What do you use to open your Port bottles?

[Roy Hersh]

There are so many tools out there, what is your favorite?

Lots of folks use the old "waiter's friend" type of corkscrew usually seen brought from the pockets of servers in restaurants. Others use a firm Screwpull or Leverpull. Still others use a needle type of opener which is inserted through the cork and gas is injected to pop out the corks. CorkPops is actually the largest name brand of this type of opening system. Another is the simple Ah-So, which is usually an expensive 2-pronged device that is inserted between the inner bottle neck and two sides of the cork and deftly used to extract it. There are many others like the old winged cork remover and on and on.

So ... which do you prefer for your young or old bottles of Vintage Port. I do realize you may use two different types depending on age. However, so that this can be used to provide insight into some folks who are just getting started, please also include the "why" in your response.


Thanks!

[Andy Velebil]

It all about the Ah-So :!: :!: :!:

On 90% of what I open...just cause I think its the coolest cork tool anyone has come up with. It does not cause those old corks to crumble, nor does it put that ugly hole in the middle of all those corks I want to keep.

[Dave Boyer]

I got an off-brand Ah-So type cork puller to try it since I wasn't really familiar with them and have been using it a lot (the fancy Monopol one is now on my Xmas list), but last weekend when I was inserting it around the cork of a port bottle it snapped a big chip out of the neck, about halfway down the length of the cork. made rather a mess with lots of little bits of glass all over my counter. never had that problem with a screw-type opener. So I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen? problem with my technique; flaw in the neck of the bottle perhaps; or something that just happens now and then? thanks,
-drb

[Andy Velebil]

Dave,

My guess would probably be a flawed bottle. I've used the Ah-So on dozens of bottles, from cheap $3-4 wines to a 1949 Inglenook Cab., and never had a problem with glass breakage. I would say it was just a fluke.

[Frederick Blais]

More and more I use the Ah-So, when its not at hand, I use the regular pullman's 2 step uncorker.

[Al B.]

To some extent, what I use depends on my mood.

I will always use the Ah-So style cork remover on an older bottle of wine (25+ years). If I suspect that the cork might crumble on me then that, I have found, is the best chance for me to get the cork out intact. Sometimes I end up pushing the cork into the bottle, but not often.

On young wine I might use the Ah-So or a waiters friend corkscrew. The waiters friend tends to be quicker and less fiddly than the Ah So and doesn't dig gouges out of the side of the cork.

Alex

[Roy Hersh]

Dave B.,

Welcome aboard! Nice to have you join us.

I have a couple of the Monopol Ah-So extractors and they are pretty nice. Opening one incredibly stuck cork from a cask sample (must have hand hammered in a too big cork) of '03 six months ago, Trying to slowly twist and lift, amazingly the near indestructable Ah-So bent on me. It has never happened before or since though. I can't use that one anymore.

I use three or four different styles of extractors but almost exclusively the Ah-So with pre-1970 bottlings. It certainly increases the odds of getting the cork out in one piece, but I agree that it makes reading the corks difficult in really old bottles where you'd like to verify the producer/vintage by the branding of the cork.

[David Baghdassarian]

I use the pocket model screwpull and rarely have problems, even with older bottles. The worm is very long and can get through those long corks and you get a lot of leverage with the pocket model and can control how fast the cork comes up to avoid breakage. I tend to use this opener for almost everything since it is so convenient, leaving the fancy lever model on its stand in the cellar.

Maybe when I get bottles older than 1961 I'll need something else, but it works for now.