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Hi all,

Long time, no chat, I know, but hello again everyone. I hope you are all well. And I wonder, would you be willing to pontificate on corkscrews for me...?

I had some port with friends yesterday, of which more soon, for tis exciting, but we had trouble with his corkscrew, which fundamentally wasn't long enough. So, I thought, what is best for fragile corks in old ports, and then I thought, I know who will know - TPF.

Checking back through old posts, I've read "Better corkscrews", "Corkscrews: ideas for improvements", "Corkscrews and Screwpull", "Drawing old corks in one piece", A corkscrew: the Jedi's technique" and "The Durand corkscrew". I've learnt about nudging the cork down before pulling it up, steaming the neck and injecting air. But I couldn't find a thread that simply answered the question, what is the best corkscrew for vintage port?

I would welcome your wise words...

Ghandih

Greetings and a Happy New Year to you and your good woman, Sir

I have found the Ah-So to be the most reliable method of drawing corks young and old. As it happens I purchased a small supply for some of the team a year or so ago for almost no money and happen to have one left in stock that is now yours.

Please PM me your address and I will stick it in the post

Derek

Ghandih wrote:would you be willing to pontificate on corkscrews for me...?

Irresistible.

The Durand combines a long thread and the Ah-so thing. Surely a better bet than just the Ah-so? But rather more expensive than a free Ah-so.

LGTrotter wrote:

Ghandih wrote:would you be willing to pontificate on corkscrews for me...?

Irresistible.

The Durand combines a long thread and the Ah-so thing. Surely a better bet than just the Ah-so? But rather more expensive than a free Ah-so.

My thoughts exactly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkz. U

I still find my old trusty 'T' corkscrew as good as anything. It is big, old and breaks fewer corks than my screwpull. Having a wider worm is the key, I think.

I must remember to put up my post about Dorothy L. Sayers and the Dow 08 that was poisoned by means of a hollow corkscrew.

The ah-so (a corkscrew of which the merits should be discussed before consuming a bottle of port in order to ensure clarity of speech) is a very effective tool to remove corks intact from port bottles. I have one ... and I never use it! The only drawback I've ever encountered with the ah-so is that it scores the sides of the cork and inevitably destroys the branding.

I like to get intact corks out of bottles and so have been using port tongs and a small camping burner a lot recently.

Simon, please note that AHB suffers from a rare condition known as ICOD (Intact Cork Obsession Disorder) so his doctor advised him to keep his Ah-so in a locked drawer.

The Ah-so does indeed have a habit of positioning itself in perfect alignment with the area of the cork that you are most interested in seeing. For that reason, do not use it on bottles that you hope to identify from the cork.

It is going in the post tomorrow :wink;

Hi all,

Thank-you for your advice. Seems the Durand is the fella. Derek, the AhSo has arrived safely, thank-you. If only I had a decent excuse to open a nice bottle of vintage port. Hang on, it's my birthday (well, almost). And I don't really need an excuse anyway, of course. I'll post how I get on this weekend, but knowing me, don't hold your breadth [sic] waiting for the message...

Ghandhih