These are just a few of the wine openers available in the stores these days. From very attractive to highly functional and then simplicity.There are waiter style, mounted styles, screw pull corkscrews, easy grip corkscrew. They come in all shapes and sizes (even electric) They can be high tech, simply classic or decorative and even pink! They can be all different price ranges. But what really matters is does it do the job. They all eventually get the cork out of the bottle so you can enjoy your wine. It is all a preference of what you want for your collection of bar items. I would love to collect antique corkscrews someday. Not to really use them but perhaps just to display and cherish.
The curly part of the corkscrew is called the worm. It has been told to me that the corkscrew is an English invention. I will need to do more research on this one. The English have brought us many great things. It is said they began using the corkscrew in the 1600's. Not only for wine but also for beers and cider. In 1795, the first corkscrew patent was granted to the Reverend Samuel Henshal, in England. From simple to electric we have come a long way. One will do the job just as well as the other. They all have the same basic purpose in mind...getting the bottle open. This is definitely one tool your bar or kitchen drawer can not be without if you choose to purchase your wines with a cork and not in a box or screw top. I have drank many great tasting and high quality wines from a box and screw top so we can not exactly judge a wine by how it is packaged.
In The Wine Bible you can be guided as to how to properly use the cork screw. I have found that I could never operate the waiter's corkscrew. possibly it is because I just learned that you need between 50 & 100 pounds of pulling force to do so and my hands being weak are not capable of that.
There is nothing easier than pushing a button and getting your wine from a box when you have bad hands, but when I get my trusty, simple wine opener from the department store out to open a bottle of wine somehow it changes the whole atmosphere in the room and the experience is a bit more pleasing to me. You see I have learned over the last decade in my life in learning about wines to make it an experience from the time I decide to go to the wine store to purchase, till I sit down in the comfort of my home or a friends to truly enjoy every moment. You may say that I have "fallen in love". And yes, that would be the proper way to look at it. I love every part of the wine experience. The best parts are when I do have time to go and tour the wineries and see the vines in the fields and get up close and touch them. These are moments I have had and do not forget. I have not been to Napa or Tuscany yet...those trips are definitely what I wish to do in the next decade of my life, but I have been to wineries in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio and I have learned that the more I learn about wines the more appreciative I am of all the work involved with the whole process from the vine to the glass.
Cheers!
PS...Corkscrews can be great stocking stuffers!!!! hint...hint....
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