Yep. I know a couple people who got a detached retina from a flying cork. At a friend’s place, I took a cage off with the bottle sitting on their bar, with guests all around. As I tossed the foil and cage in the trash the cork flew into the hanging wine glasses just above. Tremendous sounds of the impact and clashing chain reaction. Lucky nothing broke, there could have been flying glass shards sent into everyone’s faces.
So, that metal thing would definitely have me placing a towel over the bottle as I pried it off. Also, it seems like its design is to assume protection than a cage. Good reason to be wary the contents could be under more pressure than standard. I could do without having an eye impaled with that metal thing.
Thanks for all the helpful info and savage takedowns alike, fellow Wine Berserkers. I have retired my previous long-standing signature which clearly no longer applies, much to fellow board member Mike Grammer’s relief as he has borne the shame of being responsible for its genesis for a few years now. The words left his mouth during one of our visits to fellow board member Humberto Dorta in Pennsylvania and he realized to his horror that it was far too late to take them back literally the second they came out.
I have changed my signature appropriately in celebration of this thread and given appropriate credit to Mark Kaplan for it as I bear it forward like a scarlet letter. It shall remain until a redemptive one comes along and after I have properly opened the bottle of Moutard.
If a staple can stymie a group of Berserkers, what on earth would happen here? Somebody could easily get their wrist caught up in some sort of Gordian knot.
Yes. I’ve never seen anyone injured, but I have seen corks bouncing off ceilings with enough speed/force that someone could have been injured. So, I treat them with respect when opening.