saw a kitchen gadget at Costco that I did not know existed...

[mike_c]

...although I probably should have guessed. It's come to this:



The Oster electic wine opener. :rofl:

Product Features

* Stylish and ergonomically designed with soft grip handle to fit the palm of your hand for a firm grip
* Easily opens up to 30 bottles fully charged with the touch of a button!; Includes a foil cutter to remove seals
* Cordless operation with recharging base included for convenience and mobility
* Designed to fit all traditional wine bottles
* Opens a bottle in seconds with no effort allowing you to spend more time with you guests

Of course, I can "open a bottle in seconds" with one of these "cordless wine openers," no batteries required:

[NMDemDist2]

1. for the wino who has everything

a perfect Christmas gift!!

:rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Gadgets for the well-equipped wino .....

We actually use these a lot.



I was given a cruvinet some years ago, but it relies on CO2 cylinders. We use these manually pumped stoppers all the time. I open a bottle of red and sometimes it sits for up to a week until its done (I'm pretty much a one-glass-a-night guy). This does at least as good a job as the cruvinet in keeping the wine drinkable at room temperature after opening as the cruvinet ever did. And no added cost for 'consumables'.

[babylonsister]

3. Do you remember where you bought that? My sister loves her

wine and it sounds like a good idea for Christmas.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. We got ours at the wine store, but I've seen them everywhere ....

I honestly haven't been paying attention to where I've seen them, but they seem to be everywhere.

I *know* the wine store still has 'em cuz we bought one as a gift just the other day.

[babylonsister]

7. Well, duh! A wine store! Thanks; since I don't drink it, that never

occurred to me.:blush:

[Gormy Cuss]

10. The chain kitchen stores sometimes have them too.

Look for a Vacu-Vin brand because there are some imitators that aren't worth it.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Yep. Best inexpensive wine keeper around.

The only problem we have with it is that about once every six months a stopper finds its way into the garbage disposal.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Our biggest problem with them ......

.... is that the inside surface of the pump gets mucked up and makes pumping it hard. I'm guessing it sucks a bit of wine 'fumes' every time its pumped. Eventually the inside of the pump gets a reddish wine color to it. This is when it gets harder to pump. A rinse under hot tap water, down into the pump, and a few pumps in the water stream and all's well again.

The other thing is that the stoppers are not always liquid tight. We've had a few bottles of whites leak when stored on their sides in the fridge. Not always, but it has happened.

[hvn_nbr_2]

8. I never had that problem with mine.

I wonder why. Sometimes it gets slightly stuck at one end or other of its range of motion, but no gunky stuff. And I've been using it for quite a few years.

I've had one stopper lose its ability to hold the vacuum, but otherwise no problems. I think I've been using it for more than 15 years. There are several brands of them now; mine is a Vacu-Vin.

For openers, I got one similar to the Rabbit model. I love it. So easy and consistent. No shredded corks, crooked corkscrew entry, cork debris in the wine, tight corks that simulate a weight-lifting exercise to pull them out (and end up splashing wine around when it finally lets loose), etc.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Vacu-vin ... yup!

That's the brand we have, too. We also got a bunch of extra stoppers cuz we often have three or four or mine bottles open at a time.

That corkscrew .... again, 'yup'. We've had three or four of the 10 buck knock-offs of the Rabbit. They're cheap but they work perfectly. They just don't seem to last all that long. Maybe a year or so. I agree with you. These are a great way to open wine and we never get a broken cork.

Y'ever use this kind of cork puller?



This is what I used until I got that Rabbit knock-off. Sparkly always used one like the one shown in the OP.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

12. That's an Aha! opener.

My favorite kind until my son & DIl bought me this uber-cool one that pulls out the cork & then releases it in perfect condition. My hands & wrists aren't as strong as they used to be & I need a bit more help in my elderly state.

[mike_c]

13. I'm a dedicated fan of the waiter's friend in the OP....

I've opened HUNDREDS of bottles with those and could probably count the number of corks I've munged on one hand, with fingers left over. Seriously.

[hvn_nbr_2]

15. Yep, I mostly used one of them until I got the Rabbit knockoff

It worked better for me than a regular corkscrew, most of the time. But sometimes it would insist on sticking into the side of a recalcitrant cork instead of staying flush against the bottle. Sometimes I could force it down and drop a bunch of cork bits into the wine, but sometimes it would be stuck enough that it would just push the whole cork down into the bottle. Occasionally it would not grab hold of the cork right so it would just turn the cork around in the bottle but it would come out without the cork. It didn't work too well on a dried out cork that was stuck to the bottle either.

I have about 5 or 6 of the Vacu-Vin stoppers too; don't think I've ever had them all in use at the same time, but came close a few times.

So far my Rabbit knockoff is still going strong. It was one of those Christmas gifts I got for myself while out doing Christmas shopping two years ago--I always find things then that I didn't know I wanted or didn't even know existed; that one I didn't know they had gotten under about $100; this one was on sale for $12. They're probably even cheaper now.

I think there's a skill to using the waiter corkscrew that no one ever taught me. I just don't get it to go down through straight, and sometimes don't even get it into the center of the cork. For those who know how, they seem to work quite well, but not me.

[NMDemDist2]

16. when i drank lots of wine, that was my favorite style opener

and when I waitressed it's the one i carried

[calico1]

11. Well, it would be good for someone

who has arthritis or some other condition (like missing fingers). I know both kids of people. However, for the rest of us, I can't imagine anyone paying money for something like that! Part of the fun of drinking wine or champagne is opening the bottle!

[eleny]

14. I'm pathetic at opening a wine bottle

No matter how hard I try to be careful, I create cork "crumbs". Honest to god, I could use this kind of thing but we don't drink much around here to warrant the indulgence.

[KyndCulture]

17. If I was still a watroid...

I would buy one.

Using a wine key is a pain in the frickin ass.