No wine lover has ever avoided the problems caused by a poorly functioning corkscrew and we have bad memories attached to these failures. We all had the experience of watching a waiter/waitress struggling with the corkscrew and have us pray that the wine will be OK after all the work. So we ask ourselves how to buy a corkscrew that will work the best, even for the fairer sex, if she is stuck without a Martian (us men) to delegate the bottle opening job to. Let me address the problem and give some recommendations.
First of all, what makes a good corkscrew? Aside from the obvious job of removing the cork, what other important issues are there?
1. The work should require as little brute force as possible
2. The cork should be kept intact – no shredding, breakage, etc.
3. The screw should go in straight to avoid breaking the cork or the screw
4. The pulling action should not shake up the bottle to avoid disturbing the sediment, if any, there
5. Must do the job safely (no explosions, cracked glass, broken corkscrew, etc.)
6. It has to fit all types of bottle necks, including the new flanged types
Joseph C. Paradi
