I’m not much for wine-service gadgets and gizmos, the like of the aerators now flooding the market, fancy funnels and decanters, and tabletop corkscrews the size of my drill press. All I use is a waiter-style corkscrew and a nice big glass that can handle a generous pour.

But I had become frustrated with corks falling apart from bottles of old Bordeaux with bits falling into the wine. Filtering those out in front of a crowd was quite embarrassing, to say the least. Neither could I save the corks to my collection of memorable bottles, labels and corks. I had tried various types of corkscrews: long screw, Teflon-coated screw, one-step, two-step, and even the ah-so (yes, that’s what it’s called). If you are not familiar with the ah-so, it’s a simple, two-pronged retriever; the prongs are inserted along the length of the cork between the glass and the cork without puncturing the cork.

The Durand

Recently I came across an ad for a new type of corkscrew that integrated an ah-so into the corkscrew—it is called The Durand (www.TheDurand.com). I wondered: Could this be the solution to my vintage cork removal problem? I had to get one and test-drive it.

How to work the Durand

The idea is simple though very clever. You simply insert the corkscrew part into the cork, insert the ah-so along the length of the cork so that the handle is perpendicular to the corkscrew, and then simply grab both the corkscrew and ah-so and pull up. The cork comes out intact! How easy is that? Well, I did try it out on several bottles and it performed flawlessly.

At $125, it ain’t cheap, but it’s well worth the money if you have vintage bottles waiting to be ah-soed.