Corkscrew Question

Oh yeah, I can jess see me pullin off my shoe when me an the boys is squatted down in the alley shooting craps, and tellin em,"gimme that bottel of MD20-20 boys, an I'll show you how it oughtta be opened".

Then go to espaining it in that fancy way o talking.
 
Dick Rumbaugh said:
In my youth wine came in gallon jugs with a cork. Think my dad used table knife to unseal the cork. I believe he paid a dollar for Dago Red. Now it's called Burgandy. This was in the wine country of California.
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Almaden Mountain Red Burgundy. Or, for the relatively impecunious, something similar from Gallo. Nastiest hangovers in the world.
 
I work part time in a small winery tasting room. Probably open 50 or more bottles a week. We use standard leverage type sommelier knives. The two pronged German style cork tools are nice because they don't risk a broken cork. They are however tricky to learn and not very fast. The unsupported screws on Swiss army knives and the ones with just a T handle on top and no leverage are a waste of time and only for emergencies.

Regarding screw tops and box wine. While both technologies got off to a rough start due to their early adoption by producers of flavored, erzatz, cheap "wine", they are the future. Cork, since becoming popular as a floor and wall covering, is becoming more expensive and poorer quality. Plugging a bottle with a piece of tree bark is a thousand year old method fraught with problems from the get go. The Aussies are right on the cutting edge of screw top tech and I have had some 80 dollar bottles of that country's finest wines, all in screw tops. Some producers of better quality wines are now boxing their juice. Black Box and Bota Box come to mind. Have a glass of good red out of a bottle tonight, re-cork it and tomorrow it's not going to taste the same. The wine in a box won't oxidize for months and remains identical to the first glass you poured when you opened the box.
Never mind the significant problem of recycling glass. I'm good friends with the owners of our local recycling company. They cover a wide, rural area. They currently have a growing mountain of glass behind their facility as they get 4 dollars a ton for the glass when they haul it to the closest processor in Phoenix, but it costs them 5 dollars a ton to get it there.
 
When using a SAK, once you get the screw in most of the way, I grip the SAK with one hand and hold the bottle with the other.

I bring my support hand up until it meets the knuckles of my SAK hand. As you tighten your support hand it'll push your SAK hand up. If you use both together it's not nearly as hard as just pulling the SAK with all your might.
 
Nevada Ed said:
I liked the two narrow, flat metal pieces that slid down between the cork and glass bottle for a quick and easy cork job.
!!
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Those are cool, but I think it takes a bit of practice to get good with theml

I saw one that you stuck a needle though the cork and pumped air into the bottle. Seems like you could blow a bottle up with that. I guess they didn't catch on.

I think my favorite are the kind with two wings that raise up as you screw it into the cork. Push down on the wings and out it comes.
 
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Well-I am of the school that believes that in one cannot figure out how to open a bottle, box or can of spirits, beer or wine they don't deserve to drink.

Mother is the necessity of invention.
 
Cyrano said:
I do love a glass of wine on occasion, and these occasions seem to be occuring with increasing frequency. I have a 'French waiter's' corkscrew with a leverage arrangement; and a double lever corkscrew; you screw it down into the cork and then push down on the levers and the cork comes right out. But I see corkscrews without the lever mechanism; they're particularly popular on knives. One of the most popular tools on the Swiss army knife is a corkscrew, although I prefer a Phillips head screwdriver as I get more use out of that. And original design Laguioles have a corkscrew as well as a prong for curing bloat in sheep (don't ask). But considering the force needed to budge the cork with a lever, I wonder if I'd have strength enough to pull one without this mechanism. How do you do it? Do you just screw the thing into the cork and give an almighty yank or is there something I don't undestand about this? Enquiring minds want to know.
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I know the corkscrews on a Swiss Army work. We were at a friend’s house for dinner and they could not find their opener. They were getting desperate, he even talked about getting some "garage tools" and trying to open it that way.

I had my always carried handy dandy Swiss with me and said here try this. Well they sort of laughed at the little Swiss but did use it and of course it worked quite well.

PS I’m probably one of the few Italians that does not like wine so I did it for them, I drank a Pepsi instead.:D
 
I prefer a waiter's corkscrew, my Swiss Army knife one. The simpler the better I say. I would like to find one of those old big T-handled ones. I have broken all of my fancy ones. If one cannot open a corked bottle with a basic tool, then one should switch to Thunderbird (as I did in my younger days-quite decent chilled).
 
The drinking part is easy.....

CAJUNLAWYER said:
Well-I am of the school that believes that in one cannot figure out how to open a bottle, box or can of spirits, beer or wine they don't deserve to drink.

Mother is the necessity of invention.
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It's getting the cork out without breaking or crumbling it that's the tricky part. When I was drinking wine I had lot of mishaps with corks. One time half a cork ended up in the bottle. Yuk.
 
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