And then it fell apart... (Decanter Deluxe Lever Corkscrew)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Decanter Deluxe Lever Corkscrew
Date:	20/11/08 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very clever design ; Easy to use

Disadvantages: Poorly manufactured ; Not cheap

We love our wine. Our weekends wouldn't be complete without us sharing a bottle with our meals. That's an awful lot of corks to pull, unless you're buying bottles that use the new trendy screw-top bottles.

Over the years we have used a variety of different devices to remove corks from bottles. The simplest by far is the corkscrew that is attached to some sort of handle, either a wooden bar into which the screw part is fitted or a folding handle so you can stick it in your pocket. These types require a certain amount of strength. You screw the corkscrew into the cork and then use your strength to pull the cork out of the bottle's neck whilst at the same time trying not to spill any wine.

A more user-friendly version of this simple device is called the "Waiter's Friend". This works pretty much the same way except that the handle has an additional attachment that rests against the neck of the bottle, alongside the cork, and acts as a lever to reduce the amount of strength required to pull out the cork.

One of the oldest types of corkscrews is a wooden device that sits like a cup over the neck of the bottle. It has two screws, the metal one that screws into the cork and surrounding it a wooden one that screws out of the wooden cup, pulling the metal screw and, with it the cork, out of the bottle. This type has been around for years. My grandfather had one so it must be at least 100 years old. The only problem with it is that if you find a bottle with the cork firmly stuck in the neck, when you try to pull it out the metal screw tends to stretch. It never works properly after that!

One of the most interesting types I have ever seen it one that is common in France. We don't think of France as being a hot-bed of recycling but where corks are concerned it is. Perhaps it's because that use so many of them. In order to recycle a cork, though, it must not be damaged. This is difficult with a traditional corkscrew.

In France they use a different type. Attached to the handle are two flat, pointed prongs, set exactly the width of a cork apart. Each prong is inserted into the bottle neck on either side of the cork and, by twisting and wiggling, forced down the side of the cork. The clever part is that by pulling and at the same time twisting the corkscrew the cork comes cleanly out of the bottle, undamaged. A bag of corks can be sold back to the winemakers to be reused.

My darling wife thought that I needed a new corkscrew though. Knowing that I'm a bit of a gadget freak she decided that what was needed was a "State of the Art" one. It should be simple to use and, in deference to my advancing years, should not require an inordinate amount of strength to use.

The first one that she bought me wasn't actually the Decanter model but was one that was identical in almost every respect. The big difference was that it was made of moulded nylon. It worked fine for a short while but was eventually wrecked by a stubborn cork. The mechanism was broken in the effort to draw out the cork, bits of broken off plastic littering the floor. My wife sent it back with a stiff letter of complaint and demanded her money back!

In principle, there was nothing wrong with the design. It just wasn't well enough made in order to avoid being destroyed by anything out of the ordinary. What we needed as a replacement was, therefore, a stronger corkscrew. We eventually thought we had found it in the Decanter model.

This design of corkscrew is a two-handed device. The body of the device consists of two opposed handles that fit around the top of the bottle and hold it firmly. The other hand operates a lever that forces the corkscrew into the cork and then withdraws it with relative ease. The clever bit is just how the corkscrew is driven into the cork. The metal spiral corkscrew spike revolves freely and is made to screw into the cork as it it driven down by passing through a guide that rests against the top of the bottle. When the lever is reversed to withdraw the cork the guide rises with the cork and so avoids simply unscrewing the corkscrew out of the cork and leaving it behind in the bottle.

The clever bit though is that when the twin handles that hold the bottle do not have a bottle to hold, the guide is now no longer free to move and so the corkscrew does then screw itself out of the cork so allowing it to be discarded into the waste bin.

Or, that's how it's supposed to work. The mechanism depends upon two plastic plugs. If one of these works itself out of the body, as it did in our case, the guide no longer stays still and so the cork does not free itself from the corkscrew! I found that one of the plugs had come loose and was fortunate enough to find it and replace it. The second time it got lost completely. The device was now, effectively, useless.

This wasn't the only problem! Along with the corkscrew a foil cutter is provided to remove the top of the foil that covers the cork. It's a horseshoe shaped piece of plastic with a couple of metal blades facing inwards. You grip the plastic holder around the top of the bottle and rotate it backwards and forwards so that the blades can slice through the foil. The problem is that these blades are also "secured" to the plastic holder by plastic plugs and, once again, these came loose so that the blades fell out!

I have been quite annoyed about the poor manufacturing quality of this corkscrew. In principle it's a good design and. Had it not been a present I would have been inclined to send it back and demand a refund. As it is I don't know where she got it from. On looking on the web I see that it retails for around £25 so this is by no means a cheap product, just cheap in quality!

Summary: A good corkscrew design let down by poor manufacturing quality