How Do You Pull Out a Tricky Wine Cork? With This Simple, Genius Device
Photographer: Janelle Jones for Bloomberg Businessweek
Mature, pricey wines are a treat to taste but stressful to open: Will the inevitably fragile corks crumble? At a recent 23-vintage retrospective of Bordeaux Château Troplong Mondot, Managing Director Aymeric de Gironde pulled corks with the $135 Durand corkscrew to ensure the answer would be no.
As a wine ages, so does the cork, often disintegrating or drying out even if bottles are perfectly stored. Fishing out floating bits is a time-consuming chore, and filtering can affect the taste, not for the better. This scenario inspired Atlanta wine collector Mark Taylor to invent the Durand in 2007. Its patented design has been the standard-bearer for precise pulling of even the most compromised corks ever since.