Sidebar: In Hand

By Sylvia Jansen, DipWSET, CSW, Sommelier

Let me tell you about my love affair. It has to do with weight, look, feel, and flow.

I know they are only gadgets, but I confess a love for beautiful writing implements, fine glass polishing towels, and quality corkscrews. For certain, functionality is a big part of any good gadget: anyone who has smudged ink from a poor pen, despaired over streaky wine glasses, or broken a clumsy corkscrew mid-extraction can attest to the importance of good design and quality materials. But we all know that love is not just about functionality; it is also about intangible connections. Allow me to give you my list of most loved wine gadgets.

Wine decanter

Breathe in, settle down: A decanter should not just collect dust. If an aged wine or vintage Port needs to be separated from sediment, or a young wine needs some air, you need one. It could be anything from a milk-bottle lookalike to a blown crystal sculpture—but I have to say that a crystal sculpture is more fun on the dinner table. Moreover, the sharper the pouring edge the better—and decanters with cut glass lips pour nicely.

Port Tongs by Manitoba's Cloverdale Forge

Open flame, freezing cold: Caution: this gadget requires courage and quick movements. Imagine a well-aged vintage Port with a fragile cork vulcanized to the bottle neck. Enter the Port Tongs, which you heat mightily over a fire or gas element, crimp onto the bottle neck below the cork, and hold in place for a minute, give or take. Removing the tongs quickly, replace them with an ice-cold wet cloth on the bottle neck, and presto, a clean break and another perfect pouring spout. Now, Port Tongs are a bit hard to find, but we collaborated with our friends at Cloverdale Forge and now have designed-and-made-in-Manitoba Port Tongs. (Just for the record, I bought the first pair.)

Pulltaps corkscrew

Hand-held wonders: Cork closures are anything but obsolete, and to remove the cork can be an awkward task or it can be an art form. Try the feel of a quality weighted instrument, the smooth work of the Teflon-coated worm, and you will agree about functionality meeting intangible. One of my best Pulltaps corkscrews is more than a decade old, and I have lost count of how many great wines it has opened. A lovely alternate is a rechargeable Rabbit electric corkscrew. You need only to hold the unit in place, depress the on-button, and the tool deftly removes the cork. In fact, it takes care of multiple bottles on a single charge.

Electric corkscrew

Champagne Sabre

Extreme sport: A Champagne sabre is a somewhat larger gadget that brightens up any evening. Confidently (but not recklessly) hold the sabre in one hand and a very well chilled bottle of bubbly in the other; slide the sword along the bottle seam, severing the top and letting fly the cork, glass lip and all. The nice clean edge remaining is the perfect no-drip pour spout. Having transported my sabre home from Italy, and almost being arrested in the Florence airport (it was in my checked bag, by the way), I have a serious attachment to my sabre.

Like in other parts of human experience, fashions around great wine gadgets change. There was a time when everybody who was anybody had a Champagne stirrer (a swizzle-stick with a little branch end to get rid of the then-unfashionable bubbles). Similarly the tastevin, a small silver saucer that regularly dangled around the Sommelier’s neck, has disappeared almost completely. Today we know that cloudiness and sediment in many natural wines are part of the charm, so wine-strainer funnels might be next on the endangered list. Bring on the bubbles and the sediment! Meanwhile, I am ready with my other gadgets.

So here’s to you, hands full.