Removing corks that are old & longer than average

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Sat May 02, 2009 10:07 am

Hi Folks,

I've had a few problems recently breaking corks when opening older bottles (say > 10 years old) - especially on prestige wines with longer corks.

Unfortunately most of us will occasionally encounter corks that were never of good quality. Either that, or at some stages of life the storage was flawed.

I 'enjoyed' failure with both waiters' friend or 'winged arms' devices. I have occasionally seen (but not closely inspected) cork removers with two pronks that slide down the outside of the cork. I wonder if they might be more suited to longer and crumblier old corks?

Could I have your advice, please?

John

griff · Post by **griff** » Sat May 02, 2009 10:13 am

Those prong openers are caller an Ah-So after one of the makers or a butler's friend for the ability to open a bottle without damaging the cork. Definitely worth trying with crumbly cork.

cheers

Carl

orpheus · Post by **orpheus** » Sat May 02, 2009 11:32 am

The other trick is to see if you can loosen the cork by pushing it down slightly before trying to pull it out.

If you can, this will work.

Not all waiters' friends are the same; you need something with a long screw coming to a good, sharp point.

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Sat May 02, 2009 12:43 pm

There's also fine-meshed stainless steel tea strainers - helps breathe the wine for immediate consumption.

Ah, so......

redstuff · Post by **redstuff** » Sat May 02, 2009 4:20 pm

if all else fails and your cork ends up in the bottle, you can also get cork retrievers that work very well for big pieces.

JamieH · Post by **JamieH** » Sat May 02, 2009 6:17 pm

the best way i've seen, but can not remember the name of, is a gas removal system. its a small device with a needle that you insert through the cork and press to let the gas in. the gas pushes out the cork smoothly and has no affect on the wine. great product, i used to sell it at Grape indro so Michael mc nally might remember it.

jamie

hold on i think it was called 'cork pop'!!!!

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Sat May 02, 2009 6:51 pm

JamieH wrote:the best way i've seen, but can not remember the name of, is a gas removal system. its a small device with a needle that you insert through the cork and press to let the gas in. the gas pushes out the cork smoothly and has no affect on the wine. great product, i used to sell it at Grape indro so Michael mc nally might remember it.

jamie

hold on i think it was called 'cork pop'!!!!

Hmm, (not him or her) think I've seen something about this one before, not cheap though from what I recall. Possibly good value if you're opening bottles of rather expensive, aged, cork-sealed wines fairly regularly. Obviously, the inert(?) gas recharges' cost should be related to the value of the wine they're deployed in opening.

I'll stick with the waiters friend and the tea-strainer. :wink:

Cheers

daz

JamieH · Post by **JamieH** » Sat May 02, 2009 7:15 pm

from what i can remember, thats all customers used it for (opening old bottles). also the average for the refills was 100 shots, for $20 a cylinder it worked out to be 20 cents a bottle. funny how i can remember all that but the name was the hardest.

jamie

dave vino · Post by **dave vino** » Sat May 02, 2009 7:45 pm

You can buy Cork Pop rip-offs from Peters for about $6 each. Made of plastic and come with one canister. Then you can buy the geniune refills $15 for 2 cartridges. They don't stock them all the time just get them in every now and again.

http://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Pr ... 15&cid=546

Daryl Douglas · Post by **Daryl Douglas** » Sat May 02, 2009 10:02 pm

The old waiters mate and tea strainer still seem easier. What's the problem if the wine needs to be decanted anyway? Pfffttt, seems to be a storm in a teacup - or strainer - and somewhat of an anal psyche concern.

dazza1968 · Post by **dazza1968** » Sun May 03, 2009 1:33 am

orpheus wrote:The other trick is to see if you can loosen the cork by pushing it down slightly before trying to pull it out.

If you can, this will work.

Not all waiters' friends are the same; you need something with a long screw coming to a good, sharp point.

Great tip will try in the future
regards Dazza

Softie · Post by **Softie** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:14 am

Hear, hear, Dazza. Thank you, Orpheus for the contribution. John

Michael McNally · Post by **Michael McNally** » Wed May 06, 2009 8:48 pm

JamieH wrote:the best way i've seen, but can not remember the name of, is a gas removal system. its a small device with a needle that you insert through the cork and press to let the gas in. the gas pushes out the cork smoothly and has no affect on the wine. great product, i used to sell it at Grape indro so Michael mc nally might remember it.

jamie

hold on i think it was called 'cork pop'!!!!

Hi Jamie

The one I bought at the Grape (ahhh those were the days), was called Corky. I only found it through Google of course, but here's a gratuitous pic:

It was pump action (environmentally friendly???) but as I gave it to my father-in-law as a present and never heard of it again, I don't think it was brilliant. Perhaps you are thinking of another opener.

Hope you can make it to the next offline (must post that thread soon) as it would be great to catch up.

Cheers

Michael

Michael McNally · Post by **Michael McNally** » Wed May 06, 2009 8:56 pm

www.wineaccessory.com/Images/corky.jpg

Sorry, just displaying how dumb I am.

John #11 · Post by **John #11** » Wed May 06, 2009 9:01 pm

Michael McNally wrote:www.wineaccessory.com/Images/corky.jpg

Sorry, just displaying how dumb I am.

Looks like you can use it to blow up mattresses too. :lol:

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Removing corks that are old & longer than average

Removing corks that are old & longer than average

Yep, shrewd tip from Orpheus