Wine Tip – Corkscrews and Openers

June 12th, 2009 | Author: Mark

Wine bottles don’t come with instructions on how to remove the corkscrews. But there are a lot of companies out there that are willing to sell you what they feel work the best at removing them.

Over the years, I’ve experimented with a number of different bottle openers to see if one opens up a bottle of wine better than another. The truth is, they all pretty much work fine at removing a corkscrew from a bottle. In my opinion, it really boils down to what type of opener you’re most comfortable using and how much money you’re willing to spend to extract a cork from a bottle.

Below are some of the most commonly used tools:

1.) Waiter’s Corkscrew - also known as the “Waiter’s Friend”. This is a corkscrew that folds up into what looks like a pocket knife. This traditional wine opener is used by a lot of restaurant servers and sommeliers (the wine guy or gal at a restaurant). This particular opener is probably my least favorite of the bunch because it takes a little more effort to master – at least from my perspective. However, it’s small size and portability is certainly a plus for this opener. I’ve never been able to master the technique of using this opener, but purists love this wine opening gadget.

2.) Butterfly (Winged) Corkscrew – This type of wine opener is probably the most commonly used. It consists of a corkscrew attached to a frame with two long arms which pivot upwards as the cork is screwed in (hence the name butterfly or winged). This type of opener is easier to use than the Waiter’s Corkscrew and is reasonably priced. Just make sure that the screw worm is all the way in or you’ll break the cork every time. I’m not a fan of this one either because of breaking way too many corks and the cheap ones break very easily.

3.) Standard Screwpull – Screwpull is actually a trademark name of a company that makes many of the wine openers on the market today. A standard Screwpull opener has a long worm with a twist top handle and a separate plastic body which sits over the top of the bottle neck. The twisting action of the worm in the cork slowly pulls the cork out so that you do not have to pull or lever it out. The Screwpull opener is what I use everyday. They’re very easy to use and affordable. Cork breakage is usually pretty minimal with this type of opener.

4.) Screwpull Lever Model (“The Rabbit looking thingamajig”) – Several companies market various versions of this rabbit looking lever-pull model wine opener. This is a large contraption so it’s not as handy or portable as the other openers mentioned above, but it is super easy to use and fast at opening wine bottles. However, they are not cheap, but they are pretty awesome - especially if you’re opening a lot of bottles over the course of an evening. All that you have to do with this type of opener is simply hold the top of the bottle in the vice looking thing and then lower the lever handle and it automatically injects the worm into the cork. Then you just pull back on the lever and the cork comes out. I love using these openers whenever I get the opportunity. I’m just too cheap to buy one for myself!

5.) Cork Poppers (CO2 Injector) – this type of opener gives me the creeps. It has a handle with a long needle which gets inserted into the cork. Pressurized CO2 is then injected which pushes the cork up and out. Besides being fearful of this pressurized contraption, this type of opener does require you to occasionally change the special pressured CO2 cartridges. Replacing them depends on how often you use it. And it starts to get expensive if this is your primary opener.

So there you have it, five totally different openers for different tastes! Good luck and don’t sweat the broken corks!

For more information, check out ConsumerSearch.com.

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