Bottle openers

[Maneesh Godbole]

Its Saturday night and I like to imagine I have had a hard day.

What better way to unwind than to put on my favorite music and settle down with a drink.
Recently I decided I am the adventurous sort, and picked up a bottle of wine for the first time. I am a die hard fan of whiskey and wine was a deviation for me.
While shopping, I asked the attendant about the basics. He was most helpful and helped me choose a red.

Excitedly I came home, plugged in Pink Floyd, dimmed the lights, ignored my wife, who was giving me the strangest looks after seeing the wine bottle, and proceeded to open the bottle.
Initially I struggled with the paper/foil seal (Duh!).
Finally I managed to get it off. The I used this, or tried to use this. I have an exact replica, except its silver colored instead of the wood finish. I struggled with it for quite a few minutes in vain. At last I managed the trick...almost. The cork went inside the bottle.
I was disgusted and promptly abandoned the effort, ignoring the peals of laughter from my wife.

Whiskey rocks.
Amen.

[pete stein]

But wine still tastes great even with the cork in the bottle! Lord knows how many times I've had to make do with this. My preference though is a nice glass of fine cognac.

[Maneesh Godbole]

pete stein wrote:But wine still tastes great even with the cork in the bottle!.

Not when there are glass shards inside the bottle to keep the cork company!!!

[Mike Simmons]

Maneesh Godbole wrote:

pete stein wrote:But wine still tastes great even with the cork in the bottle!.

Not when there are glass shards inside the bottle to keep the cork company!!!

That's what coffee filters are for, isn't it?

I mean, aside from, well, coffee.

But if you're shattering bottle tops when you try to remove a cork, maybe you should lay off the caffeine.

Personally I've always used corkscrews. Occasionally this results in cork fragments floating in the wine. No glass though. So far.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

I've never used one of those two-pronged openers; thanks for the warning about them. I'll stick to a good old-fashioned corkscrew.

[Ulf Dittmer]

I like those openers. They keep the cork unharmed, making it easier to close the bottle. Only if handled properly, obviously :-)

[Ben Souther]

I have an air pump with a hypodermic type needle on the end.

It leaves the cork in much better shape than a typical cork screw and, I'm guessing, is a lot easier to use than the ones in the pictures.

[Bauke Scholtz]

I don't drink wine, but my dad has kind of a "wine saver" which consits of some special stops and a vacuum pomp. You just screw the cork out the usual way ( ;) ) and after use you plug the special stop in and vacuum the bottle using the vacuum pomp. To open it, just press the stop open until vacuum escapes and you can get it easily out.

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Maneesh Godbole wrote:The I used this [...] I have an exact replica, except its silver colored instead of the wood finish

I had to look the Ah-So Bottle Opener up to find out what the deal was:

Wikipedia wrote:
The Ah-So can also inadvertantly push the cork further into the bottle rather than extract it.

But I guess you known that now?

Regards, Andrew

[Pat Farrell]

It takes talent to use an Ah-So. But I used one for probably thirty years. It can be a problem if the bottle of wine was badly stored. But with a bit of practice, you can open nearly any bottle, and it fits nicely in your pocket.

All cork removing tools have a chance to push the cork in. And if you can avoid glass shards, the alcohol will kill any germs on the outside of the cork.

Consider it a bit of a sobriety test

[Mike Simmons]

Wait - you need talent and sobriety? Guess I'm out then.

[Henry Wong]

I had one of those openers too. It was nice to store, but a pain to use.

These days, I just use a corkscrew. Wine should not be used for more than a few days after it is uncorked anyway, so there is no great need to save the cork.

Henry

[Gail Schlentz]

Henry Wong wrote:
These days, I just use a corkscrew. Wine should not be used for more than a few days after it is uncorked anyway, so there is no great need to save the cork.
Henry

Leftover Wine?!?!

[fred rosenberger]

Henry Wong wrote:
Wine should not be used for more than a few days after it is uncorked anyway

s/used/drank/

Old wine is GREAT for cooking!!!

[Joe Ess]

Bottle opener?

The answer to the question: "what kind of wine goes best with more wine?"