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Corkscrew redux

Margaret Pilgrim

By Margaret Pilgrim
in Wine

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Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

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Forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I wonder if many of us have experimented with the new(ish) waiter-style corkscrew with two fulcrums. We saw them first through a closed shop window, then went on a search for them. Before we found them at retail, we saw them being used in several restaurants. They are exactly like the classic waiter-style screw (foil-knife, screw and fulcrum), but have a second fulcrum that kicks in just as you have reached the place on the cork where the lever usually quits being effective. We tracked them down in the wine accoutrement department in the basement of BHV, ranging in price from 13 euros to 40 euros, depending only on finish. We brought one home, and although I (thought I) was completely happy with the waiter's corkscrew, this one is amazing: one gentle pull, the second lever kicks in and, zoop, the cork is out without a whisper! Pros never did it so smoothly. :wub:

eGullet member #80.

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Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

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Dstone, unfortunately I am technically compromised, so don't do pictures without a lot of outside help. We paid 13 euros for an anodized finished product. The most expensive model was 40 euros, and was exactly the same but "felt a little better in the hand".

To describe it again, it is essentially the old-fashioned and classic waiter's corkscrew, the kind they sell for around 5 bucks at wineries or wine shops. Whereas that original style corkscrew has a single set of leverage prongs, this one has a kind of hinge affair and a second set that smoothly kicks in when you have reached the end of the leverage action of the first set. You just move the second set up to the lip of the bottle. Any better? Uh, I don't think so. Sorry.

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Bux

Bux

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corkscrew.jpg

Is this what you mean? I've had it since 1995. It was free or very expensive depending on how you look at it. It is a souvenir of our daughter's college graduation, I suppose. For a few days each May the hotels in the town double their prices. As a way of sweetening the deal, our hotel threw in a bottle of cheap wine and a corkscrew. I don't recall if we drank the wine or gave it away, but I kept the corkscrew as it wasn't bad, It had a good worm and the double leverage of which you speak. I don't imagine the hotel paid much for it. It has "Ruffino" stamped into the plastic on the side. It doesn't show in the scan. Sorry for the quality it's just a direct scan of the object.

Robert Buxbaum

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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I've never had any trouble with the regular kind.

Bux what else can you put on your scanner for us?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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StephenT

StephenT

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I've never had any trouble with the regular kind.

I had trouble with mine last weekend. It broke. The screw snapped right off while I was trying to open an obstinate bottle. There was no way to get it out of the cork, so I just started using a double-lever type opener on the same cork.

It opened fine, but when I removed the cork from the screw, the old, broken screw that had been inside the cork had wound itself very tidily (and tightly) around the screw of the double-level opener, which was one of the "Archimedian screw" type screws. So I had to wrestle with it for a while with a pair of pliers to remove it. At least the wine was open.

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Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

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Ron, I loved a comment I read on a usenet wine group. A man said, and I probably paraphrase, "I can't say that my Lagiuole corkscrew opens a bottle any easier than other corkscrew, but I get a thrill everytime I take it out of the drawer and feel it in my hand."

I can't think of a better rationale for owning anything! :biggrin:

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Stone

Stone

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Bux, close but no cigar, although yours may well work as well.  The one I have is marked "Pulltaps", which just caused me to do a google search and behold:

http://www.pulltap.com

I definitely need a corkscrew box. Keeping mine the junk drawer does not afford the corkscrew the respect it deserves.

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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It allows you to start the worm deeper than you would with a one stage.

Can you clarify?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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StephenT

StephenT

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It allows you to start the worm deeper than you would with a one stage.

Can you clarify?

I assume he means that in the one-stage version, the "stage" is somewhere between the lengths of the two stages in the two-stage version.

This means that when either the opener is really low (such as Ron means when starting with the worm really deep into a cork) or when it's really high (such as when the cork is almost out) then it's pulling at an angle quite far from the ideal. The ideal being straight out of course, parallel to the path of the cork.

With the two-stage opener, the first stage allows you to pull straighter when you're just starting and the second stage allows you to pull straighter when you're almost finished.

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Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson

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Stephen got it. With a one stage corkscrew you can drive the worm deep enough into a long cork that the prongs won't reach the bottle lip. However, with a two stage, you can drive the worm all the way down and use the higher (second) prong to grab the bottle lip, then as you pull the cork upward, the first prongs will go onto the bottle lip.

By driving the worm the length of the cork, there is less chance for breaking the cork, especially in an older bottle.

Margaret, that guy is right on. My Lagiuole is not the best corkscrew I own mechanically speaking, but it just looks so damn cool and feels so heavy and well-made.

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Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson

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is it a real one?  you know about all those fake ones out there?....not to imply yours isn't real (i'm sure you'd know), but since we're on the subject.

It was purchased at the factory in Laguiole, France.

Like watches in NYC and breasts in LA, yes that are a lot of fake ones out there.

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Robert Nesta Marley

Robert Nesta Marley

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is it a real one?  you know about all those fake ones out there?....not to imply yours isn't real (i'm sure you'd know), but since we're on the subject.

It was purchased at the factory in Laguiole, France.

Like watches in NYC and breasts in LA, yes that are a lot of fake ones out there.

can i see your "real" one sometime???? :biggrin::laugh:

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