How to Open a Wine Bottle with a Durand Wine Opener | Best Wine Tool for Opening Old Wines

Watch Sonoma County winemakers demonstrate how to use a Durand wine opener for opening older wine bottles. This two-part corkscrew combines the functionality of an ah-so wine opener and a traditional corkscrew to make the cleanest, most efficient way to extract a wine cork. Purchase a Durand corkscrew online: thedurand.com/.

[@qwe1231]

If I'm opening a bottle old enough to worry about the cork, I really would be nervous about using the corkscrew part of this opener, because it could splinter the saturated bottom of the cork.

[@johnny1873]

But wouldn’t this type of opener have the same risk as a normal corkscrew of disintegrating old fragile corks? It still goes all the way through the cork.

[@danielleong1865]

Indeed, the corkscrew can break up a deteriorating, old cork plug, and even leave the bottom half stuck in the neck of the bottle. Likewise, the 2-prong tool can break off bits of cork at the bottom sides of the plug, dropping them into the wine, and without the corkscrew holding the plug in place, the plug can be pushed further down the neck of the bottle and even fall into the wine. My suggestion for a free alternative is to use your existing tools. I use my corkscrew at a sharp angle and turn it just enough to dig into the cork over 1 full turn. This may crack a bit off the top, but not enough to destroy the cork or push chunks into the wine. With my left hand holding the corkscrew in place to grip the cork, I use my right hand to wiggle down the prongs of my 2-prong puller; when the prongs are deep enough to grip the cork, I rotate the bottle and pull out both tools. The 2-prong puller may still break off some bits of cork at the bottom, but that's unavoidable. This saves me the $100+ for getting more wines and accessories, such as air pressure pump or clamp-lever opener, pourer, filter or strainer, funnel, aerator, stoppers, vacuum pump & caps, decanter, brush, stemware, ... Edit: I wonder if I can use the air pressure pump in lieu of the 2-prong puller. I want to use the corkscrew to hold the cork in place, as I push the needle into the cork. When it's deep enough, I can remove the corkscrew, and push the needle down until the tool is flush with the top of the bottle. Then, I can pump air into the bottle to force out the cork. Pops like Champagne!

[@panoramaaaaaa]

Question: do you have to turn the corkscrew all the way down until it touches the neck of the bottle? Because in sommelier classes you are taught not to go too deep with the screw, so that you avoid making a hole on the other side of the cork which will leave some residue in the wine.

[@soulmate-winekey]

这个螺旋丝钻确实太长了，它的作用不过是在插入夹片时酒塞不往下走，不扭到底夹片又够不到酒塞底部。设计缺陷！

[@danielleong1865]

The corkscrew should go straight down into the cork and not at an angle, so it shouldn't ever touch the side of the bottle. If you're using only a corkscrew, then you can turn it 3 or 4 times to make sure it gets a solid grip of the cork, but stop short of punching through the bottom and avoid dropping broken bits of cork into your wine. If you're using the Durand tool, then you might be forced to put the corkscrew all the way through the cork because the 2-prong puller must be placed over the top of corkscrew's handle and both prongs will need be pushed down enough depth to grip the cork, too. You may be able to experiment with the depth of the corkscrew to gauge if the prongs can grip the cork. Some points to consider are how crumbly and loose the cork is to avoid breaking up the cork (possibly leaving the bottom half stuck in the bottle) or pushing the cork deeper down the neck of the bottle (possibly falling into the wine). I've had 3 worst-case scenarios happen over the years. 1) An old cork was still soft and moist where it's in contact with the wine, but the rest of it is dried out. I put the corkscrew deeply into the cork, yet stopped 3-5 mm short of punching through. When I pulled up the cork, the dried portion got pulled out, but the soft bottom was still left behind. I tried to remove that bottom section with various tools, but the dried bits crumbled loose and the remaining chunk just slipped further down the neck. So, I scraped off the tiny bits of dried cork stuck inside the neck of the bottle, rinsed out the debris, wiped off the water inside, and then pushed the cork plug into the bottle. I poured the wine through a stainless steel fine-mesh filter & funnel into an empty wine bottle. 2) Remembering that bad experience, I decided to punch through the cork on another old, dry cork. When I pulled up on the lever, the corkscrew ripped a hole through the cork, leaving most of the plug behind. Tiny bits of broken cork fell out or in. I tried digging out the cork with my corkscrew, knife, and 2-prong puller, but that proved futile. I had to push the damaged (natural) cork into the bottle with a synthetic cork, and pull out that 2nd cork with the corkscrew. I used my filter-funnel tools like before. 3) This happened twice, but years apart, once with a composite cork (compressed cork bits with resin), and once with a synthetic cork. Both corks were wedged in too tightly and when I put the corkscrew into the cork, I heard a squeaking sound as the Teflon coating scraped. I then put a lot of force on the lever, but the cork didn't budge; the lip of the bottle even chipped. I was afraid of breaking the bottle or the corkscrew, so I twisted it out, and wiggled in the prongs of my 2-prong puller. They made squeaking sounds as they scraped the cork and glass. With the prong tips past the bottom of the cork, I tried to turn the handle of the puller, but it barely moved; I decided to put more force in turning the handle, hoping that, once I get it moving, the resistance will drop (static vs dynamic coefficients of friction) and I can easily pull out the cork. Instead, a side edge of a prong caught the inner lip of the bottle, and shattered the top of the bottle. The first bottle left glass bits all over the area, including chunks that flew over 2 feet away. The second bottle only broke off several chips of glass from the top. For both cases, I filtered out the glass bits with a paper coffee filter that I had previously flushed with hot water to remove any off flavors. [To prevent that from happening again, whenever I notice that the cork seems too tight and difficult to remove with either tools, I use a synthetic cork to push the "stuck" cork down 3-5 mm, loosening the latter's grip, and making its removal much easier on my next attempt with either tools.

[@charlesmcdonald8654]

Good information. Thanks.

[@robertoryuk]

the cork is perfevt never seen a cork like that with that age

[@JordanVineyardWinery]

Thank you!

[@sharonstuart2861]

Awesome

[@VictorSanchez-fi9lf]

Great video, thanks for sharing. I’m considering purchasing this product. One question, is it not undesirable for the corkscrew to penetrate through the bottom of the cork? I always thought this would risk the possibility of contaminating the wine with crumbles from the bottom of the cork.

[@marcobergamaschi2464]

Yes, it is very wrong, and remove just the top part of the capsule is a mistake too. You can see when they pour the wine in the glass, the liquid is touching a 55 years old capsule. Let's say if you have good customers they will pretend a hygienic service I guess

[@jcre2000]

@@marcobergamaschi2464 it’s not very wrong, I assume that you’ve never used one before, the capsule it’s not that bad if they’ve cleaned it before, if the didn’t that’s wrong

[@danielleong1865]

I always remove the whole capsule intact by turning and wiggling it out. This will slightly expand the body of the capsule to the diameter of the top, which is slightly wider than the rest of the capsule. It may require a bit of effort with some plastic capsules, that may stretch very little before splitting. I save the capsule to hold the cork. My friends just tear off the whole capsule -- they first cut upwards from its base towards the top edge, and peel off by separating the 2 sides along the slice. They crush the capsule and toss it in the trash. Either way, I suggest you clean (rinse and wipe) the top of the bottle and exposed cork before extracting the cork. Many are covered with waste residues from the sealing process, and for overfilled bottles, dried-out wine, which may include mold. Even with a Stelvin enclosure, I wipe clean the threads and top of the opened bottle, and rinse out the inside of the cap because I usually find metal or plastic residue that stays between the threads of the cap and bottle. I don't want to drink that junk.

[@blueberry1176ify]

Any idea how old this is. Gonna try to send a picture

[@danielleong1865]

The video was posted in 2020, and the wine's vintage is 1976, Jordan's first release.

[@ElvisFerbeyre]

Why is that piece of metal so expensive, I don't get the reason why it should be.

[@luckyM9963]

I am asking my self the same question. I am sick and tired of over priced product. This one is stupidly expensive.

[@ElvisFerbeyre]

@@luckyM9963 I think is the patent

[@danielleong1865]

Since it's targeted for bottles of wine that have been aged for well over a decade, the wines are likely age-worthy and very expensive. That screams people willing to splurge on their wines, or rich people. Those same folks are willing to pay a high price for a gadget that may remove old and deteriorating corks out cleanly.

[@pickledone9698]

44 yr old red, no breathing required Just pour like a goon bag.

[@charlesmcdonald8654]

Give it a rest bud. Pour and drink. Cest le vie

[@danielleong1865]

Yeah, I was expecting a decanter and maybe even a filter for sediment.

[@Rory-zn1rj]

beta

[@jenopon]

Too complicated !

[@charlesmcdonald8654]

Its easy.

[@manalittlesis]

Not complicated at all. I watch a video once, tried it myself and successfully opened a bottle of wine on my first try.

[@jeanhill210]

Ridiculous you should be able to open a old bottle of wine with an au so the screw is what damages an old cork! What a gimmicky ridiculous thing don’t it.

[@danielleong1865]

The 2-prong puller might push an old cork deeper into the bottle, even drop it into the wine. The corkscrew is used to grab hold of the cork, keeping it from being pushed down by the insertion of the puller.