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My Favorite Corkscrew is Only $2 And It’s Awesome, With A Catch

I’ve opened my fair share of wine bottles over the years, some new, some really old, some opened in haste, others opened with extreme care.  Finding a good corkscrew is not easy, and there’s a ton of debate over which ones are best.

I’m not going to tell you this one is the best, but I’ll tell you it’s my favorite.  And it works great with just one catch, which we’ll get to in a minute.

Let’s first talk about what a good wine opening device should do.  It should be easy to use.  It should have a “feel” to it so that you know you won’t break the cork (battery powered openers are out).  It should be effective at opening bottles all the time.  It’s a bonus if it’s cheap and a bonus if it’s light and small.

Those were my requirements.  For many years I used a Rabbit opener like thisI liked it, and it worked well.  But when I was opening older wines from my cellar, I didn’t like how automated it was.  I lost the “feel” of the cork, and wasn’t sure when to apply pressure and when not to.  Granted, I still got those wines open, a few with broken corks, so it did the job.

I began searching for a new opener, something simple, back to the basics.  And that’s when I came across this opener, called the Wine Enthusiast Pulltap’s Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew.  It was $2 on Amazon.  Free shipping but not Prime eligible.

I ordered three of them, and it took weeks to arrive, so I figure these are coming from China.  But once I started using them, I was hooked.  They are as small as a corkscrew can get, tiny form factor.  The screw is sharp and digs into the corks nicely.  Once in, you have two hinges to work the cork out from.  It’s smooth, effortless and super fast for everyday bottles.  For your special, aged wines, you have incredible feel as to the give and take of the cork as it comes out.  And it has a small foil cutter.

Now, here’s the catch, and you can read this in the Amazon reviews which are spot on.  The screw will begin to bend if you’re not careful.  I haven’t had any of mine bend to a point of not being usable, but I’ve noticed they don’t line up with the handle as they did when they were new.

So, what do you do?  At $2 a piece, you buy a bunch of them.  I have five more on order, and keep them scattered throughout the house and basement.  They are great to travel with.  All in all, I find it hard to use anything else.

(and I was not provided free product or compensated for saying this in any way, just want to share a tip that might help your enjoyment of Costco wine, like it did for me.)

Let me know what you think if you try them.  And thanks for visiting the site.

— Andrew

Brettoid

Thursday 25th of June 2015

If it's old bottles you are opening you should invest in The Ah-So Wine Opener. Harder to use on recently inserted corks but after buying one I rarely go for a waiters friend now. With the Ah-so you can easily get the most crumbly corks out.

Joe Roberts

Wednesday 17th of June 2015

Agree that the double-hinged water's corkscrew is an excellent instrument---- have used one for over twenty years after first running in to one. Not all, however, are the same. My favorite has the actual corkscrew (that goes down through the cork) made of a narrow, high-strength metal---- many are too fat. The problem of the corkscrew bending is not unique to the double-hinged variety, but in fact can (and does) occur with any waiter's corkscrew--- and other types of corkscrews too. The problem is that the corkscrew is not inserted far enough in to the cork, so that the last part of the cork has to be pulled out by brute strength. In so doing, it is quite easy to pull at an angle to the bottle, inevitably bending the corkscrew. Solution: insert the corkscrew as deeply in to the cork as you can, thus removing it with the full travel of the corkscrew. Also any time you think the cork may be degraded, such as in vintage bottles, skip any type of corkscrew opener and use the so-called ah-so. It works great and keeps the cork intact.

admin

Wednesday 17th of June 2015

Great advice. Thanks for sharing.

Stevesrisk

Monday 15th of June 2015

My issue (which I have yet to resolve) is that I wish to have a corkscrew doublehinged, that has a corkscrew greater than 5 turns. I wish the tip of the corkscrew to push just outside the bottom of the cork. 7 turns should do it. No luck no matter how hard I try.

Alan Reinke

Monday 15th of June 2015

Same price at Trader Joe's. Perhaps better construction.

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