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| Butterfly, Basic, and Sommelier |
Tire-bouchon (teer-booshon, n is nasal = literally means cork-puller)
What would a French household be without these basic tools? As I've learned, everybody has a preference. Men are the ones generally charged with the opening of the wine as it is considered to be in bad taste for women to serve the wine.
In our house, the preference is for the Basic corkscrew. This requires a bit of brawn and a steady hand as putting the screw in incorrectly can result in a cracked cork, cork in the wine, and a wine opening FAIL.
The Sommelier is a handy gadget, although one that also requires a bit of practice to get the hook "hooked" to the bottle's rim just right to give you leverage to remove the cork in one swift gesture. The advantage of this one is that it has the handy little knife to cut the label off with. You also get "cool points" for opening bottles like a pro.
The Butterfly, my (and my father-in-law's) favorite. It's straight forward, easy to use and your wine is in your glass in 30 seconds.
Although less-known, the Key (car, house, post-office) is the most advanced of all. Only one of my friends is truly skilled at this method. Then again, what do you do when you're at the park and realize you've forgotten the tire-bouchon?
Now let's all go ahead and open a bottle to celebrate 1-11-11.
