Wine lore says that the cork, which comes from the bark of the cork oak tree, may first have been used to seal wine bottles by the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon, replacing wooden stoppers in about 1670.
This advance then led to the development of literally dozens of gadgets designed to remove them from bottles.
The corkscrew is just one of numerous wine paraphernalia that have been developed in the last three and a half centuries that purport to make it easier for consumers to enjoy a simple bottle of chardonnay or zinfandel.
All corkscrews work about the same way, but the best are those helix contraptions that are hollow in the middle, all of which are intended to drive through the cork, grabbing it from the inside and allowing the consumer to withdraw the cork. The best are Teflon-coated….