Forget gin this is mummys little helper (Corkscrews in general)

Member Name: sandra101

Product:	Corkscrews in general
Date:	07/11/08 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No need for a bottle between the legs and facial contortions

Disadvantages: None

This review is on the Culinare Suregrip Corkscrew.

I don't want to come across as a total lush but I really believe nothing beats a good glass of red wine on a cold winters night with the fire roaring and a couple of candles flickering nearby unless of course it's a lovely crisp clear glass of white wine which accompanies a family barbecue on a sunny afternoon, or possibly a glass of rose as you sit outside watching the sun go down on a summer evening. Yes I love my wine.

I have always struggled with normal corkscrews either the ones who's legs go out further and further the harder you screw (ahhhem) or the silly short ones which require to be pushed all the way in but still don't give you any satisfaction because they don't have enough length left to pull them out again.

When I was younger and we would have had a bottle of wine together as we were getting ready to go out I have lost count of the number of times we tried every corkscrew in my friends house and being weak girlies still couldn't get into the bottle. We often ended up doing silly things like hitting and pushing the cork until we got it into the bottle or cutting as much of if out as possible and then poking holes in the remainder, both of which required such inventive ideas as then straining it through kitchen paper or a sieve, or pretty much whatever we could find to get the nasty little bits of cork out. In our defense we were only about 17 or 18 and were not connoisseurs by any stretch of the imagination.

Then my dad got a culinare corkscrew for Christmas, it had a white body with a rubber end which encased the top of the bottle, a grooved top with grooves into which your finger and thumb fit beautifully and a built in foil cutter. I watched in amazement as he placed the rubber end over the top of the bottle, twisted the top round a few times to put the screwey bit through the cork and then kept turning gently in the same direction to remove it. It took seconds, no effort, no bottle between the knees while two people pulled at the corkscrew just a nice easy bit of twisting.

Next bottle of wine to be opened I immediately volunteered, it was indeed as easy as it looked, I popped the rubber end over the bottle twisted the top around a few times and out popped the cork. No yanking or pulling required and the cork came out in one piece (and always has since, no yucky bits of cork floating about with this little beauty). One of my few bottle opening successes at that stage.

I think after I got married the thing I missed most about home apart from my mum and dad was that corkscrew. I looked in all the kitchen shops and department stores but couldn't find one and as I was married 15 years ago it wasn't the done thing to just nip onto the internet and check out Amazon, Kelcoo, etc for it. Then one day after about 5 years of asking hubby to open my bottle or even once or twice after a hard week at work when hubby was away out fishing, going to a neighbor whose name I didn't even know handing him a bottle of red and a silver corkscrew with the wings and asking him if he could open it please I found my dad's corkscrew in T K Maxx for £9.99. Expensive enough for a corkscrew but to be my own boss when it came to when I could open a bottle of wine it was worth it.

The corkscrew worked every bit as easily as I remembered, a few twists and no pulling required. It worked equally well on old fashioned corks and the new plastic ones. I've had it about 10 years now and it still works although it is getting a little harder to twist and the rubber end keeps falling off but ten years isn't too bad and I will definitely get another one even though I tend to buy srewtops now as on the odd occasion when there is some left in the bottle of a Friday or Saturday night its easy to stick the lid back on.

I would really recommend it for anyone who struggles to open a wine bottle.

Pros
Comfortable to hold
Removes the whole cork every time, no bits left in the bottle
Twists with minimal effort
No need for facial contortions or putting bottle between knees
You look much cooler using a simple twisting motion
Cons
None at all

Summary: Anything which makes it easier to get at your wine has to be a winner