Want to know what the best wine opener in the world is?
It is a regular wine opener pictured above that nearly every wine drinker has seen BUT there is one important distinction.
Do you know what that is?
It is the double hinge on the part that levers against the top of the wine bottle. That double hinge makes all the difference.
If you don’t have the double hinge, you can often find yourself running out of room to get the tooth of the lever to hook to the top of the wine bottle. With a single hinge piece you simply do not have enough leverage.
A single hinge makes it vastly harder.
Can you see the important difference of the double vs. the single hinge?
Not only is it harder to get leverage and grip with a single hinge, it is also easier to accidently break the top of the wine bottle.
I’ve seen it happen several times.
Single hinge wine openers are just stupid, but I will give them credit, they are better than no wine opener.
And a single hinge is definitely better than using a shoe (a shoe is only used in extreme cases where no other wine opener is available).
Not Expensive
Now, you might have thought by the title of this article that the best wine opener in the world would be an expensive contraption like the Rabbit or something complicated like that. No, the best yet devised is a simple double hinge.
Those Rabbit type bottle openers are just fine, but I have found over time that they nearly always break down and then they are useless to me. And they are not cheap.
I have never had a double hinge break apart on me, although I am sure that it is possible. The reality with a double hinge is that you are more likely to lose it or misplace it, never to be found again, than you are to break it.
The Pros Use It
Living and working in Napa Valley and spending a good chunk of time in tasting rooms and going to winery events, I can say for sure that this it the most popular wine opener for the people that work in the industry.
Now yes, sometimes they will still use a single hinge, but it is still this style of wine opener and not some fancy contraption like a Rabbit style opener. And most of these folks still prefer the double hinge.
I have seen event and tasting room staff open bottles of wine this way at speeds you would not believe. I can’t even keep up with an experienced event or tasting room employee in wine country.
When you have to open hundreds of bottles of wine for an event or during the day, you get really fast.
They are super impressive.
How to Make the Best Even Better
Something I have never understood is that that little knife used to cut the foil on a wine bottle, is damn near always serrated. I think I have used some wine openers that have a flat knife edge, but they were on single hinge wine opener.
For some unknown reason double hinge wine openers nearly always come with a serrated foil cutter.
Why does this suck?
Well, I always recommend to try to just pull the foil off a wine bottle in the first place, but sometimes it is secured onto the top and you can’t just pull it off.
And sometimes you have a nice fancy bottle of wine that you are proud of, and you want to pour the wine with the foil on.
I get it. I occasionally will still do this. Especially for people that are newer to fine wine drinking, they appreciate the labels more than a seasoned vet like me.
For the times that you want to cut the foil, it sucks to have a serrated edged knife.
Why?
Because when you cut the foil with a serrated edge, it rains down a bunch of little bits of foil that are really annoying. These little bits of foil can even accidently end up in the wine if you are not careful.
(I will try to come back to this post and add a photo of a foil with tiny foil bits if I can remember.)
The serrated edge actually makes it harder to cut the foil.
In fact, I can not think of a single reason why you would want a serrated edge on a wine opener.
How did this madness get started in the first place? I do not know.
So, if you come across a double hinge wine opener with a flat edge, buy MULTIPLES of them, and then let me know where you bought it, because they are hard to find.
Be Prepared
Now that you know what the best wine opener in the world is, you need to use this information and go buy some.
Did you notice I said some?
I always have at least 1 double hinge for the house, and I keep 1 in my car.
Why 1 always left in the car?
Because I was a Boy Scout when I was a kid and their motto was “Be prepared”.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been out and about, visiting a friend’s house, or on a road trip at a hotel or whatever, and I’ve needed a wine opener.
Well guess what? If you keep one in the car, problem solved.
Ideally you’ll want to keep 2 double hinged in your house because if you are like me, somehow these things are easily lost.
What do you think?
Do you think the double hinge is the best wine opener in the world?
Or do you have the wrong opinion?
Let me know in the Comments.