Best Wine Opener: 5 Corkscrews Worth Buying

The opener you use matters. A cheap wing corkscrew will crumble a dry cork. A waiter’s corkscrew looks intimidating until you’ve used one twice. An electric opener does everything for you, then sits on the counter waiting for the next bottle.

Five wine openers, five different jobs. Here’s the one that fits how you actually drink.

Best Overall: True Truetap Double Hinged Waiter’s Corkscrew

The True Truetap is the waiter’s corkscrew you’ll use without thinking about it. Classic double-hinged design: foil cutter on the capsule, worm into the cork, lever the cork out in two pulls. It fits in a back pocket, sits flat in a kitchen drawer, works on every wine bottle you’ll encounter.

Over 2,100 reviews at 4.7 stars. The stainless steel build feels solid without being heavy, and the built-in foil cutter means you’re not hunting for a second tool. Restaurant servers carry this exact type of corkscrew because it’s the fastest and most reliable opener at any price.

Give it two or three bottles and the motion becomes automatic. After that, a bottle takes under 10 seconds.

Best Electric: Moocoo Electric Wine Opener

Press the button, wait three seconds, lift the cork out. That’s it. The Moocoo electric wine opener takes out all the wrist work and the risk of snapping a brittle cork halfway up the bottle. It recharges on a base that sits on the counter, and it comes with a foil cutter, aerator pourer, and two vacuum stoppers.

Nearly 3,000 reviews at 4.7 stars. The cordless electric corkscrew handles both natural and synthetic corks and works on any standard 750ml bottle. The accessories mean it replaces several separate wine tools in one box.

It’s bulkier than a waiter’s corkscrew and needs recharging every 30 or so bottles. If you open wine regularly and want no effort at all, it earns its counter space.

Best for Beginners: Beneno Wing Corkscrew

If you’ve ever used the corkscrew your parents kept in the kitchen drawer, this is that. You place it over the bottle, turn the handle to drive the worm into the cork, the wings rise as the worm goes in, then press them down. The cork comes out. No technique, no wrist strength, no learning involved.

The Beneno is the most reviewed wing corkscrew on this list: over 19,500 ratings at 4.6 stars. The zinc alloy body is heavier and more solid than plastic budget openers. The non-slip wing handle grips cleanly even with wet hands.

Slower than a waiter’s corkscrew, yes. But if you want to open a bottle of wine without thinking about it, this is the easiest opener you’ll find.

Best for Professionals: Vintorio Waiters Corkscrew

The Vintorio is the pick when you’re opening dozens of bottles at a dinner party or want the feel of a professional wine key at home. The rubber-grip handle gives it a noticeably more confident grip than bare stainless steel, and the ergonomic form fits the hand well for repeated use. It has a foil cutter built in and uses a standard double-hinged lever for controlled cork removal.

Nearly 2,000 reviews at 4.7 stars. Wine professionals and trained sommeliers reach for a waiter’s friend corkscrew over any other type of opener, and the Vintorio is a solid entry point for anyone who wants to learn the same technique. The rubber grip makes a real difference when your hands are cold or slightly wet.

Best Value: CORKAS Wine Key

The CORKAS is a compact, double-hinged waiter’s corkscrew: 4.7 stars from nearly 3,000 reviews, heavy-duty stainless steel, foil cutter and bottle opener built in. It fits in a pocket, a wine kit, or a gift bag for any wine lover on your list.

At this price, you can pick up two or three and never worry about finding a corkscrew when you need one. One in the kitchen, one in the camping bag, one in the picnic basket. It does the job every time.

Which Wine Opener Do You Need?

There are three main types of wine opener, and the right type depends on which job you need done.

Waiter’s corkscrews (True Truetap, Vintorio, CORKAS) are the standard for a reason. The double lever corkscrew is fast, lightweight, and fits in any pocket or kitchen drawer. The worm goes into the center of the cork, the first lever notch gives you the initial lift, and the second lever finishes the pull.

Once you’ve opened 10 bottles with a manual wine opener, it’s faster than any other method. The True Truetap is the value pick. The Vintorio is the step up if you want a rubber grip. The CORKAS is the pick if you want a spare for a bag or a gift.

Wing corkscrews (Beneno) suit anyone who finds waiter’s corkscrews awkward. The lever mechanism means you turn the handle and press the wings: no wrist technique, no getting the worm angle right. They’re slower and bulkier, but they handle cork removal without a learning curve. If you open wine occasionally and don’t want to think about it, the wing corkscrew is the right opener.

Electric openers (Moocoo) do all the work. One button press: the worm descends, the cork comes up, done. Best for high-volume home use, anyone with limited hand strength, or wine drinkers who want the opener to disappear into the background. We have a full breakdown of the best electric wine openers if that’s the route you’re leaning toward.

A note on rabbit-style corkscrews: these lever-style openers clamp over the neck of the bottle and extract the cork in one press. They look impressive but the bulky frame is hard to store, and the rabbit corkscrew mechanism tends to struggle with synthetic corks and narrow bottle necks.

The waiter’s corkscrew handles both natural and synthetic corks more reliably, works on every type of wine bottle, and takes up a fraction of the space.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best wine opener on the market today?

For most home use, the best corkscrew is a double-hinged waiter’s corkscrew. The True Truetap is the value pick: over 2,100 reviews at 4.7 stars, compact enough to pocket, and the same type every sommelier and server uses.

If you want a hands-off electric wine bottle opener, the Moocoo handles cork removal with one button press. For the simplest possible opener with no technique required, the Beneno wing corkscrew has over 19,500 reviews at 4.6 stars and is easy to use straight out of the box. For a fuller kit including stoppers, decanters, and glasses, see our wine tools and accessories guide.

Are waiter’s corkscrews easier to use than standard corkscrews?

Once you’ve opened a few wine bottles, yes. The double-hinged lever lets you remove the cork cleanly in two controlled pulls. The learning curve is the first few attempts: you need to get the worm into the center of the cork at the right angle rather than working in at a diagonal.

After that, a waiter’s corkscrew is faster and more reliable on most bottles. Wine professionals use them because they’re compact, easy to use once learned, handle both natural and synthetic corks, and open a wine bottle in under 10 seconds.

What is the most widely used tool to open a bottle of wine?

The waiter’s corkscrew, also called the sommelier knife or waiter’s friend, is the most widely used wine opener worldwide. Restaurants, bars, and caterers rely on it because it’s compact, lightweight, and fast to use once you know the technique. The double-hinged lever design handles cork removal cleanly at high volume. Wine professionals choose it as the standard opener because it’s the most practical corkscrew for repeated use across different types of wine bottles.

What is the fancy French wine opener?

The classic French-style corkscrew is the Laguiole, a handcrafted sommelier knife made in the Laguiole region of France, recognisable by the bee emblem on the lever and its horn or wood handle. Genuine Laguiole corkscrews are used by wine professionals and are a popular premium gift for wine enthusiasts.

The Screwpull is another French-origin wine opener, designed in the 1970s with a teflon-coated worm that glides through natural corks without compression. Both are waiter’s corkscrew variants. The Laguiole is the more recognisable gift option and often comes with a separate foil cutter.

What is the worm on a corkscrew?

The worm is the spiral metal screw on a corkscrew: the part that drives into the cork to give you grip for cork removal. A good worm is thin, sharply pointed, and has a non-stick coating so it enters the cork cleanly without crumbling the edges.

The worm needs to reach close to the bottom of the cork before you pull. If you only get the top half in, the upper section breaks off during extraction. Drive the full length of the worm into the cork, stopping just short of the tip coming through the base.

What’s the difference between a wing corkscrew and a waiter’s corkscrew?

A wing corkscrew uses a rack-and-pinion mechanism: turn the handle, the wings rise as the worm goes into the cork, then press the wings down to extract it. Easy to use with no technique required. A waiter’s corkscrew is a folding wine key that you manually drive into the cork with wrist rotation, then lever the cork out in one or two pulls.

The wing corkscrew is easier for beginners. The waiter’s corkscrew is faster once you know how to use it and handles a wider range of cork types, including synthetic corks that can grip a wing corkscrew’s worm awkwardly. Both types of wine opener work on any standard bottle.

Do electric wine openers work on all corks?

Most electric corkscrews work on both natural and synthetic corks in standard 750ml wine bottles. The motor drives the worm in and reverses to pull the cork out. Where electric bottle openers can struggle: unusually long corks, very old brittle corks that may crumble under motor pressure, and non-standard bottle neck sizes. For everyday wine bottles, an electric wine bottle opener handles cork removal cleanly without any manual effort.