I’ve been finding that almost any time I don’t use my Durand for a wine that is more than 10 years old I end up regretting it. Was curious to see if you other Berserkers have a rule of thumb for when you break it out.
It is more a look at the bottle thing for me. I use it on any cork that looks dodgy or like it might stick. It gets used on a lot of younger German Rieslings.
I think I should use 1995 as a cutoff. Whenever I try to open something ~1990 with a regular opener, I often regret it.
I go by appearance. If the cork looks good but doesn’t feel like it’s coming out easily with a waiter’s or Screwpull, I switch to the Durand. I usually don’t need the Durand for wines I’ve cellared going back into the '80s. But there’s really no reason not to use it on almost any cork-closed bottle.
10-15 years old wine is where I generally start considering using it, depending on how the corks looks when I remove the capsule.
~15 years for me. Anything before the 2000s.