Innovation Waiters Corkscrew By Coutale Sommelier - Black - French Patented Manual Double Lever Wine Bottle Opener for Bartenders and Gifts - Patented Auto Knife Closure

A quality tool.

The Coutale Innovation Sommelier corkscrew is in many ways my favorite Coutale brand corkscrew, even though it is also the least expensive and the most utilitarian model. The Coutale Innovation bears a very strong resemblance to the Pulltap style corkscrew. The handle, knife placement and style are a clone of the Pulltap handle. But don't assume they are the same. The Coutale Innovation is substantially better than the Pulltap due to the Coutale patented two step hinge, which differs in some important respects from the more awkward to use Pulltap style hinge. The higher priced Coutale corkscrew models use a spring loaded two step hinge. The Coutale Innovation omits the spring, but the lack of the spring in the Coutale Innovation really doesn't take away from the superior ease of use of the Coutale style two step hinge. Anyone looking at a Pulltap would do themselves a favor by picking the Coutale Innovation Sommelier instead. It really is the better corkscrew. RECOMMENDED.

This is an awesome wine key. The knife closes as you open the hinge. Not only does it save time but you fumble the key much less. The worm is quality and hasn't bent from firm corks. Ive opened a few 15+ year old bottles with it. Even though some of the corks were super soft and broke, I was able to recover with just using my skill and the key. The strength of the worm is important under different pressures. Also it doesn't squeak when rotating, even into a dry cork. This really is an innovative key and is highly recommended for industry use.

I should start by saying that I ordered one of these a year ago. It was perfect. But after a year in the wine service industry, your wine key tends to wear down. So I purchased another one. What arrived was not what had been shipped to me a year ago. The worm was very thin and the point was in an awkward position. When I screwed into my first cork, I knew something was wrong. The arm didnt meet flush with the lip when I went to extract the cork. Then the nail holding the worm in place slid out of place, not allowing me to close the wine key fully. I forced it back in place and thought everything was all good. I was tableside opening my second bottle of the evening and the thing basically exploded. The nail flew out, the worm broke off and was stuck in the cork, and the metal rod that held everything together on the interior fell out. Not great when you open wine tableside. I dont know what was sent to me, but it certainly was not the wine key that I fell in love with a year ago...

Maybe the more expensive version is better, but this one, even though the ergonomics are spot on, the blade itself is very dull and the worm seems a bit off center when putting in the cork. It does open a bottle of wine for 10 bucks and guess that is a plus, but doing this as a living and the name has sommelier in it, well it's not what a Sommelier needs at work -- I'll leave it at that. If there was a 50 dollar version of it with a sharp knife and proper worm we'd have a "winner-winner-chicken-dinner."