Anybody hear of this?
Edit: this one works with CO2:
3 Likes
My high-school-level French is a bit rusty, but it appears to be a pressurized needle gizmo. There are others like this, and I know they’ve been discussed here.
Personally I can think of bad things happening when trying to plunge a long needle straight through the whole cork (fracturing or pushing in the cork, a trip to the emergency room…).
A standard two-step corkscrew (I like my Coutale) works for most. For bottles with dodgy corks, Durand. Keep it simple.
4 Likes
You could buy that one that requires some gas or you could use this one that just lets you pump in the air.
It’s a very thin needle and doesn’t damage the cork at all. But if the cork is really sealed to the sides of the bottle, it doesn’t work as well. So you use it like a little cheap Coravin - get an Ah-So to loosen the cork and use this. Not perfect but as long as producers insist on using cork, we’ll continue to have issues.
1 Like
I’d be really afraid of pressurizing a bottle enough to push out a stubborn cork. Get a Durand.
3 Likes
Similar ones have been around for a while. I used to have one that worked just by pumping air so it didd not need CO2. I finally tossed it as it was more a novelty but have seen the gas powered ones used to open 10 bottles in a minute.
1 Like
5 Likes
Every now and then if the cork is not tight enough, my Coravin acts like this. 
My rule of thumb, if its 10+ years old I’ll just use the Durand. It’s just a pleasure to use.
2 Likes
This is the way I went for a couple of years. I figured that if this method is good enough for Marc Hochar, it’s good enough for me. And I couldn’t imagine the Durand being worth the price of a nice Bordeaux (or middling Burgundy). But I finally got a Durand, and I have to say, that it is MUCH better than this janky Macgyver maneuver. Do yourself a favor and get the Durand.
5 Likes
Those things can really put out a surprising amount of pressure. A few years back I was at a friends house and she got a cork pop (basically the same thing as Phil linked to, but different brand). She asked me to use it to open up a bottle. I ended up spraying red wine all over her ceiling and we spent half the evening cleaning that up. Never touched one since.
1 Like
I had one of those. Very tight corks are dangerous. Also hard to get the needle through some very hard corks. (I recall synthetic corks being very challenging)
The Durand is awesome; unless you only drink Champagne and/or young wines (@Frank_Murray_III), it’s a no brainer to own one of those.
And even those (fairly many) times when I didn’t anticipate the cork being bad or breaking with the regular corkscrew, the Durand will usually work to save the day removing the broken bottom of the cork.
2 Likes
Same experience for me. Kinda sketchy results and definitely wonky with the poor man’s Durand, and nearly flawless results with the real deal.
1 Like
Don’t try opening a bocksbeutel with one of these, esp if the bottle has screw top.
Seriously, pressure builds up inside the bottle and the bottle canblow apart.
These things were popular in the 70s and otherwise worked well.
2 Likes
PSA:
One time I used a gas powered unit while seated at the table with the bottle in front of me.
The bottle I opened had tartrate crystals on the bottom of the cork which exploded outward at eye level as the cork cleared the bottle.
Fortunately, I was wearing my eyeglasses because the crystals hitting my face impacted hard enough to sting…
Richard:
That is it for me…this is one cork remover I don’t need. I will make do with the other 35 I already have.