that sold it.
Nothing about the person holding it leaves the device without an explicit opt-in.
You always know what you are drinking. Corky does the talking; the compliments go to you.
What it remembers
A cellar diary nobody has to keep. It fills itself while the evening happens.
The bottle, the date, the occasion — without typing a word.
A rating and one spoken sentence: what you actually thought of it.
What is left, what to drink next, what to buy again.
“Softer than I expected. Weeknight bottle, buy again.”
“The oysters one. Keep two in the fridge.”
“Save the next one for March.”
For retailers and wine brands
The weeks between one purchase and the next are invisible to every wine retailer. That is exactly where the relationship is won or lost.
What retailers see today
What Corky reveals
Your name on an object people show their friends — not another tote bag.
You are in the room every time the cork comes out. Nobody else knows that second.
A notification tied to a bottle just opened — not to a random Tuesday.
What they actually drink and think, with consent — not what they browsed.
It behaves like a loyalty product, not like hardware. You put your name on it.
We build it, service it, run the content and stand behind the warranty. The customer, the consent and the data stay with you.
What we propose
A handful of stores or one club cohort, with your assortment and your voice loaded.
Recognition rate, interactions, opt-ins, basket lift, staff verdict — set together before we start.
Hit the gates and we move to a first production run, timed to the gifting season.
The first commitment we ask for is small: twenty minutes and one bottle.
Book the twenty minutes
The rest of the system
Agent Cru Pro is the countertop station for the collector — the same voice and the same account, with the mechanics a serious cellar asks for.
Pierces the cork, serves a glass, leaves the bottle sealed.
An arm pours through aeration; vacuum keeps what is left.
Sensors read colour, viscosity and clarity — the wine, not just its label.
400 mm tallØ 200 baseØ 121 display230 V mains
Where we are
We are choosing a small number of launch partners to shape the first edition, rather than shipping a generic product and hoping retail picks it up.
The ask
Let us put it in your hands and show you the version built on your own assortment. And if you think this is a bad idea — tell us why. That is useful too.