‘Wine Bottle Corkscrew’ is the most versed name among wine aficionado.
However, if you looked back a few decades ago, it wasn’t as easy as it is today. Yeah! Maybe you know that the earliest corkscrew invented in the late 1680s. That time it was known as a steel worm which is a modified form of a gun worm – a crude device that used to clean the musket barrel.
You still found the prototype of that earliest type of corkscrew in the traditional bottle openers, or the twist and pull corkscrew which consisting of a screw/worm and a perpendicular wooden or steel handle. However, you have to apply a substantial amount of force to remove a cork by using those tools. Which is suitable for opening a bottle occasionally, but there’s nothing best to have a professional Sommelier corkscrew for party servings or using at a restaurant by bartenders.
Table of Contents
- What Does a Waiter’s Corkscrew mean?
- Comparison of 5 Top Waiter Corkscrew:
- Best Waiter Corkscrew Reviews:
- Best Sommelier Corkscrew – Waiters Corkscrew by HiCoup
- Best Brand Waiters Corkscrew – LAGUIOLE BY FLYINGCOLORS Sommelier Professional Waiter’s Corkscrew
- Best Effort Saving Corkscrew – Prestige By Coutale Sommelier – The French Patented Spring-Loaded Double Lever Waiters Corkscrew
- Best Professional Waiters Corkscrew – Pulltap’s Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew
- Best Value for Money – Le Creuset Waiter’s Friend Corkscrew
- Buyer’s Guide
- Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
- Wrap Up / Conclusion
What Does a Waiter’s Corkscrew mean?
The waiter corkscrew is also known as a wine key. The waiter’s corkscrew mostly comes with a folded body which resembles a pocket knife. Among many types, the double hinge corkscrew is the most admirable wine bottle opener in the beverage business because of its ease of use combined with its small size fit without any trouble in the waiter’s pocket. It contains all the necessary tools to properly open a bottle and provide a classy look while opening.
The best waiter corkscrew is as flawless as rabbit wine opener and approved by the city’s expert sommeliers. If you go through the below steps, you can easily understand that.
The Necessary Steps to Remove a Cork with a Two-Stage Waiter Corkscrew:
- Expose the knife and place under the bottle’s lip
- Twist the foil cutter around the neck of the wine bottle in a circular way
- Take away the foil from the neck of the bottle
- Insert the screw/worm Into the Cork
- Put the corkscrew’s first-stage on the bottle lip, and press one handles enough to remove the cork from the container using the initial step as a fulcrum.
- Put the corkscrew’s second-stage on the bottle’s lip now and follow the steps similar to first-stage.
- Remove cork and corkscrew combo carefully from the bottle
- Remove the cork from the corkscrew
When the process is done satisfactorily, you hear a subtle pop sound which reminds you that it is time to enjoy a glass of wine.
There are many brands and types of waiter corkscrews available on the market. From which we sort out 5 Best Waiter Corkscrew for your assistance. Let’s check out those as below –
Comparison of 5 Top Waiter Corkscrew:
| Build Materials | Stainless Steel with Red Pear Wood | Stainless Steel with Olive Wood Handle | Stainless Steel with Blackwood Handle | Stainless Steel with the back handle | Stainless Steel with wooden handle |
| Includes foil cutter or not | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Weight ounces | 4.2 | 8.2 | 4 | 2.4 | 4.8 |
| Warranty | Lifetime | 60-day return guarantee | Lifetime | 1 year | 10 years |
Best Waiter Corkscrew Reviews:
Best Sommelier Corkscrew – Waiters Corkscrew by HiCoup
Maybe – you do remember, we’ve talked about the basic corkscrew which consists of a worm and a perpendicular handle. Waiters corkscrew by HiCoup follow the same design – if you expand its wings and set the screw vertically on the cork, you will find resemblance easily. However, you have to apply brute force to pull out the cork by basic corkscrew which may damage your wine bottle or cork too. Whereas, HiCoup offer you double-hinge fulcrum which makes your job super smooth and you can enjoy serving wine among your friends with elegance.
So, let’s explore more exciting features of the Waiters Corkscrew by HiCoup.
Performance and Technical Issues:
Hand Crafted and use the most excellent materials
Each HiCoup premium wing corkscrew made by hand and using superior quality natural red pear wood enamel to craft its handle for ergonomics and beautiful looking. They use 420 stainless steel to make the body which ensures the highest durability and longevity of your tools.
3-in-1 multifunction Waiter Friend
HiCoup’s professional waiter corkscrew comes with a multifunctional 3-in-1 tool that makes it the first choice among any sommelier. This wine key smartly infuses the features of a wine corkscrew, bottle opener and foil cutter in a stylish and folded tool.
Effective Foil Cutter
HiCoup Corkscrew includes a good quality foil cutter in this professional corkscrew that means you don’t have to purchase another tool separately. The foil cutter has a long, rounded and saw-like edge that makes removal of foil easier as well as reduces the risk of gliding and minimizes any foil or plastic shredding.
Durable and Efficient Worm
Any corkscrew’s central part is its spiral screw or worm. HiCoup addresses it rightly and uses high quality sturdy stainless steel to make its worm durable and efficient. The screw/worm crafted with a precise cutting notch that gives superior grip and reduces the drag force that allows you to remove the cork smoothly. With it, you can remove any natural or synthetic cork in five turns.
Smooth removal with unique design double-hinged fulcrum
The fundamental mechanism that makes the HiCoup corkscrew suitable for waiter use is its two-stage fulcrum. This double – hinged pivot point provides extra flexibility and power when pulling the cork from the bottle and makes the entire process easy.
Key Differences from Other Items in This Category
The old-style corkscrew mostly uses single stage fulcrum. Whereas, HiCoup introduces double-hinged pivot point in its professional waiter corkscrew. This technological advantage provides extra marks to HiCoup and makes it number one choice among professional waiters as well as household wine lovers.
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Recommended or Not. Why?
Extremely reasonable price, handcrafted and use highly durable materials to manufacture it, multifunctional – one can use its bottle opener to open beer too, superior design foil cutter, easy to fold body and easy to store in the pocket – altogether it is a cool device that anyone falls in love.
Top of that you will get a lifetime warranty for this HiCoup Corkscrew product. Now, it is your turn to choose it or not.
Best Brand Waiters Corkscrew – LAGUIOLE BY FLYINGCOLORS Sommelier Professional Waiter’s Corkscrew
Are you looking for the best waiter corkscrew at an affordable price? Laguiole Corkscrew brought to you by Flyingcolors which comes with a beautiful Wenge wooden handle inlay and packed in a decorative wooden box is for you and would be a lovely gift to your family or friends or any occasion such as a Wedding Ceremony, Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day.
You will find so many products that claim to sell original Laguiole Corkscrew that handcrafted in the small town of Laguiole in France. These aren’t all real, however, and they cut much penny out of your pocket. Instead of looking here and there, you can trust Flyingcolors that have been manufacturing Laguiole waiters corkscrewing since 1980.
Stay with us and scroll down to find out more about this beautiful best Laguiole Corkscrew.
Performance and Technical Issues:
Clean Cork Removal
FLYINGCOLORS LAGUIOLE Sommelier Professional Waiter’s Corkscrew designed with a double corkscrew that ensures the cork won’t smash or left the stubborn cork in between you and your favorite wine anymore. You can also remove any natural or synthetic cork with ease.
Easy to Remove Foil
This wine key has a 1.5 inch (4 cm) lower than a 3-inch serrated blade. If you have this Flyingcolors Laguiole, ejecting the foil will be no longer a difficult task.
Ergonomically design Handle
The most attractive part of this tool is its curved ergonomic handle inlay with natural Wenge wood give it elegance look. Besides looks good it is also comfortable to use and provides extra power to precise handling.
Multimode operation
A Sommelier Knife, a Corkscrew, Foil Cutter, and Bottle Opener are all featured in the 4.5 inch Laguiole Style multi-tool. In addition to removing the cork, you can also use this tool to open your beer bottle effortlessly.
Excellent Alternative at an Affordable Price
This sommelier wine key not made in France. It produced in China with the certification of GMC. Moreover, it ethically maintains all quality control issue. So, you will get almost the same feeling as original France made by using this Laguiole by Flyingcolors.
Key differences from other items in this category
If we compare the Laguiole Corkscrew with our previous one HiCoup Corkscrew, the pivot system makes the main difference between the two. Laguiole uses single stage fulcrum instead of HiCoup’s double-hinged system. Moreover, we know that double-hinged provides extra leverage during uncorking.
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Recommended or Not. Why?
If we analyze the reviews on Amazon against this product we found that more than 80 percent customer express their positive feedback about it.
We also found that there are some faults like foil cutter is stiff to open and so. However, those do not seem significant. Overall, it’s a good performer. So, you may think about it for you or to gift someone as it comes with a beautiful wooden pack.
Best Effort Saving Corkscrew – Prestige By Coutale Sommelier – The French Patented Spring-Loaded Double Lever Waiters Corkscrew
Coutale Sommelier Corkscrew comes with a spring-loaded double lever that genuinely supports our statement we made about this tool – the best effort saving corkscrew. Yeah, right! Coutale Sommelier is the only kind of corkscrew that uses France patented spring-loaded double lever mechanism in its category which makes the process of separating cork from your wine bottle.
Philippe Bernède, a French winemaker, wine grower and proprietor of Clos La Coutale, designed the Coutale Sommelier corkscrews and Prestige is the first premium brand made of superior quality materials. It’s a rare mix of quality, and ease-of-use you will observe in Coutale sommelier prestige.
Scroll down to know more on this spectacular two-step corkscrew.
Performance and Technical Issues:
Well-crafted High-end Corkscrew
This high quality, high-end Coutale Corkscrew comes with a hand-cut black wood affixed by steel pin on a solid Stainless Steel base which makes it not only durable but also beautiful looking. When you get it out from the pocket, people or guest, around you must notice its shine.
Clean Uncorking with Indented Worm
Coutale Sommelier corkscrew designed with a grooved worm made of a single piece of stainless steel that’s capable enough to create a rubbing force between the cork and the screw, resulting in superior tension and a smoother uncorking.
Expert Serrated Knife
You no longer need to tense or look for additional tools to erase foils from your wine bottle’s neck. The Coutale sommelier corkscrew equipped with a serrated knife of heavy – duty stainless steel which is an excellent device that can smoothly remove foils before inserting the worm into the cork. Moreover, it is easy to swing out the knife from the corkscrew.
Patented Spring Loaded Double Lever
We approach to talk about the fulcrum which makes the Coutale wine opener matchless. Yes! The spring-loaded double-hinged fulcrum gives you extra leverage while extracting the cork from the bottle. Moreover, Coutale Sommelier is the only corkscrew that uses the patented double lever.
Perfect for Gift
The Coutale Sommelier comes in a superb pinewood box probably collect from California with an etched logo. It resembles the style of old wine bottle crates. It’s a perfect gift to any wine enthusiast people.
Key differences from other items in this category
As per my observation, France patented spring-loaded double-hinged fulcrum makes Coutale sommelier prestige unique from others in its class. Moreover, solid stainless steel body and parts and Blackwood finished handle makes it gorgeous all the way.
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Recommended or Not. Why?
Although the Coutale sommelier prestige corkscrew uses French patent, it is manufactured in China.
If it is produced in France, then the price will be as high as like original Laguiole. However, if you observe the customer reviews, more than 90 percent express their positive feedback on this product. Moreover, Coutale offers a lifetime warranty for it. Altogether, it’s an excellent device that provides long service either you are a bartender or household user.
Best Professional Waiters Corkscrew – Pulltap’s Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew
Pulltex Barcelona’s original Pulltap’s professional corkscrew introduces you with the rack opening system that is the most intelligent and innovative uncorking system in its class. With minimal effort, it allows you to remove the cork. Double hinged fulcrum and Teflon-coated spiral screw will give you added advantages while removing the cork from any wine bottles.
Ramon Brucart developed an advanced concept for a new double-lever corkscrew was the founder of Pulltap’s brand which known for its design, functionality and quality products. Because of its company value, professional sommelier’s like this device without think twice.
Scroll down to know more technicality on this beautiful Pulltap’s Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew.
Performance and Technical Issues:
Sommelier Friendly
It’s the original Pulltap’s manufactured in Spain by Pulltex. It loves every professional bartender as it never breaks a cork, drags quickly and efficiently. It’s also made of modern materials, and incredibly cost effective that you can’t say enough about this corkscrew.
Ergonomic Metal Body
Pulltap’s comes with solid stainless steel arms that bend ergonomically towards the center giving a strong feeling to the first user as well as makes their task incredibly easy. The handle can be finished in different colors with varying paint or surface treatment. Here we talked about the tool which is of beautiful black color.
Retractable Spiral
Pulltap Corkscrew designed with a Teflon coated antifriction worm/screw, which facilitates sliding in all types of natural cork or synthetic stoppers. It grasps the cork firmly so that you can pull it out smoothly without crumbling it.
You’ll be also happy to know that the spiral has been designed in France. They maintain the perfect relief angle during production to ensure a smooth entry into the stamped cork.
Excellent Foil Cutter
Pulltap professional waiter corkscrew comes with a superb quality automatic return mechanism. You never get a chance to raise a complaint that the cutter is difficult to store. Also, the serrated cutter-type sliding foil cutting blade experienced you smooth foil eradication.
Multipurpose Uses
Besides serving wine, you don’t need to find another tool to open your soft drinks or beer bottle. Pulltap corkscrew includes a bottle opener with it.
Key differences from other items in this category
We reviewed the waiters corkscrew, mostly manufactured in China or at best patented by France, so far. Pulltap’s from Pulltex is the first type genuinely produced in Spain. Moreover, it offers customizable design, so your tool is talking about you.
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Recommended or Not. Why?
If you go through the customer reviews on Amazon, you quickly noticed that a significant number of customer receive a counterfeit product. Because of its vast popularity, false businesspeople trying to dodge people with the imitational product. However, if you are aware at the time of purchase and check the embossed logo and other features carefully, you can avoid this situation. If you are looking for an original sommelier corkscrew, this might be the right choice.
Best Value for Money – Le Creuset Waiter’s Friend Corkscrew
A great deal of ergonomics is waiting for you. Indeed! The wine accessories presented by Le Creuset make it a bit more charming to open a wine bottle. It’s a premium quality Waiter’s Friend Corkscrews is for those who like a glass of wine.
Le Creuset is known for its world-class kitchen utensils and gadgets and its ability to make things easy for its customers. The result is this stunning and high-quality Le Creuset wine enthusiast corkscrew.
If you want to get an expensive taste of wine, this will turn every opening into a celebration. Let’s check out more features of this lovely product below.
Performance and Technical Issues:
Two-step Ratchet Lever
Either in a professional restaurant or at home environment, this compact, foldable and precision-styled waiter’s friend corkscrew will help you to entertain your guest quickly by uncorking your wine bottles. Two-step ratchet lever will add extra leverage to serve your favorite wine.
Non-stick Coated Screw
The Waiter’s Friend Corkscrew featured with a non-stick glided worm, help you to remove any natural or synthetic cork quickly as it will give you superior gliding force that can even remove longer, fragile corks too.
Multifunction Device
3-in-1 device – serrated foil cutter, bottle opener, and superior corkscrew all made of solid stainless steel for durability and precision.
Easy to fit in a pocket
If you are a professional sommelier, then you must need a wine key that’s easy to keep in your pocket. Keep this in mind Le Creuset designed their waiter’s corkscrew that conveniently slips into your pocket, apron or drawer. It measures approximately 1″ L x 2″ W x 6″ H and 4.8 ounces of weight.
Durable Construction
Le Creuset wine corkscrew is not only designed elegantly but also used top quality materials, solid stainless steel to construct it.
Key differences from other items in this category
I found substantial similarity in design between the Coutale and Le Creuset waiter’s corkscrew. Le Creuset is using the two-stage lever and includes foil cutter and bottle opener as like its other contenders. Overall, it is a pleasant looking and capable device to uncorking any wine bottle.
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Recommended or Not. Why?
Le Creuset offers you 10-years warranty plus more than 90 percent of customers think that it is an excellent device to remove cork quickly and efficiently.
However, some customers found it wobbly and not working correctly especially complaint that the foil cutter is dull and it takes a bit more time to uncork a wine bottle. Though those complaints are personalized not in general, those are not deal breaking at any rate. So, this might be the right choice for those who are work at a bar or restaurant as well as suitable for household entertainment too.
Buyer’s Guide
Waiter’s corkscrew – it’s easy to comprehend from the name that’s it designed especially for sommeliers or professional bartenders. So, it often called waiters friend too. If you observe the scenario of a bonafide restaurant during the evening, you could see that almost every visitor enjoy wine besides tasting their dishes. From this, it’s not hard to realize how much crucial a wine bottle opener is.
There are plenty of wine accessories available online – chill sticks, decanters, fridges, temperature gauges and so on. Whatever, if you don’t have any wine opener, other tools become impractical.
Mainly to run a restaurant or big party like a family get together, wedding ceremony, birthday party, or official nights, you must need a tool that is sturdy, minimalistic and efficient enough. In that view, there is nothing as compared to the best waiter’s corkscrew to get quick and professional service.
You will find tons of waiter’s corkscrew on the market, and all offer similar features and advertise being the best in quality and works. So, selecting the right wine key is an intimidating task, but not extremely inflexible. Our buyer’s guide will show you the trajectory that will hopefully help you in some way.
Why do people need this?
The concept of wine corkscrew initiated after the invention of the wine bottle stopper. Wine is a particular type of beverage that needs a special kind of packaging to let it be allowed for aging without deterioration of original taste and found cork as the best solution for it.
However, as cork is an impermeable, buoyant and elastic material, it is complicated to uncork a wine bottle without using a corkscrew. Maybe you buy or get a gift of rich quality wine, and you do not have any wine opener, it may ruin your entire pleasure in a moment.
As we’re here to talk about the corkscrew of the waiter – it’s especially necessary for sommelier or professional bartenders to use it without applying much effort, just fit in their pocket and looks elegant.
Who should buy a waiters corkscrew?
Don’t listen to what peoples are saying about a cork remover, listen to your mind and ask which one can give you the maximum comfort?
Waiter corkscrew usually comes with a two-stage lever that gives you extra leverage during uncorking. It is also convenient to carry in the pocket, and most of them equipped with foil cutter, and bottle opener means you do multitask with a single device. If you consider these features, the waiter’s corkscrew is an ideal tool for sommelier use as well as for novice bartender and household uses.
Why it’s essential to choose the right one?
It is true that the waiter’s corkscrew will make your task effortless. At the same time, it is also factual that a bad or average quality tool can collapse or break your expensive wine bottle. So, I want to warn you again that don’t listen to what people say – as all are trying to promote their wine opener to get sales and advertise that they are the best. My advice is if possible touch it with your hand or at least observe what other waiters’ use while opening a wine bottle then believe.
Only a correct device can give you the appropriate services. So, it is essential to choose the right corkscrew always.
If you are new in this line and not know how to check whether the waiter corkscrew you are going to buy is right or not, then check out our below list.
What should you keep in mind when you buy a Waiter Corkscrew?
I recommend that you hark back to various factors before you pull the trigger and decide on which wine opener you want to purchase. One kind of wine opener may be the right choice for one person but could be wrong for another person, depending on their needs.
Materials Used
It is prerequisite to getting the best corkscrew, check the materials used to build it. To saving money, most people purchase the cheapest material based product which ultimately increases their cost. You may ask how? If you buy a low-cost material build product, it may break after a few uses, and again you have to buy a new one. On the other hand, if you buy quality product build with heavy-duty materials, it will serve you for long times. If you calculate the ration, you quickly understand that the precious one is more economical than the cheaper one in the long run.
Usually, corkscrew made of stainless steel is better to provide you service for the long run. However, check the grade of steel before purchase. The more robust materials, the longer you will get service without entertaining any hassle.
User Friendliness
The essential attributes of any tool are its user-friendliness. The different model of waiter corkscrew working with a different style as they use different technologies. To get benefit from using the model you choose that should look very simple to use. It should be set in different bottles and can uncork any types of wine stopper quickly and efficiently. During uncorking it required minimal muscle power too. When buying must keep this in mind.
Lever Style
In waiter’s corkscrew, we usually see two types of lever handle: single-stage and double-stage. Among those double-hinged lever handle will give you extra leverage during uncorking. So, you can consider this attribute while taking your purchase decision.
Budget
The high price means high quality. If you have no budget constraint, try to buy a high-end product and yet you need to spend some extra. Because a decent quality product will give you longer service life without hassle. Conversely, some lower priced product sometimes offer standard quality to promote their goods. If you get such a chance, never miss.
Extra Tools
The selected corkscrew which you are going to purchase must have some additional tools that folded with the main body. Like foil cutter and bottle opener in case of waiter corkscrew.
Foil Cutter: Slightly bend, stainless steel made a serrated foil cutter is an essential tool that must have with your corkscrew. As the function of a foil cutter started before uncorking the wine bottle.
Bottle Opener: A bottle opener will give you the additional advantage that without purchasing extra tools you will open any soft drinks or beer bottle cap.
Type of Restaurant
Upscale restaurants that set their priority on presentation may like to use such a kind of wine opener that enhance appearance – vintage or decorative corkscrew is their first choice. Large banquet hall or wedding party that demand opening a lot of wine bottle at a time – wall or table mount and waiter’s corkscrew is perfect for that. For a small restaurant where occasionally need to open a wine bottle – lever, as well as waiter friend corkscrew, is an ethical choice on the budget point of view.
In short, we can say a best waiter’s corkscrew has to have the following attributes –
- Heavy duty tools with all essential options
- Has a screw that’s at least 1.75 inches long. Shorter screws may tear up corks
- Capable of handling all types of corks
- Extracts the cork without shaking the bottle
- Doesn’t require brute strength
- Has a worm, not an augur
- A sturdy worm that’s not too thin and not too thick
- Gets the job done safely – without any explosions, cracked glass, broken corkscrews or scraped fingers
How to remove a cork from a wine bottle without a corkscrew
We talked a lot about how to open a wine bottle with a corkscrew. However, it also useful to learn how you can open a bottle of wine without using any formal wine key. Let’s start –
- Heat the air around the neck of a wine bottle for about a minute and see the magic. Cork automatically come up.
- Take a long screw and a screwdriver, screw it on the cork and pull it with using a fork.
- Place your bottle in a shoe. Hit the bottom of the shoe on the wall. There you have it!
- Push the cork with a solid object like the butt of your knife or spoon and press it firmly until sink. That’s it. Cheers!
See the video to enjoy more:
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
Q. Which type of wine opener is the best for waiters?
A. If you analyze the requirement and comfort of waiters, then you found a waiter friend corkscrew is best for them. Because, those are simple in design, foldable, efficient and easy to carry in an apron pocket.
Q. Which way do you turn a corkscrew?
A. Turn the handle to insert the worm into the cork in the clockwise direction. Slide the sides over the bottle’s neck as the worm screws into the cork for a better grip. Continue to turn the handle in clockwise direction until the cork wholly removed. Just turn the handle counterclockwise to remove the cork from the corkscrew.
Q. What are corks made of?
A. Though this question is does not seems relevant here to discuss, but it closely linked with our topics. We need to know the nature of cork to understand it well. A Cork usually made from the bark of a tree – Quercus Suber, or the cork oak. These plants can grow pretty big, and they have thick, rugged bark which suitable to manufacture cork. It is impermeable in nature, buoyant and highly elastic — however, modern corks made of synthetic materials.
Wrap Up / Conclusion
With evolves of time technology changes at a faster rate. In 2015, ex NASA engineer Mr. Greg Lambrecht along with other invented CORAVIN which is a game-changing product among the wine enthusiast. It offers you both opening and storing wine in a genius way – the spiral worm replaced here with a long thin needle. You can pour a glass of wine in a second without uncorking it, and it helps to preserve your wine for a long time too.
However, you have to count a substantial amount of penny to get it, and after a specific interval, you have to change the cartridge.
If you still want to stay with basic, waiter corkscrew is perfect for you. It not only suitable for the sommelier but equally admirable to fresher’s, household users and those who love frequent hangout.
So, What are you waiting for, collect the best waiter corkscrew and enjoy your wine moment?
