I’ve been using my Durand more and more these days, but I was gifted one of those devices that shoots gas into the bottle to remove the cork.
I haven’t used it yet, but reviews say it works well on older bottles. I’d be concerned that the force of the gas would stir the sediment in the bottle if it had already settled.
Any Berserkers have thoughts on these openers?
I was given one of these as a wedding present; some 15 years later I dropped it off at Goodwill, unopened. I can’t see the merits in this kind of gimmickry, when an Ah-So works well on 90+% of what we consume at home.
I’d think that if it’s gently increasing the pressure it wouldn’t stir the sediment. There’s only one way to really find out… play the scientist for us?
I bought one years ago, planning on using it to open older wines in large, 3-9 L, format, where more common openers didn’t work too well. It too didn’t work. Instead of pushing the cork out of the bottle, the pressurized gas found a “weak spot” between the cork and the glass and simply blew out past the cork.
I used one for quite a while. I never noticed it stirring anything up. The only time I really liked it was after breaking my shoulder and being mostly “one armed” for a month or so. I don’t drink much old wine, but did open a few bottles in the 20-25 year range with mixed results. If the cork is really stuck to the bottle, it’s going to not work at all, or blow a few chunks out leaving most of it still in the bottle. I quit using it when the gas cylinders got too expensive.
We have found that anytime we rack wines in the winery(using gas to push the wines) the wine absorbs a bit if the gas, a la force carbonation, and the aromatics and flavors are a bit muted.
It doesn’t stir up the sediment, or we wouldn’t use this method for racking. But when I first bought and used a Coravin, we compared the Coravined wines with wines that we just pulled the cork on, and found that the Coravin had a similar effect to racking. The wines weren’t bad, but they were a bit more wan than the wines where we pulled the corks. I would guess that you would see a similar occurence from pushing out the cork with gas. It takes enough pressure that some of the gas will go into suspension in the wine.
I don’t think the gas in the corkpuller-jobby would disturb the sediment, unless you moved the bottle while pulling the cork. Otherwise the liquid acts like, well, a solid, and there is no room for the sediment to move. Marcus’ point interests me, though. I use a Coravin fairly frequently, though never for old-, older wines and usually for bottles that I finish off in the next week or two. I don’t think it mutes the wines; in fact, when I come back to them, they seem more open–perhaps, I have speculated, because a little air does get in when they are first poured. I’ve never tried Marcus’ experiment, though, comparing a wine straight out of the bottle to one straight out of the Coravin. I suspect Marcus has more bottles of the same wine on hand than I do:), but now I willl have to give it a try.
I will test it tonight on some bottles from the 70’s and 80’s.
Some of the wine representatives I work with notice Coravin’d shiraz can get quite odd, so they don’t bother and just pull the cork. I have an aussie shiraz I Coravin’d last year I’m planning on opening tonight. I’m going to see if the wine tastes how I remember a year ago or if it’s off tasting.
I would not recommend using them on very old bottles, or 3.0 L plus bottles because if there is a weak spot in the glass it could crack, or explode.
Never use one seated at a table with the bottle in front of you as tartrate crystals on the bottom of a cork can blow out sideways and blast you in your face and eyes!
They are fast and convenient to use especially when opening a larger number of bottles. The CorkPops model comes with built in foil cutters so opening a bottle is just a matter of a few seconds.
how old is very old?
Ive used cork pops on newer wines, kinda fun. But not older ones. With my luck on older bottles the cork would crumble or the corkpop would push the cork in.
Older, hand blown bottles with a “nipple” in the punt are to be left to cork screws.
I would think that the wine would not absorb much gas from a cork pop since the contact time is very short. Cork pops use R134-A.
I tried the gas opener last night. It was fun, but it didn’t work on every bottle for sure. It was a bout 50/50 success rate. There are some bottles that didn’t pop out, but weren’t oxidized which surprised me. I just presumed if there wasn’t a good enough seal it was just be sherry…
Ah-so worked well on corks that failed with the cork pop unless the needle pushed the cork into the bottle… All of the bottles had very little sediment from what I could tell so maybe standing up bottles from the 70’s and 80’s isn’t really necessary. I am very impressed with some of the older vintages of William Hill because some of them tasted quite young and had way more aging potential. I could see some of those bottles age for 50 years and still have structure.
My uncle uses one of these exclusively and he’s a huge wine collector. He mostly drinks 70s-90s aged wines and has no issues removing the cork quickly and without disturbing the sediment. (at least when I have drank with him)
My staff uses corkpops on all new bottles that we open in our tasting room. They work great. We even use them on our Ports which have wax covering around the top and about 2 inches down the sides of bottle… and the pressure pushes the cork out along with the exact circular wax area around the top of the bottle! I have been using these at my home for the last 20+ years and have had good experience with older bottles.
I use corkpops regularly, you get a knack for it and can regulate the amount of gas you are putting in based on the cork age/condition. A lot of people mash the canister down and put in enough gas to launch the cork into orbit, you really need to ease it out so to speak. Never had one fail and never had any sediment issues. (well one, where the cork was so soft and wet the needle just pushed it in).
I will say… one guy who watched me use the corkpop immediately sad “we need this”.
It is an exciting way to open a bottle. He was very impressed at the speed at which you could open lots of bottles.
Pressure is more likely to be what dictates how much gas the wine absorbs.