I would agree except when it comes to old bottles of wine. Usually at 15+ years, but I've seen some cheap corks go soft and crumbly at 10. In these scenarios, a waiters corkscrew will not do you much good. So the $7 Ah-so does the trick in these situations.

I like to think of myself as a pseudo-sommelier when I'm entertaining close friends and guests. My SO one time zinged me hard in front of guests when this happened to me, "Real sommeliers don't do that, do they?"

Screwpull now has fancy Lever models, but I've always preferred the original simple Screwpull. It's a design classic and requires just one simple twisting action to effortlessly remove the cork.

As I mentioned, this is an example with a massive core, that could pobbilby rip a delicate cork apart.

This is the kind of helix I'd recommend

From the NY Times this morning

The $410 Corkscrew

And no, I'm not running out to get one, though I did think of this thread

These work so well ..... and so many people enquire - I bought a few when they were "on offer" and give them as gifts as people say "where can I buy one ......"

They make some cheapo ones in plastic - but it's essential that they're made of metal.


http://s7v1.scene7.com/is/image/John...id=600&hei=581

Yeah, I love mine. Here in the US the original brand name of these was the Rabbit, but there are a lot of knockoffs. When getting one, metal is important, yes. But it's also important to get one with removable corkscrews. The corkscrews themselves get dull with use and don't slip into the cork as easily, requiring replacement.

Still, I usually use the standard, no-frills waiter's friend. There's just something about the process of using it that I like: a modicum of skill, the feeling of working the screw into the cork, the squeak of cork on metal, the satisfying pop! from using two hands to get at tasty tasty wine...

I worked in wine retail for a time and have seen plenty of 'em. +1 for the waiter's 2-step, aka "broken knee." I have a 1-step laguiole with a teflon-coated screw that I love because it's sexy and perfectly weighted but frankly not as easy to use as a two-step.

The rabbit-style things I hate. Ditto the CO2-powered ones- they ALWAYS spray!

screwcaps (best) > waiter's friend (better) > rabbit (ok but can pierce the entire cork and not elegant) > hammer (bad)

corks are obsolete

I saw this monstrosity in Karstadt the other day. Not sure it would hold up any better than comparable openers, but it sure felt great in the hands. Very heavy for an opener

http://www.karstadt.de/WMF/Hebel-Kor...+883386+883388

Another vote for the Oster: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER Amazon had it today for $13.99 and it's normally $19 or so. You don't need to keep it in it's charger. Even if you use it every day, you'll only need to charge it once every two or three months.
I work at a winery and there I use a double-jointed corkscrew something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Pulltap-Double...3608599&sr=1-1

i have 7 Osters. wife bought them for me and for presents from sams/costco. the screw is very thin. they will not pull older corks that tend to stick. if the cork is a bid dry, parts of the cork are broken off and get up in the works. the corkscrew will not work then. i could take apart the corkscrew i bought at aldi's, but it died after a year(probably 1500-2000 bottles).

we are on oster #4. sam/costo take them back. we do not give them as presents. i presume oster is dumping them.

If you are yanking on the cork, then you probably have no idea how to use it properly. When used properly the cork should come out easily without need of brute strength.

Since most waiter's two step have a built in blade, I found this cool corkscrew with built in foil cutter. It is always in my rollaboard.:D
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_c.../corkscrew.jpg

+1

used to use a rabbit, but it just tore apart older corks. the Durand is also a nice, albeit expensive option for collectors.

YMMV like everything else at the Christmas Tree Shops

Yesterday the Orange CT store had the Ekco two prong cork puller

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/2756/corke.jpg

for twenty nine cents. If you buy four or more of them they rang up at four for a dollar. Not the best looking or most expensive, but for that price, there's no reason not to have one around should you ever need it.

Shockingly, the store was totally empty yesterday, don't understand that at all unless they cleaned it out in the morning and the shoppers all moved on.