Comments on: Embarrassing moments in bottle opening – The Rabbit and Benito’s blog

By: castello

castello — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:56:55 +0000

Back in the 70′s me and a buddy were in the Bahamas attempting to get the cork to go into the Mateus bottle. I’d done it before by putting a small pocket knife, folded up on the cork and pushing it through. This one wouldn’t budge so I hit it with my cowboy boot and the bottle shattered. A piece of glass took off a good chunk of my toe and I ended up in the ER.
A good way to deal with the faux wax is to freeze it for a few minutes. It falls apart!

By: TLC

TLC — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:47:44 +0000

I am a pro with a prong opener, but one time over the holidays there was one cork that did not want to budge, and all of my efforts resulted in the top of the bottle shearing off, which freaked out everyone who was watching me open the bottle. Fortunately I was not injured, and it was a clean break, so we were able to enjoy the wine. Can’t remember what it was though.

By: Glass Bottles

Glass Bottles — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:22:29 +0000

Great post, these are some funny stories. In my college years I pushed many corks into the bottle. My worst/best story is trying to open a bottle outside at a party one night and I was pushing the corkscrew in and the bottle slipped out of my hand and shattered on the patio and splashed wine over everyone’s shoes.

By: Derby

Derby — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:47:23 +0000

Faux rabbits?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:53:46 +0000

My wife and I were in a hotel and decided we would have a glass of wine in the room before going to dinner. I had one of those corkscrews that you take apart and slide the cover on the screw into a hole above the screw to form a “T”. The bottle had one of those fake corks. I screwed in the “screw” and pulled and pulled – put the bottle between my knees and pulled some more – finally it gave. Not the cork, but the corkscrew! It happened very suddenly, and left a 6″ gash in the underside of my forearm. Instead of dinner, we took a trip to the drug store and applied several bandages instead of having a casual glass of wine beforehand. Now I use one of those lever type pullers that the waiters use – they never fail, and are much safer! I gave up on the Rabbits a long time ago.

By: Vent your spleen: wax seals on wine bottles | Dr Vino's wine blog

Vent your spleen: wax seals on wine bottles | Dr Vino's wine blog — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:28:39 +0000

[...] one commenter who wasn’t laughing was Paul Gregutt, wine columnist for the Seattle Times. He had this to say: there’s little doubt that the most difficult cork pulling experiences in my life come when [...]

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:24:43 +0000

I guess I expect a corkscrew whose marketing is based on ease of use – especially one as pricey as a Rabbit – to not be that subject to user error.

By: gene keenan

gene keenan — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:07:32 +0000

i have to say i love the rabbit for young wines and have never had a problem with it other than you need to change the screw once the teflon starts to wear off. I have seen other people do the push the cork into the bottle routine but that was because of user error not because of a flaw in the product design.

By: Wine at Five

Wine at Five — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:26:53 +0000

I remember soon after we opened the store we sold a bottle of NZ sauvignon blanc to a customer who proudly rushed off home to drink it. Fifteen minutes later I received a phone call from the customer informing me that the wine was ‘bad’. When asked why he thought so he explained that he had pierced the top foil with his corkscrew pushed down on the rabbit lever, but found no cork! Obviously the wine was defective and he wanted to return it. I told him that the bottle was a screw cap – no cork. He hasn’t been back!

By: Colman Stephenson

Colman Stephenson — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:26:25 +0000

I can’t look at a Rabbit without thinking ‘over engineered’.

It a very cumbersome solution to a rather simple problem.

By: .Steve

.Steve — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:56:09 +0000

In my winelabel saving days, I was having trouble soaking off some labels I really wanted to keep (some higher end malbec brought back from a trip to Argentina), so I thought I’d try the pot of boiling water trick. The only problem was that the bottles got too hot to hold, so I transfered them back to the sink. Well, one still had a broken off cork stuck in the top… I jumped a mile when the bottle detonated in the sink!! ‘Happily’, the glass stayed mostly in the water, and not in my eyes or hands; needless to say, I don’t soak bottles with corks in them anymore.

By: paul

paul — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:24:32 +0000

My wife and i were celebrating and we put a bottle of champagne in the freezer to chill. My 3yr old son who liked to see the cork fly. stood up on a chair to watch as i unwrapped the foil and it immediately exploded and drench him in icey foamy slush. We were horrifed and thought he would burst into tears instead he shouted
“thats the best thing that that ever happened to me”

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:22:14 +0000

Every time I use a prong puller I end up with the cork in the bottle. Too bad because it passes TSA so I can take it in my carry-on.

By: Juliet

Juliet — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:44:34 +0000

I never thought I would be saying this, but Dr. Vino is a cork dork.

By: Boettcher

Boettcher — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:11 +0000

I once popped a cork out of a cold bottle of sparkling that had enough force to knock a really nice crystal vase off its shelf and fall to its death on the counter. I’m still wincing thinking about it.