Wine Lovers' Variations on "Screwed"

[Mike Buckley]

I made the image awhile back discussed at Screwed. My sister-in-law's family loaned me their cork remover so I could continue with two variations on that theme shown below.

Question 1: Which image tells the story best of a cork remover being used to remove many corks?

Question 2: Regardless of your answer to the above question, which image do you prefer and why?

Mystery Question 3: If you use this type of cork remover, you might notice that it would never be used as shown in Image #1. There are two revealing details about that. Can you identify either or both of them? EDIT: See Mike's and John's posts for the correct answers.

All other C&C also encouraged, as always.


Image #1



Image #2

[Clactonian]

Image #1 tells the story better, you old soak.
The grips are also supposed to be around the bottle, not the cork.
I would also reject a wine that was opened for me (if I were paying) where the cork screw has penetrated right the way through the cork. I hate objects floating in my wine. Too vigorous by far!!

[Donald]

Question 1: Which image tells the story best of a cork remover being used to remove many corks?

The first one, as it has a bottle with the cork being removed as part of the story. The second one is, I think, 'incomplete' in that it's lacking that key part of the story.

Question 2: Regardless of your answer to the above question, which image do you prefer and why?

The first one. I think it's a much brighter image with more 'pop'.

Mystery Question 3: If you use this type of cork remover, you might notice that it would never be used as shown in Image #1. There are two revealing details about that. Can you identify either or both of them?

Never used one of them. Looks terribly complicated. I use a Laguile Corkscrew, which I got as a present.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for your thinking, Mike, about #1 telling the story best. Also thanks for the introducing me to the term, "old soak," which I take as a compliment.

The grips are also supposed to be around the bottle, not the cork.

That's one of the details. There is another detail.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for your comments, Donald. I'm not coordinated enough to use the kind of corkscrew that you use. I'm amazed to watch waiters and sommeliers use them with such ease.

[JPS]

Hi Mike,
Question 1
Picture 1 tells the story best for me.

Question 2
Again picture 1, I like the use of light; glow around the bottle. (would like to see the light reflection on the bottle removed or reduced a bit).

Question 3
I think the lever is in the wrong position when taking into account the position of the cork.


Would like to join you for a glass.
Cheers
John

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for your feedback, John.

The first three responses indicate that the first image tells the story more effectively. I made the second image only because I thought including the bottle in the first image gets in the way of telling that story. If most of the future comments are consistent with the first few comments, I'll be greatly relieved. That's because I prefer the first image regardless of how effective it is at telling the story.

Question 3
I think the lever is in the wrong position when taking into account the position of the cork.

Exactly! The lever at the top would normally be positioned almost 180 degrees from where it is shown in the image. That would have made for a far less appealing composition, so I extended the center column to allow for the combined height of the bottle and length of the partially removed cork. Doing that allowed me to place the lever in the forward position without reinserting the cork. In fact, the bottle is actually hanging by the cork in midair. Not advisable in any situation other when making an image.

[Plumcrak]

Questions 1 & 2 have the same answer for me...Image 1 tells the story more completely and is more appealing to my eye due to the bottle completing the image.

On a side note; I own an opener very similar to the one shown and due to its complex workings it collects dust on the shelf. I have much better results with the less complicated Laguiole corkscrew that Donald also favors.

[Manfred M]

I'm agree with the others. the bottle in the scene just seems somewhat more complete.

I would image that an "old soak" would show and image with screw tops, rather than corks though...

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks to Jon and Manfred for your helpful commentary on many levels!

My kitchen is relatively small and I can't justify giving up the counter top space to the type of cork remover shown in the image. That explains why I had to borrow this particular remover.

I would image that an "old soak" would show and image with screw tops, rather than corks though...

Ah ha! That fits me to a tee (or is it "T?")! Given the same quality among two wines, I'll choose the screw top over the cork any day. I look forward to the day that all wines have screw caps. That will come only when all of the Grand Cru first-growth wines in Bordeaux are shipped with screw caps, which I don't expect to happen in my lifetime.

The worst type of closure is the synthetic cork that can literally ruin all types of removers. Removing one of them even broke the glass part of the bottle top. Yikes! You surely thought bits of cork in your wine are problematic. Imagine bits of glass.

[Tony M]

Nice idea Mike. I too prefer the photo with the bottle, which so far is the majority view. However, I wonder if that's because we all viewed the photo with the bottle before seeing the next one without it; we would immediately have thought "hey, the bottle's gone" after having salivated over its contents (both visually and gustatorily). This now becomes a hypothetical question, but I wonder what our reactions would have been if we had seen them in the opposite order.

Tony

[Mike Buckley]

I wonder what our reactions would have been if we had seen them in the opposite order.

That's an interesting thought, Tony. Nobody other than me has mentioned that the bottle perhaps gets in the way of telling the story, so that in itself indicates that the first image probably is a success in that regard.

[revi]

(..)

Ah ha! That fits me to a tee (or is it "T?")! Given the same quality among two wines, I'll choose the screw top over the cork any day. I look forward to the day that all wines have screw caps. That will come only when all of the Grand Cru first-growth wines in Bordeaux are shipped with screw caps, which I don't expect to happen in my lifetime.

As they claim that the wine needs some oxygen to mature, I guess you're right

The worst type of closure is the synthetic cork that can literally ruin all types of removers. Removing one of them even broke the glass part of the bottle top. Yikes! You surely thought bits of cork in your wine are problematic. Imagine bits of glass.

We never had any serious problems with the synthetic corks. But then, there are (at least) 2 types that I know of: one is a solid block of plastic (or looks that way, anyway), the other is a kind of dense foam with a solid liner around it. My guess is that you met the first type...
The second is much better behaved, probably because it's easier to compress. And that's the one I see most. It might play a role that we get most of our wines from the INRA experimental stations, and I hope those guys know what they are doing (and they still use both cork and synthetics, depending on the station).

[Mike Buckley]

I've seen both types, Remco, but almost all of them are the solid type. You're right that it was that type that broke the wine bottle. To be fair, I was using a wine puller rather than a corkscrew and this was in the early days of synthetic corks regularly appearing on the market. There was so little give to the cork when inserting the puller's prongs between the glass and the cork that the glass broke.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to John (JPS) for mentioning long ago that he would like to see the light reflection on the bottle removed or reduced. I finally got around to eliminating the distracting reflection on the front of the bottle immediately above the label. I left the other reflections as is because I like that they help define the shape of the bottle yet without being a distraction.