How to Use the Two Prong Ah-So Cork Puller

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How to use the two-prong Ah-So cork puller or the butler's thief, so many names for the simplest most brilliant piece of kit that a wine aficionado could ask for.

If you are a lover of fine wines you may already be aware of this little gizmo, but for the uninitiated, this is for the pulling of very fragile corks from fine wine bottles.

It can at times be the safest way to remove corks from valuable old vintage bottles, especially Bordeaux, Madeira, Sauternes and other quality wines with fragile and difficult long corks.

The Butler’s Friend is said to be a German invention, invented in 1864 and then patented in the U.S around1879. It's said that it enabled the butler before serving a bottle of wine for dinner.

To remove the cork, taste the wine, check for any faults, plus decant and filter the wine - and then replace the wine and cork without a trace of having been in the bottle of wine at all.

Supplies Needed

Two Prong Cork Puller and Foil Cutter - Stainless Steel for Vintage Wine

Dows Quinta Do Bomfim Vintage 2010 Port in own Wooden Case

Dows is one of the better known names in fine port. The Vintage 2010 although not neassarly the best it is up there.

Now I realise that a fabulous bottle of vintage port is probably not the best bottle to try the Butler's friend on, for the first time.
But hey who needs an excuse to buy a fine bottle?
In all honesty, I would give it a go as I don't need much of an excuse to open a really nice bottle.

Step by Step Instructions

How to use the two-prong Ah-So cork puller

Here goes. we take the butler's friend and insert the long side into one side of the cork, then once that is partially in we put the shorter side into the other side of the bottle and wriggle it side to side while applying pressure until it is fully in.

Then we just screw in a clockwise direction and again we apply an upward pressure and there you are one cork pulled.

This is not for the fainthearted, you need to just apply the process.
It's obviously not for you if you have wrist issues or grip problems but other than that we are good to go.
If you feel a bit unsure try it first on a bottle that you won't worry about too much.