The Durand corkscrew

Anything to do with Port.
LGTrotter
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The Durand corkscrew

Post by LGTrotter »

First two posts of this thread moved by jdaw1 from It's good when a plan comes together....


The Durand looks rather pricey, is it worth it? I seem to be breaking every cork at the moment. What's different about the worm, if anything, from a screwpull?
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Re: It's good when a plan comes together...

Post by djewesbury »

LGTrotter wrote:The Durand looks rather pricey, is it worth it? I seem to be breaking every cork at the moment.
My thoughts exactly. I stopped using my Screwpull, it seems to break everything. I now use a Waiter's Friend with a lot more reliability. I have a couple of Ah-Sos but don't seem to get round to using them; I only seem to drink really old things with you lot. But I drink things that are 40ish years old here and that's old enough for the cork to break.
I see the Durand available for about £83...
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

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Previous two posts moved by jdaw1 from It's good when a plan comes together....
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by jdaw1 »

Official website: TheDurand.com.
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AW77
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by AW77 »

What is so terrible about a broken cork? Use a coffee filter and everything is fine again.
No need to spend 83 Pounds on such a gadget. That money is better spend on wine.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by jdaw1 »

The Durand’s ‘Press Room’ quotes Roy Hersh thrice, and links to this :ftlop2014: thread.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by PhilW »

LGTrotter wrote:First two posts of this thread moved by jdaw1 from It's good when a plan comes together....


The Durand looks rather pricey, is it worth it? I seem to be breaking every cork at the moment. What's different about the worm, if anything, from a screwpull?
The worm is essentially the same as on a screwpull, though you are not using the Archimedes' screw effect to raise the cork. Comparing the Durand against my specific screwpull, the worm goes about 1cm deeper into the bottle.

Is it worth it? I guess that will be an individual choice. Would I normally prefer to extract a cork whole, undamaged and unmarked? Yes. If you know in advance that the cork may break, the middle may pull out or whatever, then if you don't mind the scoring down the side of the cork from the Ah-so part then you might choose to use the Durand to extract quickly and whole (also avoiding the need to filter if you prefer to free pour until sediment is seen).

I've found it to work well when I've wanted to use it, this weekend was a good example (several minutes attempting to get each cork out unmarked and whole with screwpull, vs 20s each out whole with the Durand - though with scoring down the side of the cork).
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by Glenn E. »

The spiral on the worm is looser and longer than a typical corkscrew. It is also coated with a non-stick substance so it's very easy to insert.

The Ah-So part of the Durand isn't any better (or worse) than any other Ah-So that I have used, but when paired with the worm it works extremely well.

Even so, I don't always use it. It's a bit more of an operation to use, and a lot of corks will extract just fine with a waiter's friend. I typically make the call on which to use after I've removed the capsule and can get an idea of what the cork is going to be like.

Mine was a birthday gift.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by DRT »

Glenn E. wrote:Mine was a birthday gift.
I was already thinking of that and you have convinced me. I'll send Mrs T the link :D
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by djewesbury »

AW77 wrote:What is so terrible about a broken cork? Use a coffee filter and everything is fine again.
No need to spend 83 Pounds on such a gadget. That money is better spend on wine.
DRT wrote:
Glenn E. wrote:Mine was a birthday gift.
I was already thinking of that and you have convinced me. I'll send Mrs T the link :D
This seems to be how they get bought. Phil can confirm. André, get that birthday list written.
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LGTrotter
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by LGTrotter »

I turn my back for a minute and this happens, a new thread. Unaccustomed as I am...

Well I can't get the quote thing together thanks to a splash more Glenmorangie than is good for me but somebody said (Glenn I think) that the worm on the Durand is non stick. So is the screwpull. And I would appreciate some specifics about the width of the worm. I think I am with Andre that the money is better spent on two decent bottles of port. I have (as has been discussed previously) been addicted to the idea of getting a decanting cradle, however like the Durand when the time comes for me to put my hand in my pocket I just can't. My heart sinks when I am confronted by the naked awfulness of 'gifts for wine lovers' and I fear the Durand may be one of these things.

And what on earth is with all this coffee filter stuff (surely a steady hand will suffice without the need for the dead hand of paper on your port) and why is Julian using plastic funnels on port? Has the world gone mad?
LGTrotter
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by LGTrotter »

jdaw1 wrote:The Durand’s ‘Press Room’ quotes Roy Hersh thrice, and links to this :ftlop2014: thread.
Thrice? Surely this is more than emphasis, this is conspiracy.

Thrice. I bet this is a word Julian has used before. At least thrice.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by Andy Velebil »

For ease of getting older corks out in one piece the Durand rocks. I love mine and use it regularly on my older bottles. Worth every penny, especially for those of us who open old Ports regularly. I highly recommend it and that is coming from someone who was very skeptical at first, until I got one and started using it.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by DRT »

LGTrotter wrote:a splash more Glenmorangie than is good for me
"Like"
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by PhilW »

LGTrotter wrote:And I would appreciate some specifics about the width of the worm.
Picture below. The two seem identical apart from the length, as mentioned earlier; pic below.
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As seen in the first image, the worms are the same width (just under 10mm diameter thread); the worm on my Durand appears darker in colour but whether this is simply that the screwpull has seen a lot more use I cannot say. However, if you look at the second picture - the corkscrews are positioned so that the line on the wood is where the corkscrews would sit on top of the bottle neck - this shows that the Durand will penetrate much further (about 14mm further) into/through the cork.

Incidentally, the screwpull would work a lot better for port if (a) the worm was 10-15mm longer, allowing it to start pulling the cork only once the worm had fully penetrated the longer corks, and (b) the lugs at the base of the plastic where the unit rests on the bottle neck where slightly less prominent (by 2mm or so), as they often drag against the side of the cork being extracted which encourages tearing. I'm sure there are other potential improvements (one could argue about the worm diameter in particular), but I think the two changes mentioned would make a significant improvement for use of the screwpull with port, while making minimal/no difference for use with standard wine corks.
LGTrotter wrote:And what on earth is with all this coffee filter stuff (surely a steady hand will suffice without the need for the dead hand of paper on your port)
Given your feelings on filter paper, I would then suggest using the Durand as the quickest (maybe) and most reliable method to extra the cork whole provided that you do not mind the scoring down the side of the cork; this seems to give the best chance of avoiding cork in the wine and hence need to filter, if you prefer free pouring.
Last edited by PhilW on 10:21 Wed 21 Jan 2015, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by PhilW »

djewesbury wrote:
DRT wrote:
Glenn E. wrote:Mine was a birthday gift.
I was already thinking of that and you have convinced me. I'll send Mrs T the link :D
This seems to be how they get bought. Phil can confirm.
Confirmed, mine was also a present; though I would add that it was an item that Mrs W. knew I wanted, not just an "ooh look, a present for a wine/port geek".

As per Glenn, I don't use it all the time; roughly:
- If bottle is young, I use screwpull (simple and in the draw)
- If bottle is young and cork looks like it might tear, I may switch to Durand, though this doesn't always work if the damage has been done.
- If bottle is old, but known and/or have seen cork before, I use Durand
- If bottle is old and unknown, tong or push in and break bottle to recover cork
I can now also add to that list:
- If bottle is an imperial, I use just the worm part of the Durand :D
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by LGTrotter »

I think that has answered everything I needed to know about the Durand. Thank you Phil, most helpful.

I wonder if I just took the plastic gubbins off the bottom of the screwpull whether that would reach as far as the Durand worm, but would leave a straight pull rather than the levering action. The other possibility would be to saw half an inch off the top of the plastic gubbins. Or I could give in and add a Durand to my Christmas/birthday list, which might be simpler. Especially as I have been assured that it rocks.

To filter cork crumbs I use a decanting funnel, which seems to work fine. I do have a piece of muslin in the box with it but have never had to use it.

I was a bit surprised by the report that because of the shape of the inside of the neck that you hardly moved the cork on the imperial before it was free. I suppose that the capsule does most of the work.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by PhilW »

LGTrotter wrote:I was a bit surprised by the report that because of the shape of the inside of the neck that you hardly moved the cork on the imperial before it was free. I suppose that the capsule does most of the work.
I think it was probably more to do with the shape of the cork rather than the neck; I think the neck was fairly straight, while the cork was heavily tapered, so only gripping with a faction of its length.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by flash_uk »

PhilW wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:I was a bit surprised by the report that because of the shape of the inside of the neck that you hardly moved the cork on the imperial before it was free. I suppose that the capsule does most of the work.
I think it was probably more to do with the shape of the cork rather than the neck; I think the neck was fairly straight, while the cork was heavily tapered, so only gripping with a faction of its length.
Julian brought the bottle along to the Fonseca tasting on Monday, and the neck does have a slight taper to it, but it sounds like the neck taper and cork taper were nevertheless slightly mismatched, resulting in only a partial grip on the cork.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by djewesbury »

Where was that comment from the Symingtons about not bottling larger than double-magnums because they don't trust the corks to hold? Seems to be relevant in this case. Phil / Julian, was it your impression that that cork would have held if the bottle had been cellared for much longer?
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by Glenn E. »

Andy Velebil wrote:For ease of getting older corks out in one piece the Durand rocks. I love mine and use it regularly on my older bottles. Worth every penny, especially for those of us who open old Ports regularly. I highly recommend it and that is coming from someone who was very skeptical at first, until I got one and started using it.
I, too, was quite skeptical at first. In fact if my mother-in-law had not needed to find something memorable to get me for my 50th birthday, I probably still would not have one. (Buying me birthday gifts presents a terrible problem. I am a relatively simple person with sufficient means, so I already have just about everything I really want.)

But like Andy, now that I have one and have started using it, I really like it. It does an amazing job extracting old corks, though with the side effect that any Ah-So has which is damage to the sides of the cork where the prongs are inserted. If you need to read the cork to figure out what's in the bottle, then tonging is probably a better option. But if you know what's in the bottle and just want to get an old/feeble cork out, the Durand works amazingly well.
PhilW wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:And I would appreciate some specifics about the width of the worm.
Picture below. The two seem identical apart from the length, as mentioned earlier; pic below.

As seen in the first image, the worms are the same width (just under 10mm diameter thread);
Hmm... to my eye it looks like the diameter of the Durand's helix is slightly wider than that of the Screwpull. But I suppose that could be an optical illusion.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by jdaw1 »

djewesbury wrote:Where was that comment from the Symingtons about not bottling larger than double-magnums because they don't trust the corks to hold? Seems to be relevant in this case.
The Symingtons still bottle imperials, but not larger:
In an essay entitled [url=http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/port_and_wine/port_ending_big-bottle_prohibition.html#postscript]Big Bottles of Port: Ending The Prohibition[/url] jdaw1 wrote:However a comment of Dominic Symington should give some pause: “If a very large bottle is lying horizontally, there is excessive constant pressure on the cork, and for a long time. Additionally the greater the diameter of the neck the larger the cork has to be, compromising its ability to compress and create a decent seal. There is also the problem of capillary action. Which is why SFE has recently decided no longer to bottle larger than an imperial.” I wondered whether bottles could be stored at 45°, but Dominic observed that it might still be “too much of a risk, particularly in transit when the wine is sloshing around inside the bottle”.
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by AW77 »

LGTrotter wrote: And what on earth is with all this coffee filter stuff (surely a steady hand will suffice without the need for the dead hand of paper on your port)
My standard procedure when decaning any wine is simply pouring it through this tea filter:
http://www.cilia.eu/en/Tea-Filter-M-64.html
I use the tea filter holder too as this is even more convenient:
http://www.cilia.eu/en/Tea-Filter-Holder-72.html (you put the holder and the filter on top of the decanter or jug and then simply pour).
With this method there is no need to stand bottles up and every drop of the wine can be savoured. And as mentioned before, broken corks are no problem at all. As the filter is not bleached, you don't taste the paper in the wine (or in your tea).
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by jdaw1 »

Cilia wrote:Currently available in: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Sweden, Belgium
Can we order by post?
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Re: The Durand corkscrew

Post by djewesbury »

Ooh thank you for specifying the correct size Andre. I saw the website but was unsure.
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