Wine Corkscrews & Openers

Traditionally, quality wines have been sealed with corks made from natural oak cork. Currently,almost 10% of the wine produced each year is sealed with a synthetic cork (or 'closure', to distinguish from natural corks). Although 'purists' might turn their turns up at the sight of a wine bottle sealed with anything but a natural cork, synthetic corks do have a distinct advantage. Corks made from plastics, or more correctly 'thermoplastic elastomers', do not suffer from 'cork taint', a fungus-produced compound that grows in the cork fiber and spoils the wine.

The cork in a wine bottle is not usually a big issue to most of us that will drink our wine within a week or so of purchasing. Synthetic corks are primarily used in wines of all qualities, that are called 'short-duration', or intended to be consumed relatively quickly, rather than stored in a collection for many years. It's important to know the different requirements of the two cork materials when it comes to corkscrews, as some corkscrews do not work well with the synthetic corks. There is no particular corkscrew style recommended for synthetic corks. The choice is a combination of your personal preference and a little experimentation to see which works easiest for you. The 'Rabbit' is likely the best choice as it's stronger mechanism does more of the work for you.

Styles of Corkscrews

• Direct Pull: T-Type, fixed handle corkscrews
• Assisted Pull Corkscrews: have some mechanism (bar or cap) that stops the downward movement of the screw, turns the screw into a 'gripper' and as the corkscrew continure to turn, the cork is released form the sides of the bottle and begins to move upward.
• Single Lever: the simplest of lever corkscrews—twist screw into cork until the hinged rest sits on bottle top, pull lever upward. also called the 'Waiter's Friend.
• Double Lever: the corkscrews with wings! Twist the screw into the cork until the cap rests on the bottle, then press down on the wings.
• Torque: the screw is twisted into the cork and a handle is rotated to move the cork upward. Available in single and double-action torque corkscrews.
• The Rabbit: complex corkscrews consisting of handles, leverage mechanisms and often include foil cutters.
• Ah-So Cork Puller: has two slim metal prongs that enter the neck of wine bottle on either sid eof the cork and don't put any marks or holes in the cork. A little tricky to master.
• Air Pump Corkscrew: injects a burst of gas through the cork, pushing the cork out with the pressure of the gas. Some experts feel this addition of air is not good for the wine.

Depending on your wine drinking preferences, you will probably want to have a couple of styles of wine corkscrews and cork pullers in your collection for use with different wine bottle styles and corks.