For The Love Of Port

Surely a corkscrew would be more effective for ancient corks if the helix were made of a flat, teflon coated material.

My thoughts exactly.

I also thought that a shallower pitch between each revolution is needed - so more turns to insert it, and also a wider coil, so that the helix is much closer to the glass.

As a final detail, I also thought that a geared jig is desirable, that sits on top of the bottle, to guide in the screw with the minimum of trauma, and also, in a separate operation, to lift the cork in a gradual and controlled manner.

Tom

Any new thoughts on this fine topic?

Perhaps a double helix (Not just for DNA!) to really grip the cork. Each off center with a central spike. Once the spike is engaged, then the mechanical function of the corkscrew can be utilized.

Roy Hersh wrote:Any new thoughts on this fine topic?

It wasn't until I checked the date stamp on the OP that I realized the OP wasn't a facetious advertiser for The Durand, which seems like one of two obvious solutions, the other one being port tongs.

All comments on "grippier" worms/screws: The more you cut up the cork (double worms - wide, flat worms) the weaker it gets. I would think this would worsen your chances of getting the cork out intact.

I like the Durand for very old, (potentially) weak corks; the combination of the worm for pull and the Ah-so-style prongs for loosening the cork appeals to my sense of what should work.

For everyday work (my carry corkscrew) I like my Code-38 Stealth. (I'm a sucker for anything gadgety.)

For one particular wine which has a very difficult-to-remove cork (my wife brought home a cork from one of these with 3 {three} worms from cheap "waiter's-friend" style corkscrews broken off simultaneously in the cork) I have been trying a Butterfly-style (two arms that are pulled down after setting the worm) and a long-worm (run a very long worm in until it elevates the cork). I'm liking the long-worm a bit better, but maybe because the Butterfly has a worm which looks like a very coarse-threaded wood-screw (I don't like these).

For big parties, I tend to use an electric (which works on the long-worm principle) but it does not handle artificial corks well. BTW, slippery (Teflon, Nitride-coated, etc.) worms seem to stick worse than bare or chromed worms in artificial corks.

Then again, sometimes I just use my hands - there are getting to be a fair number of decent wines under screw-caps. I even had a not-so-good sparkling wine that used a combination screw-cap with the addition of a tapered plastic plug under the cap. It was nicely sparkling, but the wine wasn't all that good.

Has anyone ever tried the old CO2 injector things that pop the cork out using pressurized cartridges? Gimmicky as they are, they always seemed like an interesting idea for older, fragile corks, but I've never seen or tried one. I don't know how easily they penetrate the cork going in, maybe they would just end up pushing a very old cork into the bottle?