Am I coming across as a wuss?

December 18, 2007 9:49 PM

De-corking a bottle of wine. Slow and steady or just rip 'er out?

When I de-cork a bottle of wine with a manual T-type folding corkscrew, I've always used slow twitch muscles in my wrists and gently ease the cork out in a single slow motion - except for the very end when I orbit the final couple of millimeters of cork out of the bottle. Total time, 3 - 4 seconds plus one more for the orbit.

No pop, no spill, no spray.

I was watching P2 (forgettable movie), and the anti-protagonist whips the cork out with a pop.

During this holiday season I've been assigned "wine-bottle-opener of the night" on a couple of occasions for rather arbitrary purposes (I was the first boy at the party and a bottle of wine needed to be opened, not really, but close enough).

Am I opening corked bottled wine like a wussy?

posted by porpoise to human relations (28 comments total)

No. Your technique is fine.
posted by flabdablet at 9:54 PM on December 18, 2007

I notice the quick pop maneuver in movies too but always assumed it is because screen time is too precious to waste on cork-wiggling maneuvers.

Doing it more attentively, like you do, allows you to focus on not tearing up the cork.
posted by vacapinta at 9:58 PM on December 18, 2007

I can't believe it matters, so long as you don't leave some cork in the bottle or spill anything. But go ahead, be ceremonial & finish with a flourish if the occasion demands it. If you want to be snooty you can also smell the cork before you pronounce it satisfactory.
posted by pgoes at 9:59 PM on December 18, 2007

Best to err on the side of caution. If you had my luck you'd pop the cork, smack a nearby guest in the eye (by accident, of course), and lose control of the bottle spilling the entire contents on a cream-colored carpeted floor.

Not that this has ever happened. Ahem.
posted by gummi at 10:02 PM on December 18, 2007

You're fine.

And don't smell the cork unless you want to prove to everyone that you know nothing about wine.
posted by occhiblu at 10:19 PM on December 18, 2007

The danger of "ripping it out" is that the cork can break, leaving part of it in the neck of the bottle. Slow-and-steady is definitely the way to do it.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:21 PM on December 18, 2007

if you take wine seriously, get a machine.
i was given one, a small mechaincal gizmo.
it is calssy, and does a great job.
posted by edtut at 10:24 PM on December 18, 2007

For best results, forget the cork screw, and get a 2 blade extractor. They're easy to use, fast, and don't damage even dry corks.
posted by paulsc at 11:14 PM on December 18, 2007

According to the movies, you're a wuss if you didn't get into a gun battle or a car chase on your way to the office this morning. Your wine opening technique is fine.
posted by happyturtle at 12:00 AM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

By folding T-shaped corkscrew you mean a Waiter's Friend / sommelier knife, right?

You can de-cork with a nice, smooth, straight pull (and a little pop) if you use the lever as shown in the Model 17 picture. For super slick corking you should get the double-lever like the Model 60 further down. I have one and it works like a dream. It's simple, was cheap as chips and has lasted me a good few years.

If it's a plain ol' direct pull i.e. no lever, then I usually just de-cork in one popping pul but your technique sounds just fine. The only bad way of opening the wine is one that takes ages, trashes the cork and / or spills the contents everywhere.
posted by brautigan at 2:00 AM on December 19, 2007

Slow is the way to go, and it's worth investinging in a cork screw with a two stage arm which gives much better leverage at the start with a short section and the you move on to he longer fitting which brings out the cork without putting extra stress on it. leaver corkscrews work ace but don't travel well and always carry your own corkscrew since your friends might have poor quality ones that will reflect on you. One like this would be great.

Also re smelling the cork, you can do it if you want but be sure you know you're not smelling the wine so much as to see if it's corked (as in mouldy) so do it at home to learn what you should be smelling but don't make a show of it in public.
posted by paulfreeman at 2:01 AM on December 19, 2007

As a wine snob, i find it unmannerly to have anything other than a slight pop at most. The rip and pull method in movies makes me wince. It is a sign of uncouthness, and disrespect for the wine and the tools.

Also, pour slowly and gently.
posted by ysabet at 3:05 AM on December 19, 2007

I'm going to be a little contrarian and say that it depends on how slow is slow. I have one friend who opens wine a bit like what you describe -- agonizingly slowly, and very ceremonial, with flourishes left and right. It's not "wussy," it's stupid and irritating. There is a nice middle ground between breaking off the top of the bottle and making a whole production out of it. If people are commenting on your wine opening, then they are letting you know that it strikes them as a bit funny (again, "funny," not "wussy" -- I think you are opening wine bottles oddly, not effeminately).
posted by Forktine at 4:25 AM on December 19, 2007

In fine restaurants, popping the cork is considered to be rude. The proper method is with a double-knuckled corkscrew like brautigan suggested, using the first knuckle to pull it out 80% of the way with speed and the second knuckle to ease it off. The whole process, from insertion of corkscrew to removal of cork, should take around 25-30 seconds.
posted by scabrous at 4:55 AM on December 19, 2007

Your technique is fine. Try to avoid popping noises. It's not Champagne.

And don't smell the cork, ever. You will look like an idiot to those who know what they're doing.

I cannot stress this enough. Examine the cork by all means. Check that the label matches, and that the bottom has wine on it (which means it was stored properly). But do not smell it.

If you are at a nice restaurant, and the waiter or sommelier asks if you would like to smell the cork, he is making fun of you.
posted by rentalkarma at 5:17 AM on December 19, 2007

Smelling the Cork

It's a bit ostentatious in a public setting, but not without precedent. A waiter chimes in. Just be sure it's a natural cork if you do--it seems pointless to smell one of the newer artificial ones.

Was there an original question? Oh, yeah, you're fine, don't worry.

Smelling a screw-top cap: comedy gold.
posted by gimonca at 5:54 AM on December 19, 2007

I'm going to just chime in and say that so much of wine culture is overly ceremonial and contrite BS.

For instance: "It is a sign of uncouthness, and disrespect for the wine and the tools." BS. Wine doesn't care what you do to it. Uncouth? Sure. That's reasonable. Popping the cork seems a bit too showy. And cork falling in the wine is definitely a reasonable concern. I don't like drinking wood/plastic.

So my point, as long as you don't actually affect the flavor of the wine, if someone gives you grief, tell them to suck it up and stop being a prick.

And one last point: screw tops work better than cork. Artificial or natural. You just don't find them on good wine (see above for why).
posted by gauchodaspampas at 6:15 AM on December 19, 2007

When I worked in a nice French restaurant in Louisiana, the Cordon Bleu-trained owner told us not to pop the corks. It draws attention to the service.

Even if you want to call attention to what you're doing, however, don't pop a champaign cork. It can hurt the bubbles and waste champaign.
posted by J-Train at 7:15 AM on December 19, 2007

Why is this tagged human relations?
posted by canine epigram at 7:39 AM on December 19, 2007

While I agree that popping a cork is ostentatious, I absolutely love my C02 cork popper - and it makes a very nice pop. It seems to me that the important thing is to get the darn cork out without ripping it apart. How you do it, slow, fast, with pressure etc is irrelevant. Get to the wine!

As for smelling the cork.. umm yeah, that's for idiots. However, as others have mentioned, you do need to look at it.
posted by elendil71 at 8:36 AM on December 19, 2007

A 2-blade extractor is great for pushing bits of cork down into the bottle, if not the cork itself. Do Not Want. Thousands and thousands of waiters and bartenders open hundreds and hundreds of bottles of wine every day, and not one of them use one of those abominations (that I know of, and I was a bartender for 20 years, and taught wine classes to new employees).

A double-hinged waiter's corkscrew is the ticket. Start the screw slightly off-center so that as it works its way into the cork it will end up centered. Do not allow the screw to go all the way through the cork. Put the first flange on the rim of the bottle, lift the cork out until it won't go any further, then position the second flange and the cork should come right out.

No pop! It's tacky.

Same for champagne, as mentioned above. Unless you are daring and devil-may-care, in which case you may wish to learn how to open a champagne bottle with a knife.

I have done this dozens of times with a cheap bottle of plonk, but the one time I tried in public with a bottle of good bubbly, I broke it and damn near cut my hand off. YMMV.

As a side note, many of the better restaurants have a re-corker on premise, which is a machine that does nothing but put corks back into wine bottles. All it is used for is to train servers how to open wine bottles. Befriend your local bartender, and he or she will probably let you use it to practice on.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:05 AM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Now, quite a bit depends on what type of wine you are opening. Plenty has been said about Champagne, and I have nothing to add. Likely you are opening regular bottles of reds and whites.

For the vast majority--anything bottled in the last ten years and at prices mere mortals can afford, what BitterOldPunk and PaulFreeman recommend is what I recommend as well: they double-hinged waiter's corkscrew. BoP's description of the proper technique is 100% accurate. If you follow his advice, you will not break corks and you will get practiced enough to do it very quickly.

The 2-blade extractor does tend to create tiny bits of cork dust that get into the wine. The 2-blade extractor is great for really old wines (30, 40+ years) where the cork may be in touchy shape. If you're opening one of these bottles, then this is a much safer route to go. Of course, you'll also have a filter and decantor right there to decant this old wine and remove the sediment and cork dust.

But basically what they do in movies is 100% for show. It looks better, and the pop gives the audience an indication of what happened and generally creates a lightened mood. The list of things movies do not accurately portray is pretty long: ask a physics major about action movies, or a computer science major about Live Free or Die Hard's stupid hacker plot.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:49 AM on December 19, 2007

The two-blade extractor mentioned above? I stopped using that after it broke the neck of a bottle as I was working it in and went back to the waiter's friend (with the slow pulling). Wine just isn't the same after it's been through a coffee filter.
posted by fidelity at 10:41 AM on December 19, 2007

The one I use actually slowly pulls the cork by the action of a screw, so it becomes a non-issue (you just keep turning the handle until the cork is out). It hasn't wrecked a cork on me yet.

For the record, I've never payed the slightest attention to how anyone else opens their wine. I think you shouldn't worry about it. Let me guess, you're single, right?
posted by nanojath at 10:54 AM on December 19, 2007

The problem with the one you use, nanojath, is that it will typically bust through the bottom of the cork. It's not a real corkscrew--the shape is all wrong. I would stay away from this sort of opener.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:54 PM on December 19, 2007

Ah the corkscrew controversies. The problem you have described has never happened to me, jeffamaphone, and we've been using it for 7 years (and drink a fair amount of wine). But, you know, whatever works for you.
posted by nanojath at 9:21 AM on December 20, 2007

(But it is overpriced - it was a gift - and we basically never drink aged wines so our corks are all pretty fresh)
posted by nanojath at 9:25 AM on December 20, 2007

I've had issues with them. YMMV. However, yeah, for less than $10 you get the waiter's key which is much more versatile.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:19 PM on December 20, 2007