March of the Tools: Vintage Screwpull

This has to be one of my all time favorite kitchen tools. Indeed we’ve had a long love-love relationship with our sleek black ScrewPull corkscrew. We’ve been using this one for over 15 years and it still works great. I was happy to see they are still making this model since it’s such a functional design. Interestingly it’s been snapped up, in the states at least, by Le Creuset (which is a whole other bit of loveliness, but I’ll save that for another post).

I used to have one of those dinky corkscrews with the flappy metal wings that you pull down on each side. In theory, it was supposed to force the cork up and out. Yeah, right. It never worked. Either I’d end up with a hundred tiny chunks of cork floating in my vino or I’d somehow manage to injure myself with the ill-designed contraption. Back in the day, a coworker told me about her corkscrew; how great it worked, how it was so easy to use and that it’d never cracked a cork. So I visited the local kitchen store and picked one up. What a difference a good corkscrew can make. It operates really smoothly and easily. The only time I ever injured myself with it was when my Mom brought over a bottle of wine to share and I, being the semi-wine snob that I am, assumed it was a cork and proceeded to ram my corkscrew down through the top of the screw-on cap (duh!). It emerged unscathed, though my thumb sadly did not. Stupidity aside, this is a solid, sturdy, well-designed tool. If you are even the least bit frustrated with your current wine opening device, I’d urge you to consider a ScrewPull. It’s a handy gadget to have around after a hard week!