The Best Corkscrews of 2025, Tested & Reviewed

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We tested 26 manual and electric wine openers to find these top-performing picks.

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Food & Wine

Opening a bottle of wine can be tricky for those who don’t do it often or aren’t professionally trained. That’s why becoming a sommelier includes training on using a corkscrew, storing wine, selecting the right wine glasses, and when to use a wine decanter. Corkscrews may seem simple, but finding the right one and using it properly makes opening up a bottle of wine seamless — no broken cork or haphazardly cut foil when pouring.

Finding the best corkscrew sets the stage for peak enjoyment of your favorite wines. We tested 26 corkscrew models and connected with a sommelier to learn how to use our favorite picks. After you crack that bottle open, check out our lists of expert-approved wine fridges and bottle racks for more tips and tricks on home wine storage.

The Pulltap’s Professional Double-Hinged Waiter’s Corkscrew offers fantastic value for its quality of craftsmanship, simplicity in function, and overall sturdiness. It’s practical for wine enthusiasts of all levels and will remain a dependable corkscrew in your wine tool collection.

This inexpensive corkscrew has a serrated knife for cutting the foil, with a tight and controlled hinge for easy opening.

There aren't any instructions included; you'll have to look up directions if you don't know how to use this kind of corkscrew.

The Pulltap Professional Double-Hinged Waiter’s Corkscrew is classic and functional. Throughout our tests, it was easy to use and felt comfortable. The double-hinged style is most often recommended and used by sommeliers and corkscrews like this one received the highest ratings during our tests.

The Pulltap model is lightweight but sturdy, with a tight and controlled hinge that makes uncorking bottles seamless. Given its simplicity and affordability, you can’t go wrong here, though you may need to look up the proper double-hinged corkscrew technique online the first few times you use it. If you pair this with one of our favorite wine stoppers and a nice bottle, you've put together the perfect wine gift.Material: Stainless steel | Dimensions: 7.3 x 1.5 x 0.9 inches | Weight: 0.6 ounces

We love the ergonomic grip of this modern corkscrew and the minimal force required to uncork a bottle of wine.

It's rather large and somewhat pricey, and you have to keep track of the separate foil cutter.

Rabbit's lever corkscrew uses a modern mechanism that opens a bottle with three effortless motions: You lock the side handles onto the neck, pull the lever down to screw into the cork, and then pull the lever back up to pull the cork. You don't have to worry about manually cranking the screw, which reduces effort and can protect old or dried-out corks from crumbling into the wine. The non-traditional style might be confusing the first time you use it, but once you figure it out, it’s intuitive and easy to use. Plus, this model has a clever round cutter to remove the top of the foil with just a twist.

Throughout our tests, we liked the sleek look and comfortable rubber grip of the Rabbit lever corkscrew. Because its ergonomic grip and design don't require a lot of force to operate, it’s an excellent option for anyone who has joint issues, arthritis, or generally struggles to open a bottle of wine. It is, however, much larger and a few times more expensive than a basic wine key, and you'll have to make sure you don't lose the separate foil cutter in your drawer of random gadgets.Materials: Stainless steel, rubber, plastic | Dimensions: 7.25 x 2.03 x 5.75 inches | Weight: 16 ounces

The winged style makes this corkscrew easy to use and offers smooth extraction of the cork.

It doesn't have a built-in foil cutter and is somewhat bulky.

Unlike the sommelier-style double-hinged corkscrew, the winged style removes the cork with one motion. There's less technique required. The Rabbit was our favorite winged corkscrew in testing thanks to its smooth hinges that flexed down with little effort during extraction. The screw itself is sharp and able to penetrate either natural or synthetic corks without trouble.

The negative of a winged corkscrew is that it's bigger than the folding hinged styles. The Rabbit will take up more room in a kitchen drawer or on a bar cart, which isn't the best if space is at a premium. It also doesn't have a built-in foil cutter; you'll want to remove any foil before you use this corkscrew so you don't get bits of aluminum in your glass.Materials: Plastic, stainless steel | Dimensions: 8 x 3.3 x 1 inches | Weight: 12 ounces

This beautiful luxury corkscrew makes a great gift for a wine connoisseur.

The hinges are rather tight, and it's very expensive.

This upgraded corkscrew is a must-have for folks with an extensive wine collection. It's made from hand-carved buffalo horn and hefty steel hardware, with a weighted design that's aesthetically pleasing and feels nice. You can also get this corkscrew in olive wood or turquoise. It’s a beautiful tool to show off the next time you cook something like braised short ribs and want to offer a knockout pairing with a touch of elegance.

Throughout our tests, we found that the Laguiole en Aubrac worked nicely, but its large scale made it more challenging for those with smaller hands. And, of course, its price is quite high — this is an heirloom gift for the wine lover, not a functional tool.

Materials: Stainless steel, buffalo horn | Dimensions: 4.7 x 0.5 x 1.1 inches | Weight: 10.5 ounces

Despite its low price, this corkscrew is comfortable to hold and works every time.

The construction doesn't feel super-substantial.

Another double-hinged option, the TrueTap's low price, classic look, and functionality put it in second place in our testing. The serrated cutter needed only one turn around the neck to remove the foil, and we found the shape and size comfortable to hold. For the design-inclined, this model comes in a rainbow of color options (though sadly, the sleek all-black version we tested is currently sold out).

This is a great corkscrew to keep handy the next time you’re cooking with white wine and need to open a bottle quickly. It may not be as solidly built as the Pulltap above, but it's high-quality, reliable, and inexpensive, making it our best-value pick.Material: Stainless steel | Dimensions: 4.75 x 1 x 0.5 inches | Weight: 2.1 ounces

This automatic corkscrew opens bottles expertly in 10 seconds, no effort required.

It's pretty expensive, and the included foil cutter is rather low-quality.

The top finisher in our tests of electric wine openers, the Elis Touch is fully automatic. You press the device down on top of a bottle, and it pulls the cork in 10 seconds. It then ejects the cork for inspection at the push of a button. For a fan of high-tech kitchen gadgets or anyone with mobility or strength limitations, this is a great gift.

The Elis Touch has impressive battery life, too. It opens 80 bottles on a single charge. We doubt you'll ever run out of juice mid-party. This is a rather expensive tool, even among electric wine openers, though it is top-of-the-line. Given the price, we were also disappointed by the included foil cutter, which is a pretty basic plastic device. It does the job, however, and there's a spot to store it built into the charging base.Materials: Stainless steel, plastic | Dimensions: 2 x 2 x 8 inches | Weight: 32 ounces

This roundup includes data from tests of 16 manual corkscrews and 10 electric wine openers. We rated each one on general comfort and design and then used them in three standardized tests.

Food & Wine

After concluding our performance tests, we revealed the retail prices of the corkscrews to consider value. At the time of testing, the manual models ranged from $10 to $160 with an average of $34, and the electric corkscrews ranged from $22 to $120 with an average of $55.

The most common corkscrew you'll find used by sommeliers and other pros is the double-hinged design, also known as the "waiter's friend." Its two-piece lever lets you carefully start the cork moving from the middle and then switch to the end to pull it the rest of the way out. The winged corkscrew is another popular design, which uses a pair of levers on either side to remove the cork. And the more recently invented lever design is a little more automated, as it inserts the screw into the cork with one motion and then opens the bottle with another.

If you're drinking extra-old wines whose corks may have dried out, you may also see a two-pronged cork puller. Sometimes called an "ah-so" opener, its pair of prongs squeeze between the cork and the neck of the bottle to remove it without having to drill into the cork with a screw.

There are also many types of electric wine opener, which use battery power to screw into and pull out the cork effortlessly.

Generally speaking, the actual screw and moving parts of a corkscrew are made of stainless steel, which is inexpensive and very durable. Higher-end models feature handles and other decorative parts made of fancy types of wood, stone, or even animal horn. There are also corkscrews with plastic parts, but we don't recommend them as they'll break sooner than steel.

The corkscrew can be very portable: Double-hinged models fold up and fit easily into a pocket. The other styles are mostly a little larger and will take up some room in a drawer — though they'll still fit in the drawer without any trouble. Electric wine openers take up the most space, thanks to their large batteries and charge cords.

“Using a corkscrew varies on the type of corkscrew that you are using, but the general principle is simple," says certified sommelier Francis Kulaga, the general manager and beverage director at Anomaly in San Francisco "You drill a worm into the center of the cork and use a lever as a fulcrum to gain leverage to pull that cork out of the bottle.”

Kulaga recommends removing the broken half and reinserting the corkscrew “dead center” before gently pulling upwards with slow and steady pressure to extract the remainder of the cork. In a worst-case scenario with a completely crumbly cork, you can push the cork remnants into the bottle and then strain the wine before serving.

Beginners should look into a good double-hinged or "two-step" wine key, Kulaga says. “It is the easiest way to become confident with opening a good bottle of wine.”

Viski Belmont Signature Waiter's Corkscrew ($20 at Viski)

Although Viski is a trusted name in glassware, the brand's gold-plated double-hinged corkscrew did just okay in our tests. It's lovely to look at but didn't remove corks as cleanly and effortlessly as our top picks.

OXO Steel Vertical Lever Corkscrew ($45 at Amazon)

Although this lever-style corkscrew worked well overall as a wine opener, we felt the foil cutter left much to be desired. It left sharp shards on our wine bottle necks, so we wouldn't recommend this one over the Rabbit lever opener above.

Brabantia Classic Corkscrew ($26 at Amazon)

We had high hopes for the Brabantia Classic Corkscrew based on its enthusiastic reviews. Although it was easier to use than some other corkscrews we tested, it required significant effort and pressure to operate, which we found to be prohibitive for anyone with joint or mobility issues.

A few of the bottom-finishing models were underwhelming in performance, while others had design flaws like faulty foil cutters, awkwardly placed knives, or other included accessories that ultimately weren't helpful. A few brands that didn't wow us were Barvivo, KitchenAid, Trudeau, and OXO.

Melissa Vogt's research is guided by years of tasting and writing about food, wine, and spirits. As a tourist, Vogt seeks out the best in local food and drink, and she's well acquainted with where to find good libations and eats in her hometown of Santa Rosa, California. Read more of her writing on her website and in Napa Valley Life, Wine Country This Month, and Medium.