With the arrival of autumn comes the entertaining season. Dinner parties, holiday parties and plain ol' party parties – chances are there's a bottle of wine or two in your future. Start getting your bar prepped now, starting with a new corkscrew. And if you're not looking for a new corkscrew for yourself, they make great hostess gifts!
Easy Openers: Lever, Rabbit & Electric (Clockwise from top left)
• Vertical Rabbit Corkscrew from Wine Enthusiast $59.95
• Peugeot Baltaz Lever Corkscrew from Sur La Table $89.95
• Electric Rabbit from Metrokane $50
• Sieger-Profi Uncorking Machine from Lowen Versand $89.50
• Houdini Corkscrew from Metrokane $30
Work It: Cute, Classic & Twisty (From left to right)
• Anna G. from Alessi $60
• Smooth Turn Corkscrew from Williams-Sonoma $39.95
• OXO SteeL Winged Corkscrew from Sur La Table $21.95
• Penguin Corkscrew from Uncommon Goods $11
• Pulltap's Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew from Amazon $5.78
• Elite Two-Step Ratchet Corkscrew from Wine Enthusiast $19.95
BEST CORKSCREW LISTS FROM AROUND THE WEB
• Best Corkscrews at The Wall Street Journal
• Recommended Corkscrews from Good Housekeeping
• The Best Corkscrews at Real Simple
MORE WINE OPENERS ON APARTMENT THERAPY
• Good Design, Everyday Objects: Bottle Openers
• 5 Electronic Wine Bottle Openers for the Oenophile
• Tech Gifts for the Wine Lover
(Images: As credited above)
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The Pulltap's Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew from Amazon $5.78 is BY FAR the one and only wine opener.
I LOVE my rabbit corkscrew.
Many years ago a friend told us about a corkscrew made by Tupperware. I found one on ebay and fell in love! It's really the best ever. We have an electric one that was a gift and since it's on the countertop, it does get used occasionally. But my constant go-to is the tupperware. I think you can still find them on ebay. I think they were made mostly as hostess gifts by Tupperware.
We have the Classic Rabbit by Metrokane. While I appreciate the charm of an old fashion pull corkscrew, I can't get over the ease of our Rabbit!
We have had our Rabbit Corkscrew for awhile now and love it. A family member got a Houdini and was having trouble with it. When we went over to their house I thought that they were just didn't know how to use it so I attempted to use it. The catch would miss or slip we ended up using a double hinged corkscrew. I highly recommend the Rabbit Brand.
Oh and if you want to know an easy way to remove the foil from the neck of the bottle. Just grab the whole thing and pull it of as demistrated in this video clip.
I have the Classic Rabbit by Metrokane as well. Actually, I'm on my second as I broke the first on imitation corks. Now if I have wine that uses imitation cork, I have to use a regular ol' hand twist kind because the Rabbit just won't open it. I've been wondering if the electric one is any better/more effective at imitation cork??
Professionally, I use the pull-tap double hinged. Domestically, I use the same.
Not only are they inexpensive (and, according to the list, the cheapest), they work perfectly and I can open a bottle in less than three seconds.
The learning curve is low. Open three bottles with it and you are proficient.
Think of a wine key as any other tool in your kitchen. If you have taken the time to learn how to use a knife, then learning to use a wine key will take you no time at all.
1. Pull the sleeve/foil off.
2. Get the key to where the inner set of teeth will "bite" the bottle.
3. Pull up.
4. Set the outer set to "bite".
5. Pull up.
6. Enjoy.
The other products mentioned do the job (some poorly, as mentioned in the comments above), but why not use that money towards... another bottle of wine, perhaps?
A cork 'screw' I saw once and never again was like a bicycle pump with a needle. You put the needle through the cork and pump. The air you're pumping into the bottle pushes the cork out..intact! Genius.
I use an ah-so (twin blade cork puller) just to amaze friends. The biggest issue to overcome when opening a bottle is breaking the vacuum; this does it nicely.
It's also handy if you use the corks for other projects.
a double waiter corkscrew is super easy to use, inexpensive, and take up very little space. I find most of the others to be bulky and unnecessary.
I received a Laguiole olive wood ratchet-style corkscrew as a gift, which I love the look and feel of, but I turn to the Metrokane Rabbit when I gotta get at the boozé in a hurry.
I have had the style with the swing arms fail on me a few times. This one is affordable and uses a simple mechanism with fewer parts to break. Will never use another style!
http://www.amazon.com/Screwpull-S1015-31-Table-Corkscrew-Black/dp/B0001UZPY0/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1351348446&sr=8-27&keywords=wine+opener