Dispenser for wine

The combination of a wine dispensing mechanism coupled to a bottle of wine lying in on its side on a support with the neck of the bottle in a downwardly inclined position to dispense the contents by the combined effect of gravity and low pressure gas while protecting the remaining contents of the bottle against the deleterious effects of air, and utilizing a single source of low pressure inert gas for a number of bottles of wine, the mechanism attached to the inclined bottle so supported including:

• a plug which is inserted in the neck of the wine bottle to replace the cork,
• said plug being equipped with a gas inlet having an inner end and a wine outlet having an inner end, both inner ends being located inside the neck of the inclined bottle and restricted thereto, and having self-closing valves in the inlet and the outlet,
• a coupler connected to a wine dispensing tap and a source of low pressure gas,
• said couplier having separate gas and wine passages formed therein with a self-closing valve positioned in the gas passage,
• means associated with the plug and coupler to permit them to be connected only with the gas inlet of the plug connected with the gas passage in the coupler and the wine outlet in the plug connected with the wine passage in the coupler,
• means to automatically open the self-closing valves in the plug and coupler upon connecting of the plug and coupler,
• the gas inlet including a gas passage extending through the plug with a check valve located in the gas passage to prevent wine from entering the gas passage, and in which the check valve communicates with an extension of the gas passage, which extension is presented by a tubular member which extends into the neck of the bottle beyond the inner end of the wine outlet thereby to limit gas percolating into the wine outlet.