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Opening a bottle of wine |
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The sun’s rays shine through the delicate crystal goblet beautifying its contents. As I lift the glass to my lips, I pause momentarily to enjoy watching the liquid’s slight frizzante dance to the vessel’s rim. Moscato! It has become one of my favorite wines ever since my first sip while traveling in northern Italy. I linger a moment longer admiring the fizz settling in my wine glass before laying it down on the table next to my very own mechanical engineering marvel, my ‘armed’ corkscrew. Most wine aficionados use a corkscrew that is one piece. They twist and twist the corkscrew deep into the cork, to the very end of the screw-like part, pull, and voila; the cork pops and the wine is poured slowly into a vessel of one type or another. If the wine is crimson, the vessel is quite round, with or without a stem, making it more accessible for inhaling the wine’s bouquet. This shape also makes it easier to roll the crimson liquid around in a swirling motion to unleash its fragrance. This custom is an integral part of enjoying a glass of red wine. If the wine is white, the goblet is more slender and may or may not have a stem. To the best of my knowledge, there is no historic ritual prior to enjoying a glass of white wine, however. But I digress. About my corkscrew … It is a gem I found years ago in an alleged antique shop. No antique, however, it is, quite simply, a mid-century corkscrew. It has what I refer to as arms; two of them, one on each side of the long screw that enters the cork. Today, in the 21st Century, most people don’t use an ‘armed’ corkscrew. I have tried to use an unarmed corkscrew with absolutely no success. Once such armless corkscrew reaches the very bottom of a cork, I just can’t pull said corkscrew out of the bottle no matter how hard I try. I move the embedded corkscrew to and fro, back, and forth, in a circle – all to no avail. I’ve put the wine bottle between my knees and tried to pull out the cork. I’ve put it under my arm, and still no luck. And forget bottles of Champagne or Prosecco! Trying to pop those corks is an absolutely impossible task for me. My corkscrew with ‘arms’ is perfect for a weakling such as I. Personally, I believe it is a marvel, a 20th century masterpiece of mechanical engineering, as I mentioned previously. With my corkscrew, I start in the usual manner, by putting the point of the screw in the middle of the cork and turning the handle clockwise all the way down to the end of the cork. However, with each turn of the screw, the arms on both sides of the screw raise upwards to the halleluiah position. To remove the cork, all one has to do is push down on both arms, and voila: Out comes the cork. The only downside, however – if there even is one – is that the cork does not pop upon release of the cork. Nevertheless, a favorite glass of wine can always be enjoyed, even without the pop of a cork. |
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