On Dec 22, 3:17*pm, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> On Dec 22, 3:42 pm, DaleW > wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Dec 22, 2:18 pm, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> > In my experience with dodgy corks
>
> > > from older bottles, I find that a double-action waiter's friend works
> > > the best as extracting the cork. Is your experience different? Any
> > > others care to weigh in on the best tool for removing fragile corks?
>
> > > Mark Lipton
>
> > > --
> > > alt.food.wine FAQ:http://winefaq.cwdjr.net
>
> > Great note. I'm envious!
>
> > Mark, the hinged double-action waiters corkscrew (Pulltap) is my
> > general preferred removal device. But for truly fragile, I'll use Ah
> > So (butler's friend).
>
> Ditto for me but I have a double helix waiters friend that is
> especially useful on fragile corks.

I have several devices for removing corks. For very old corks, it can
be difficult to decide what to use. After cleaning the neck and top of
the cork well, I run a sharp, thin, knife point around the top between
the glass and cork. In some cases, the cork seems to be firmly
cemented to the glass. In such cases, a screw often is useless,
because it just pulls out a core of cork and drops many crumbs in the
wine. In that case. a butler's friend with thin blades usually works
best with much rotation to break the seal between the glass and cork.
Insert a finger between the two blades and pressing outward helps keep
the blades in direct contact with the glass. This can be rather slow.

If the cork does not seem to be stuck to the glass, I next try a hand
Screwpull. Sometimes this works, If the screw starts to pull loose
from the cork, I back it out at once and then insert it at an angle.
This gives me something to hold when I start in a butler's friend.
When the screw gets in the way, I remove it. If the cork breaks off, I
remove any crumbs of cork and repeat the process.

If I do drop some larger pieces of cork in the wine, I have a device
that will clamp on to larger chunks of cork an lets you pull them out.
For small pieces of cork, I use a long ,thin, spatula with a small
blade on the end that is offset from the center. This allows you to
drag small pieces of cork up the neck.

The last resort uses port tongs. These need to be heated red hot, and
an electric range does not work very well for heating them. If you do
not have large open gas burners or an active fireplace, then a
charcoal fire in a grill works fairly well.

For corks that are not very old, I usually use a lever action screw
taking care to watch for any indication that the screw is about to
pull out the center of the cork. Some Italian wines have used
extremely compressed corks and here some lever action is very helpful.
I once stretched the screw of a Screwpull on one such Italian wine
cork. For such wood-like cork, I have an old lever action corkscrew
with what appears to be a heavy cast metal screw. It is likely to pull
out a core of soft cork, but for those wood-like corks it holds well
and does not stretch the screw.