A bottle of wine or other cork-sealed spirits without corkscrew to open is practically impossible. Therefore, since the end of the 17th century, when the preservation method was used in glass bottles, ever new functional types of corkscrews were developed. We still use some of them today.

Advantages of corking

The technique of corking bottles, especially wine, was already known in ancient Greece. However, since corks were only used for bottles that were once used relatively quickly, and could only ever be used once, clogging of the bottles with wood and clay plugs continued for several centuries. Cork, which is made from the bark of cork oak, was only widely used in Europe from about 1800. The raw material of the cork is very complex to produce. The cork oak can be debarked for the first time around the age of ten, but the cork can only be won around the fortieth year with the third peeling. Regrowth of the bark takes another 10 years in each step. About 150 kilograms of bark are then harvested per hectare. The natural cork was originally from the whole bark and was therefore very high quality and expensive. Later, the corks were pressed from granules of bark into shape. The material is pliable, but not very permeable to air. That’s why drinks in corked bottles last a long time and can ripen. A standard cork measures about 24mm in diameter and is compressed by the neck of the bottle to 19mm. After removal, even after a long time, corks expand relatively quickly back to their original thickness.

Pull the corks correctly

To pull the cork out of the bottle neck, the corkscrew used. He drills, usually with the help of a thread, in the cork and raises it. Meanwhile, there are other types of corkscrews that loosen the cork with compressed air or leverage instead of muscle power and rotation of the corkscrew. If the cork can not be removed, ideally a Portweinzange is used, which separates the bottleneck together with corks. Bottles are always filled to below the neck, also to give the alcoholic beverages room for fermentation and to avoid a negative pressure. This is wanted with champagne and sparkling wine, which is often shaken gently to throw the cork through the carbon dioxide from the bottle. Champagne often builds enough pressure in the body without any additional movement glass bottleto eject the cork after removing the metal bracket. Corks should be, they break or they can not be removed, never be pressed into the bottle. On the one hand, they contaminate the liquid, on the other hand, they can sometimes cause them to foam, depending on the type of spirit and the cork. The foam corks often used today correspond approximately to the air permeability and elasticity of the granulated cork. However, they do not give off any of their own aroma to the bottle, so that high-quality wines better preserve their own taste and the characteristic note. Also corks made of polyethylene, which is obtained from sugar cane, find more and more application. The newer corks usually seal more reliably than traditional natural cork corks.

Use of the corkscrew

The classic corkscrew consists of a handle and a thread. He is referred to as a so-called T-corkscrew. For domestic use, the wing or Scherenkorkenzieher has prevailed today. It drills into the cork in the direction of the thread like the T-corkscrew, but fixes the neck of the bottle so that the cork can be removed more easily without spilling liquid or losing it in the bottle. Here, corks break off less frequently and the application is easy to handle even for occasional users. The models from Brabantia and the kitchen manufacturer WMF have proved their worth. modern corkscrew Without overpressure function are usually relatively cheap and unadorned. The use of technically advanced corkscrews such as the BottleTool or the electric corkscrews from Trendworx is often more exciting for guests, but ultimately unnecessarily complicated. With the emergence of screw caps made of metal, which usually seal wines of higher quality, and a rethinking away from cork as an indication of high quality spirits, come corkscrew meanwhile however less and less often used.