Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

1996 Montelena Estate C S. Kept in temp and humidity controlled cellar. Absolutely dry cork except near the wine. The Durand cored out the cork. Even with the ah so attachment. Luckily the wine was stupendous!

That's a young wine to have such a weak cork.

Treated myself to a new Laguiole this week, I think it weighs in at about 6 pounds....

Love the 96 Montelena Estate!

Glad the wine delivered!

The only Durand failure I’ve had was with a soft soaked spongy cork that was longer than the Durand worm. The bottom 1/4” of the cork, below the worm, separated.

DavidG wrote: ↑Mon Nov 14, 2022 2:36 am Glad the wine delivered!

The only Durand failure I’ve had was with a soft soaked spongy cork that was longer than the Durand worm. The bottom 1/4” of the cork, below the worm, separated.

Yep, the worm in the Durand could be a bit longer.

And the ah-so part included in the Durand is too thick and stiff to go along the edges of the cork. (But this can be fixed.)

The Durand is a great idea but the execution is pretty weak for the $$$.

Oh, you reminded me Tom. I replaced the Ah-so part with a Monopol. Much better.

I wouldn't say that the Durand failed, rather that it couldn't cope with a defective cork.
Would any other bottle opener have worked better?

AR

I've had a Durand fail on a couple wines, mostly from the 60s and early 70s. Usually it was because the cork was so soft portions of it crumbled on the axis opposite of the Ah-so portion. I've also had it fail when someone used a normal cork and it broke low in the bottle. Most times I can catch it and pull it up, but not always. Thats why I bought one of the cork retrievers. Works wonders.

AlexR wrote: ↑Tue Nov 15, 2022 4:43 pm I wouldn't say that the Durand failed, rather that it couldn't cope with a defective cork.
Would any other bottle opener have worked better?

AR

The Durand’s raison d’être is to remove difficult/defective corks, so I’d say it failed in my case. I’m convinced that the combination of a Screwpull worm, which is much longer than a Durand, plus an Ah-so, would have gotten the cork out in one piece.

I suspect one of those needles that allows you to inject air into the bottle, forcing the cork out, might also have worked. But I don’t trust those. You don’t know how much pressure will be needed to break the seal that often forms between the cork and bottle neck. Once it’s broken there’s much less resistance. That could result in a sudden and messy cork premature ejaculation.

David,

A longer "worm" might be an improvement, I agree.

AR