The Best Corkscrews According to Wine Pros

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this essential wine tool. At home I use three different Laguiole waiter’s corkscrews, one of which has Robert M. Parker, Jr.’s name engraved on the lever. (The wine critic gave it to me when I visited his house in Maryland, years ago.) And while these corkscrews have unfailingly and easily opened hundreds of bottles, I wondered if I shouldn’t give a new one a try. Perhaps I was missing an even better device?

Marilynn Gelfman Karp, a world-class corkscrew collector—aka helixophile—was one of my inspirations. There are 700 corkscrews in the Karp collection, the basis for “Uncorked: A Corkscrew Collection” (Abbeville Press), co-authored by Ms. Karp and Jeremy Franklin Brooke. Ms. Karp began collecting in 1963 when she bought a cheap plastic corkscrew from the gadget aisle of a grocery store. Her first “serious” tool came a year later, when she purchased a Zig-Zag corkscrew, a French design from the 1920s with a frame that expands like an accordion to extract the cork. “It piqued my curiosity as it was so beautiful, yet so over-complex for a seemingly simple job,” she wrote in an email. “It was the Rube Goldberg of cork removal.”

I learned from Ms. Karp’s book that the first corkscrew patent was awarded to Englishman Samuel Henshall in 1795, for a device that looks much like today’s simple T-shape pull corkscrew. I was surprised to discover that folding corkscrews were produced as early as the 1880s. Ms. Karp owns many covetable examples, including one shaped like a mermaid and another whose levers are shaped like legs, complete with pink and white celluloid stockings and steel boots.

I wondered if Ms. Karp, with so many corkscrews to choose from, uses a different one each time or tends to rely on a single device? She referred me to page 156 of her book, where I found a photograph of her go-to tool: the 1898 English nickel-plated cast steel corkscrew that she keeps on her dining room sideboard, a beautiful and quite substantial contraption.

Having no inclination to buy something so fancy or so large, I set my sights on more plebeian and practical tools. Before I went shopping, I asked a few wine professionals about their corkscrews of choice.

Most sommeliers I know favor a simple style of corkscrew called a wine key (or sommelier’s knife, or waiter’s friend), a tool similar to a pocket knife with a folding corkscrew as well as a lever that perches on the lip of the bottle to aid in pulling the cork and a small blade for cutting foil. Luke Tousley of Troubadour Wine Bar in Minneapolis told me he relies on a cheap Truetap wine key, which costs $5—even less when it’s purchased in bulk. “They rarely break and they’re rather inexpensive,” he noted, important qualities when you open up to 90 bottles in an evening, as Mr. Tousley has often done on busy (pre-Covid) nights.

Sommelier turned winemaker André Hueston Mack of Maison Noir Wines, an Oregon wine company, admires the durability of the Cartailler Deluc wine key. He uses a stainless steel model that runs about $30. Winery owner David Ramey of Ramey Wine Cellars in Healdsburg, Calif., also uses this style of tool—a Laguiole (see #1 below) or a cheap Pulltap’s corkscrew. “Always make sure to screw the helix all the way through the cork,” he advised. “I often see waiters start to pull with a quarter of the helix still exposed—a good way to break a cork.” For wines over a decade old whose corks might need a bit of coaxing, he uses the Durand, with a two-prong design that grips the outside of the cork.

Just for fun, I reached out to a winemaker from New Zealand, the country where virtually every bottle has a screw cap. “Do you even own a corkscrew?” I asked Alastair Maling, chief group winemaker/ head of viticulture for Foley Wines. Mr. Maling said he has a couple corkscrews, but he admitted it’s hard to find one in a typical New Zealand home. “I know from occasions when I have taken a bottle with a cork, and we’ve had to hunt high and low to find a corkscrew,” he wrote in an email. He now keeps a corkscrew in his car, just in case. He also sent me a photograph of a fish-shape corkscrew that he loves but doesn’t use very much.

The fish corkscrew was amusing but also looked a lot like the cork-chewing levered corkscrew my friends Tom and Sue once used. And the $125 Durand corkscrew favored by Mr. Ramey seemed a bit pricey. Instead, I bought another two-prong model, the Belwares Ah So Wine Opener ($18; see #4 below). It came in a cute box and proved invaluable for extracting a cork stuck in the neck of a bottle.

I also bought a Twister Easy-Turn Corkscrew ($13; see #3 below), whose design is similar to the popular Screwpull corkscrew created in 1979. Simple to use as well as inexpensive, the Twister immediately went into the pile of wine openers I continue to accumulate to hand out to friends once we start gathering again.

The much bigger and more expensive Rabbit runs about $50 for the basic model. I didn’t buy one because it turned out my husband had one hidden away. Of the one time I tried it, long ago, he reminded me, “You said you hated it.” I tried again and felt the same way. It was awkward and heavy.

The last wine opener I tried, the Oster Silver Electric Wine Opener ($20; see #2 below), was certainly easy to use: A single switch moves the mechanism up and down. It did require recharging, and the sound it made set our Corgis barking. But my gadget-loving husband found this electric model fun.

Pleased as I was to find these easy-to-use and inexpensive options, my dalliance with other wine openers only made me value my trusty Laguioles all the more. Which got me wondering: Had I even thanked Mr. Parker for the one he’d gifted me? I couldn’t recall, so I wrote him a note. Mr. Parker seemed surprised to hear that I still had it, and that it had not worn out. “Are you opening enough bottles of wine?” he asked. “If you do wear your model out, let me know.” Clearly Mr. Parker shares my feeling that it’s not just good bottles that are best shared with friends, but good corkscrews as well.

OPEN SEASON / Corkscrews for every style of oenophile

1. For the Traditionalist

Laguiole en Aubrac Olivewood Waiters Corkscrew

From the famed French cutlery company, the Laguiole corkscrew is practical, durable and beautiful too. $250, williams-sonoma.com

2. For the Gadget Geek

Oster Silver Electric Wine Opener

You just press a button to remove the cork. This is as much a fun toy as it is a corkscrew. $20, bedbathandbeyond.com

3. For the Budget Buyer

Twister Easy-Turn Corkscrew

A corkscrew that lives up to its name: It doesn’t get easier than this. A blessedly simple design, and cheap, too. $13, truebrands.com

4. For the Collector

Belwares Ah So Wine Opener

This two-prong device is the best tool for gently extracting delicate (possibly crumbling) corks from bottles with considerable age on them. $18, belwares.com

Write to Lettie at [email protected]

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