My best friend is a fantastic screw (Corkscrews in general)

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Product:	Corkscrews in general
Date:	06/08/02 (55 review reads)
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Advantages: Cheap, Easy

Disadvantages: Easy to leave behind in holiiday caravan drawers

I lost my best friend this week. I am heartbroken. I don’t really know how I’m going to cope without him. Spending quality time with him on an evening was the highlight of my day. :O(

You see, I took my brilliant corkscrew with me on holiday to Torquay, so that I could open all those lovely bottles of holiday wine I was also taking with me.

But when we left the caravan at the end of our break, I forgot to take my corkscrew out of the kitchen drawer – I left him behind! Sob! Who do I get a screw from now?

So, this week I have been lost. I haven’t known what to do with myself. I have had to remain sober. It’s been a tough week, I can tell you!

I loved my corkscrew. It was so easy to use. I’ve had it for years. It was a housewarming gift from pals at work when I moved into my house 12 years or so ago. It was yellow to match my kitchen.

It was one of the “lever” varieties. They always remind me of angels, the way they look. They have a rounded handle at the top (which also doubles as a bottle opener) and when you screw it down, two arms raise up at either side (like little angel wings).

When you’ve screwed the corkscrew part right in, you push down on the two levers and the cork is removed simply and without fuss or excess pulling, grunting and sweating, and without the need to grasp the wine bottle unfemininely (is that a word?) between your knees.

The normal kind of corkscrew, the kind that’s just a screw thread with a wooden handle in a T shape are very hard to use, I find. Lots of pulling and grunting involved with those, I can’t really be doing with it.
And while my pal Charliechuckle is partial to a waiter’s friend, I never found them to my taste. I find them very fiddly to use and rather uncomfortable and pokey in the hand. I suppose there is a knack to them, but it’s one I’ve never learned. They h
ave a little hinge thingy, which you sit atop the lip of the bottle and use to lever the cork out. A bit too scientific for me I’m afraid, when all I want to do is get to the grape juice as soon as!

There are some expensive newfangled “cork removal systems” on the market, which use compressed air to remove corks, but I’ve never tried them. Apparently they have a little pin which you push into the cork and a pump device which you push a couple of times and the cork just slides out all on its own. I am a little sceptical myself. I am totally wedded to my absent “lever” pal.

So, while I was mooching around the wine aisle at my local Spar, gazing sadly at the lovely shiny bottles my best pal and I would never open together again, I saw a little rack of gadgets hanging up. And there, like serendipity, hanging up amongst the teabag squeezers and potato peelers, was a shiny new lever corkscrew! It wasn’t yellow like my beloved pal; it was shiny chrome all over. And it cost just £2.49. We embraced one another like long-lost best friends and he jumped into my basket without delay.

I took him home and we tucked into a bottle of Blossom Hill Red together! It was love at first screw! He was just as easy to use as my original corkscrew, and remarkably well put together for the price. In fact, he looks just like the picture at the top of the category.

You just sit the little ring on the top of the bottle, screw the corkscrew down until fully seated in the cork, and push down gently on the two arms. It’s as simple as that. The cork slides out with ease, leaving no annoying broken bits floating in your Chateau Plonk. Brilliant!

My new corkscrew is made by The Home Zone, whose products are often seen in convenience stores in those hang-up packages on racks of bits and bobs. I searched everywhere to see if they have a website but I wasn’t able to find one and there was no
mention on the packaging.

If you like bar-related items though, can I suggest http://www.gizmos-uk.com/BarStuff.htm. They have some cool corkscrews, drinking games, glasses, and pourers. Just the sort of thing to make your party go with a bang. But I’m a solitary drinker so I didn’t buy anything ;o)

One final word, if you put the word “corkscrew” into a Google search, you get loads of sites offering corkscrew museums and collector’s clubs. Some antique corkscrews can fetch hundreds of pounds at auction. How strange is that? I know I loved my corkscrew, but that’s going a bit far, isn’t it?

Cheers!

Allie xx

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