Best Wine Openers: Waiter's Corkscrew to Coravin

True Brands makes the Truetap for bars and restaurants by the case, and sells the same tool to the rest of us for about $8 through Amazon.com. It is a conventional double hinged waiter's corkscrew: a stainless steel body with a plastic grip, a worm that folds out, a flat blade for the foil and a bottle cap opener in the lever. The double hinge is the point. You set the first notch on the lip, lift the cork halfway, then set the second notch and lift the rest, so the cork comes out straight instead of bending.

It handles natural and synthetic corks alike, though a synthetic cork grips the worm hard and takes some unscrewing afterward. The foil blade is a flat cutter rather than a serrated hinged one, so it wants a firm hand. Nothing about it is refined, and nothing about it needs to be.

Skip it if you want a tool that feels like an object; the Pulltap's below is the same design made properly. Buy two of these anyway, one for the kitchen drawer and one for the picnic bag.

The catch. A flat foil blade and a plastic grip; it is a tool, not a gift.

The Rabbit is the lever corkscrew everyone else copied. Two handles grip the bottle neck, one pull of the lever drives the worm into the cork, and a push back lifts the cork clear; a second pull and push ejects it. The body is polycarbonate, metal and nylon, and the box includes a foil cutter with stainless blades and a spare non-stick coated spiral. The maker says the mechanism is rated for 20,000 cork pulls, and Rabbit, now a division of Lifetime Brands, backs the Original with a 10 year warranty.

The case for a lever is effort. It opens a bottle faster than any waiter's corkscrew and asks nothing of the wrist, which is why it suits a party host and anyone with arthritis. It works on natural and synthetic corks and on any size of bottle, and the non-stick spiral is what makes a synthetic cork release.

Skip it if drawer space is tight; it is the size of a small hand tool. The foil cutter is a separate piece, so keep the two together.

The catch. Bulky, and the plastic body feels less permanent than the metal waiter's corkscrews.

Oster's cordless opener is the plain version of the idea. You cut the foil with the included cutter, set the opener on the bottle, hold the button, and a motor drives the worm in and lifts the cork out in a few seconds. Press the other end of the button and the cork drops off. It charges on an included base in six to eight hours and opens about 30 bottles between charges, by the maker's count. The grip is a soft touch rubber, and it is UL approved for 110 to 120 volt outlets. Amazon.com sells it directly for about $30.

An electric opener is for anyone who cannot or would rather not pull. It works on synthetic corks, though it strains more audibly, and on any standard bottle. It is also the opener most likely to be given as a gift and least likely to be loved, because it needs a charge when you reach for it.

Skip it if you open one bottle a week; a waiter's corkscrew is faster than finding the base. Buy it for a parent with weak hands or a household that pours by the case.

The catch. Needs charging, takes a shelf, and does nothing a $28 Pulltap's cannot do with a trained hand.

The Ah-So does not pierce the cork. Two flat steel prongs, one a little longer than the other, slide down between the cork and the glass; you rock them in, then twist and pull, and the cork comes out intact. It exists for old wine, where a 20 or 30 year old cork has dried, softened or stuck to the neck and a worm would pull out the middle and leave the rest in the bottle. It can also push a cork back in by reversing the motion. Outset's version is stainless steel and zinc, about 4 inches long, dishwasher safe, and comes with a sheath for the prongs. Amazon.com sells it for about $8.

It takes a little practice. The prongs want a gentle seesaw rather than force, and a very loose cork can be pushed down into the bottle if you hurry. On a healthy young cork it is slower than a corkscrew, and on a synthetic cork it is useless, because the stopper grips the glass too tightly for the prongs to pass.

Skip it unless you keep old wine or buy at auction. If you do, it belongs in the drawer beside the Pulltap's and will save a bottle you cannot replace.

The catch. Needs a light touch, and it is the wrong tool for a tight young cork or any synthetic one.

The Timeless is Coravin's pour through the cork system. A thin hollow needle passes through a natural cork, the bottle is tilted, and a press of the trigger pushes pure argon in as wine flows out through the spout. Argon is inert and heavier than air, so the remaining wine sits under gas rather than oxygen, and when the needle withdraws the natural cork closes behind it. Coravin says the remaining wine is left unaffected even years later. The Three Plus kit includes the Timeless Three device, two argon capsules, two Timeless screw caps for screw cap bottles, an aerator, a needle clearing tool and a bottle sleeve, and is sold on Amazon by Coravin itself.

This changes the economics of a good bottle. A Tuesday glass from a Saturday wine, a tasting of three reds without opening three bottles, a sweet wine that lasts a season. Coravin's figures: each capsule yields up to 15 five ounce pours, and the screw cap accessory keeps a screw cap bottle fresh for up to six months and takes about 75 punctures.

Skip it for everyday wine, where the capsules cost more than the bottle. Skip it for synthetic corks, which do not reseal after the needle; use a corkscrew there and drink the bottle. It is for a household with a few bottles worth keeping, and it is the one wine tool here that counts as a serious gift.

The catch. Argon capsules are an ongoing cost, and it is a preservation tool rather than an opener.