Perhaps the most significant change in the kind of wine that we drink happened in the late seventeenth century when corks first began to be used. This had several effects, the first was the discovery that wines kept in a corked bottle kept much longer without spoiling than it did in a barrel. Because it was necessary to store bottles on their sides so that the corks wouldn't dry out, bottle shapes changed to the ones we know today that allow for that. Lastly people discovered that wine aged in bottles can mature resulting in a more complex wine with an elegant bouquet.

With this change a new requirement for the wine-drinker emerged: the corkscrew for extracting the corks. The original and simplest variety was a simple turned screw attached to handle that allowed extraction of the cork by brute force, a design that it still used today. Still, man has always been inventive and soon various engineering principles were added to the design. The basic turned screw, which tended to tear through tough corks, was replaced with a helical wire screw. Then came the application of the lever principle, which is most commonly found in the design known as 'The Butler's Friend'. This is the one that restaurant sommeliers use - a small arm rests on the lip of the bottle and then the cork can be levered out using the handle. A recent variation is the double lift, that has two positions for levering from.

The same principle is used in the design whose arms swing upwards and outwards as the screw goes into the cork. Depressing the arms levers out the cork. The most sophisticated version of this made is by Screwpull, in which a large lever arm both inserts the screw and extracts the cork and then can be used to removed the extracted cork from the screw. Various designs exist that use an extended screw - once it has penetrated the cork you keep turning and that action brings the cork out.

Other more peculiar devices have been invented. I have one which uses no screw at all, there are only two slim slides of steel which slip down on either side of the cork and then you kind of twist it out. Another I bought in Beaune uses a ratchet system to lift the cork, but the most bizarre device I own is like a syringe. You put the needle though the cork and pump air into the bottle, forcing the cork out. I still have a scar on my left palm from when a bottle so pumped exploded in my hand.

Wine of the Week

Portal de Santa Maria 2001

This wine comes from the south-east of Spain in a relatively unknown wine region. It's made from a mix of Bobal and Tempranillo grapes. At first sight it's a little unprepossessing - a plain label and a cheap bottle - but the liquid inside is very good. The wine has a deep red colour and a very smooth taste that belies the tannins, with a hint of spiciness behind. It's a wine that gives a lot for its price.

Available from Pettitts Supermarkets at €7.99