Safer cork removal

Idiocy, sorry. You open the bottle securing the cork all the time with your hand so it never can fly away. Period.

M.

Crown cap seals which reduce danger of flying corks, reduce cork taints to zero and help better maturation:

M..

Hey Pumbaa, Not sure if this is a :-) on your part or not? In my experience it's always easy to remove the cork on a sparkling wine. Just ease out the cork until you hear a gentle "pop", no explosions, no foam, no wine on the ceiling. Dick R.

I haven't had a bottle of Sparkling wine in many years. I usually stick to Australian reds. But I had no problems either. I used to wrap a towel over the cork on sparkling wine as an extra safety measure. I think some people like to see the cork fly as that is what seemed to happen in a lot of the old movies that I have viewed. Wasting expensive wine is about as smart as shooting a rifle with no regard to what the bullet might hit.

Still wondering about the 12,889 "injury cases" the researchers investigated and how long it took to compile that figure, surely it couldn't have been for a single year?

"Dick R." in news: snipped-for-privacy@visi.com...

That is one of the good ways, if I may so say. Actually, removing a cork offers the same options as LTI System Identification. A hiss, a bang, or a chirp. (Those are the three kinds of classic test inputs you use to scope out the behavior of many acoustical, electrical, or other contrivances.) With Champagne, some situations call for a hiss, some a bang, even a chirp (or gentle "pop"). It is easy to select among them, with practice. Many times when serving Champagne I have solicitously asked "what would you like to hear?"

(Wine on the ceiling, also, is nothing if you have ever seen what happens when a very slow-cooked stew in a pressure cooker encounters a blocked steam outlet and slowly, quietly, inexorably, builds tension, unnoticed, unsuspected, relentless, inescapable, till at last the structure can stand it no longer and the relief seal explodes and the contents exit under cataclysmic pressure -- huge vegetables, pieces of meat, excessively floured sauce -- through an orifice less than a centimeter across. _Horribile dictu._ But that's another story.)

For more on the principles of system identification look at comp.dsp or search under "Detection, Estimation and Modulation Theory," à la Harry L. Van Trees.

-- Max

I dunno, just fill my glass. :-)

Sounds tragic. Gives kitchen cleanup a whole new meaning.

Maybe not, I'll just stick with the "gentle pop".

Thanks, Max, for a :-) for the day. Dick R.

Right. Just twist it slo o o w ly and you're in business.

Dan-O

Absolutely!!!!!! When a good friend began opening a magnum of Roederer on my deck, I observed that he removed the cage and foil, and then reached for something on a nearby table. I bolted out the kitchen door, but too late. The cork dislodged and hit him just below the eye. Other than a large sore spot, no real damage done, but 1/2" would have been a different story. He knew better, and has successfuly opened hundreds of bottles of bubbly, but this one did get away. Never, never, never take your hand off of the cork!

Hunt