(WPT) Wine Drinkers Don’t Only Collect Bottles. It’s Really

[AKR]

(WPT) Wine Drinkers Don’t Only Collect Bottles. It’s Really the Gadgets That Pile Up.
Wine Drinkers Don’t Only Collect Bottles. It’s Really the Gadgets That Pile Up.
2019-08-09 16:00:48.255 GMT

From corkscrews to stoppers, a collection will be born.

(Washington Post) -- I couldn't find my favorite wine opener the other day,
and suddenly I was engulfed in an existential crisis. It wasn't that I
couldn't find any opener; there were several in the drawer. There was the one
with the faded lettering from Horton Vineyards in Virginia, much beloved and
used over many years, plus two identical ones that advertised wines of Rioja
or Colorado, an elegant enameled souvenir purchased on a long-ago visit to
France, and a two-pronged "ah-so" from a Missouri winery. I could have used
any of these to open a bottle of wine, but I didn't want to. I wanted the one
I use every day, the one that fits comfortably in my hand and extracts even
the most recalcitrant corks with ease. I found it, eventually, behind the bag
of potato chips on the counter, still impaled with the cork of the previous
night's chardonnay.

My panic and frustration are probably familiar to wine fiends. We are
inveterate collectors, not just of wine but of trinkets, gadgets, openers,
stoppers, cans of inert gas to preserve opened wines, crazy gizmos to chill
wines quickly or remove reluctant wine labels to archive in our tasting
scrapbooks. These are impulse purchases, souvenirs from winery visits, swag
from tastings we attended, gifts from well-meaning friends and family. They
are the detritus of our vinous existence.

Okay, I've been writing about wine for 25 years now, so I've probably
collected more of this junk than most of you, but here's what I found in one
section of my kitchen silverware drawer when I decided to do an inventory:
eight waiter's corkscrews, the kinds with a blade on one end to cut the foil
on a bottle and a lever on the other to pry the cork out; some of these blades
couldn't cut air, while others might slice your fingertip off if you're not
careful. I had kept one, branded with the Wines of France logo, even though
the spiral "worm" had broken and was now useless to extract a cork. I like it
because instead of a blade it has a foil cutter — four metal disks that
cleanly cut the foil without leaving a jagged edge. My current favorite is
labeled "TSA Compliant," because it, too, has a similar foil cutter in place
of a blade. I've never tested the TSA compliance because I always check a bag
when I fly, and I have a corkscrew stashed in every suitcase in the house.
Because, you never know …

I also found two ah-so openers, eight sparkling wine bottle stoppers of
various sizes and effectiveness, and 16 glass bottle stoppers — a sign of my
love of German and Austrian wines, where these are almost exclusively used.
They are also nearly useless for reusing. There was one rubber stopper/pourer,
a Vacu Vin pump to eliminate air from an opened bottle and create a vacuum,
five Vacu Vin stoppers to use with that pump, a glass decanter stopper, a
round foil drip guard branded with a Chilean winery's logo, a key ring/bottle
opener from the now gone Energy Federal Credit Union, and a cheap aluminum
beer bottle opener marked TAIWAN, a souvenir of my Mandarin studies there in
the 1980s.

And this inventory doesn't account for the corkscrews scattered elsewhere in
the house or, well, in the luggage. Not to mention decanters on hand for when
an expensive wine needs a special display.

We wine fiends are prone to panic if a cork puller isn't within arm's reach.

So what gadgets are useful if you are not a wine fanatic, but a regular
drinker looking to get the best out of your vino?

An opener, obviously. I prefer the waiter's corkscrew, described above, over
an "angel's wing" opener or ah-so. Look for an open spiral on the "worm," the
part that penetrates the cork. The angel's wing is the opener that looks like
it's doing jumping jacks. The ah-so, favored at California wineries, has two
prongs, one slightly longer than the other, that you wriggle down between the
cork and the bottle, then twist and pull the cork out. I don't like these,
because I usually end up pushing the cork into the bottle. When I actually
succeed in getting a cork out, I exclaim, "Ah, so that's how it works!"

Wine collectors with deep cellars will want to invest in a Durand wine opener.
This is a pricey gadget, at $125, but it is probably worth it if you have a
lot of old wines with potentially crumbly corks. The Durand combines the
spiral worm of a regular opener with the two prongs of the ah-so, which slide
down the side of the cork and help you twist it out of the bottle in one
piece.

The Vacu Vin pump is useful for anyone who doesn't regularly finish a bottle
in one evening. Sticking the cork back in, or screwing the cap back on, is
probably fine if you're going to finish the wine in the next day or two, but
if you want to keep it longer, the Vacu Vin helps protect the wine from
oxygen. Other products, such as Private Preserve, will inject an inert gas
into the bottle, which you then close with any stopper. The gas protects the
wine from oxygen.

You can spend a lot of money on wine accessories, and not just those that fit
in your kitchen drawer. Coolers to keep your cellar at the proper temperature,
or special refrigerators to preserve just a few cases of wine at the optimal
temp — for most of us, these are not necessary.

But if you get hooked, be ready for your kitchen drawer to fill quickly!

food@washpost.com

Click Here to see the story as it appeared an the Washington Post website.

[sdr]

I resisted the pricey Durand, thinking I already had (separately) an Ah So and a worm, so what difference could it make?

Most of the corks on my old bottles crumbled after lengthy and tedious surgery so I reluctantly caved and bought the damn thing, thinking I’d probably throw it in the back of the drawer after a trial or two.

I had overlooked the genius of the thing, that the worm of the Durand holds the cork firmly while the prongs loosen it. Works every time, saving much time and profanities. Actually worth it - but only for old bottles.

Stu