Hello everybody, when drinking a few glasses of wine this weekend I started wondering about corkscrews and their design. My favorite type is the winged one because it has a personality with it’s flapping arms. Personaly i’m not much into the big mechanical lever-type ones…
What type of corkscrew do you appreciate the most?
The Rabbit. This thing is awesome. The circular accessory is foil cutter which is so-so, but the opener rocks. Super high quality, smooth & comfortable operation. I have opened many bottles of wine with this…
The rabbit is a classic. It’s a great form, has the right amount of detailing, and the rubberized surface texture has a great feel.
I was bought one as a gift, was delighted, used it just once and it’s now sitting quietly in the plastic hutch it came in, in the pantry.
What I actually use is just the classic two armed type, as shown below (not necessarily that model).
check the porsche design Leifheit corkscrew. Works well, and nice wood stand/holder. Built in foil cutter, but IMHO, doesnt work so well.
use this most of the time, but also keep a waiters corkscrew handy for the quick/cheap ones.
The Alessi Anna corkscrew is also pretty good.
R
I loved the Alessi corkscrew too when it first came out. It seemed to be the first two-armed corkscrew to take a different approach to the format.
In testing it though, I was disappointed at how darn difficult it is to take the cork back out (from under the skirt) . -Just a minor detail.
The Porsche corkscrew was based upon a different concept that was originally conceived by the US company Screwpull. Their patent expired around '97 and then a whole bunch of corkscrews suddenly appeared on the market in this format. The cool thing about that mechanism is that you don’t have to pull, just squeeze with one hand (holding the bottle) and turn with the other.
I’m a huge fan of this one. Its a multi-purpose instrument, too. Unfortunately it only works with a champagne bottle…
(thats a knife in right hand)
I find that the screwpull type where you just keep turning are extremely easy to use and don’t require much force. However i’ve expirienced that they punch small bits of cork into the bottle because the go through the cork. It’s not a huge problem, but a bit of pain nonetheless…
You Pansies!
This is how Wine bottles are supposed to be opened
And… if you’re a real MAN!
J/K… you’re not pansies 
That Porsche one looks pretty cool!
In case of emergency…
YES…
-OR-
I always like the classic waiter’s helpre:
This is a laser cut Italian example: but there are millions of variants:
This is my personal favorite because it’s really simple to use and it doesn’t damage the cork. No little bits floating in your glass.
The Rabbit is really cool, but it feels like a bigger tool than the job requires sort of like doing surgery with a machete.
You might be missing a Y chromosome to truly appreciate the rabbit 
Best thing about the Porsche one I like, is the handle folds up to ebe 90 degrees to the line of draw, and there is a hole in to put your finger in to spin it around in a similar motion like scrolling a giant ipod. Hard to describe, but its nice that lets you use a larger motion of the arm, rather than a wrist driven screwing motion.
R
ip_wirelessly: You’re definitely right about the Y chromosone although I still tend to be the gadget Queen.
My other complaint about the Rabbit is that it makes the bottle very top-heavy and you have to be careful. If you are opening a bottle on a slick surface like granite or corian counter tops, it’s pretty easy for the bottom of the bottle to want to move out from under the Rabbit mechanism during the opening operation. I’ve seen good bottles of wine spilled like this. I’ve never spilled one, but I’ve had the bottle tip on me.
I also loved the rabbit when it first came out, but quickly dropped it. There is just no way to open a bottle of wine with that thing and be smooth at the same time!
I have said that before I die I want to crack an absurdly expensive bottle of wine. It will be just my luck that I would be cracking that $5000 bottle of grape juice using a Rabbit and smash the bottle to bits.
After working in a restaurant through college, and opening hundreds of wine bottles, this is the only style I will use. Simple, Sleek, and never fails.
This style has a nice “double pumping” method (not sure what else to call it) that makes it very easy to use.
I’ve had the OXO Good Grips Wine Pull for over 8 years. I have always liked the design and it works great:
There is no pulling involved - simply keep twisting and the cork comes out. Wine enthusiasts/purists hate it (my fiancee’s family hates it), but I love being different…
A little wine lore…
Supposedly, this article dates back to 16th century Germany, where it was known as a “Wein Dieb (vine deeb)” … a Wine Thief.
The story being that it was created by an enterprising monk so that he could remove wine from the bottle without damaging the cork, and thereby alerting the steward that it had been pilfered; the missing treasure being replaced with water.
Don’t know if it’s a true story, but is a good one …