Wine accessories - The three musketeers: The Corkscrew

Yeah finally again some more time for a new post! I know I told you guys that I would post twice a week, well reality again showed me that with my current work load I am not able to do so. So I set my mind up to 100% post once a week at least! I don't wanna let you wait too long for new stuff..

The four musketeers: Athos, Porthos,
Aramis and D'Artagnan

So new chapter, new topic. We are starting with 'wine accessories' which includes dozens of equipments. Some of them are necessary to have, other useful, good-looking or just making your life easier. Starting with what I call: The three musketeers. These are the corkscrew (Athos), the wine carafe (Porthos) and the wine glass (Aramis). (Okay D'Artagnan is the bottle of wine, of course what else? There can't be only three musketeers. They are always four!) You need these four companions to ensure a good time! 

Today I am gonna start with one you will need now and forever: ATHOS....äh...pardon I meant ....THE CORKSCREW. 'How else are you opening the bottle?' you might ask. Well there are other "possibilities" which I will talk about later in this post. 

A basic corkscrew
(c) Wikipedia, user KMJ

If you are going to buy a corkscrew please be aware that there are a lot of different models available. The classical and basic one, a wing corkscrew, a sommelier knife and so on and on... Technically all these corkscrews tend to simply open up the wine bottle, but with different kinds of physical forces. Depending on your skills and your muscle power you might should chose the one that suits you best - or you just like best. 

So how do they work? The basic requires strength at all and is for beginners not quite easy to handle. You have to hold with one hand the bottle while tearing the corkscrew with the other. If you don't have a grip like the invincible HULK I rather not suggest you to do so. Either the bottle will break in your hand (if your are HULK) or it might slip and you will throw it somewhere. In both cases the bottle will be useless and all the cost for cleaning will exceed the enjoyment of having a glass of wine.

Now how to do with this one? There are two tricks how you can deal with it. First you put the bottle on the table and you put your hand around the bottle's neck and then pull the corkscrew upwards. This will safely guarantee that the bottle won't be crushed. However sometimes the bottle can overbalance while doing so. So another trick is to put the bottle between your legs and tightly push it together while pulling the cork out (a suggestions from my side, do it slowly with this one).  

A winged corkscrew
(c) Wikipedia, user KMJ

If you are afraid of not being capable of doing it correct with the basic one, then you should either considering to go for a wing corkscrew. There you simply have to hold the bottle when opening. It requires less strength than the basic one and also not too much skills. By pushing down the two wings you will lever the cork out.

A sommeliers knife
(c) Wikipedia, user KMJ

If you now think that is too easy or not challenging enough, then go for the sommeliers knife. Its also using the lever technique with a little bit more strength and still needing some skill to hold the bottle while opening. To be honest I am also using the sommeliers knife (a variation in design of it). I especially like the fact that you have the small knife for cutting the cap that is surrounding the cork. You can also do it with the corkscrew thorny end, however if you wanna have a clear cut in this cap and not looking like you tried to teared it away then go for a normal knife. I also put some pictures how to hold the bottle while cutting the cap, this should give you an idea of how to do it. Plus it looks a little bit more professional doing so...

Holding and cutting the
cap with the thorny
end of a corkscrew

Coming back to a situation when you don't have ATHOS....et mince... the corkscrew at hand. Yeah well there are other possibility how to open it the bottle... et ben...pff... I honestly didn't want to mention this: how to open a bottle without a corkscrew.. then again thinking of opening a bottle without having a corkscrew and not knowing how to open it up will result in 99% in a proper catastrophe: the bottle will be destroyed...  ... ... ... ... ... ... pff... ... ... ben pourquoi pas?.... okay I convinced myself to tell you how. Just do me a favor if someone ask you where you learned that, don't think about mentioning me...

How to open without a corkscrew (PLEASE BEAR IN MIND BEING CAREFUL WHILE OPENING UP THE BOTTLE AND PREFERABLY DON'T DO IT WHEN YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU CAN DO IT! I am taking NO RESPONSIBILITY when you are hurting yourself or causing any kind of damage while doing so).

Holding and cutting the
cap with the small knife
of a sommeliers knife

1) Using a sneaker or sport shoe. You put the shoe around the bottle's bottom and hardly hit the shoe's bottom with the bottle against something (the wall, a table, the ground). While doing so the pressure inside will slowly push the cork out. That is working very well as long as you have a natural or pressed cork. With the plastic ones... good luck while not breaking the bottle.

2) Pushing the cork into the bottle. This is particular very difficult as you have to use a lot of force at same time while being careful not to stain yourself when doing so (especially when it's red wine). Again this is working well with a natural cork one... good luck again with the plastic ones. One more reason why I don't like plastic corks...

I tried those two tricks by myself as well. They worked out. However I wasn't very satisfied with the end result. Especially 1) is not well suited for red wine. You shake the wine so that is a NO GO! You should never shake wine. Why? I will come back to this when talking about PORTHOS, the wine carafe.

So the take home message for today: You need to have a corkscrew and it is very important to figure out which one you are going for!

Et bien mes amis thats it for today. I hope you will read next week again my blog! À bientôt! 

Oh là that reminds me I wanted to put a special:

BON VOYAGE! For a Finnish friend of mine here! She is going to life now in France! I wasn't able to attend yesterday at her Farewell Party so I couldn't say to here have a great time! So please I hope you read this, Bon Voyage ma belle, take care and enjoy every moment! Say hello to France from me!!! We (I) will miss you here in Finland. But Finland's lose is France greatest win(e)! :)

- “Wine in moderation: Good for the body, great for the soul.” Jim Trezise -