Share

Corkscrews were first used for guns.

Answer: True.

In the fifteenth century, the progenitors of wine corkscrews were corkscrews used as gun cleaning tools. By the 18th century, wine corkscrews were expensive implements, owned by the upper classes and intended only for expensive wines since only expensive wines were bottled with corks driven flush with the top of the neck of the bottle. It wasn’t until well into the nineteenth century, with the growth of the middle class and the growing prevalence of bottled wine, that the corkscrew became a common tool among large numbers of the populace in wine drinking countries.

Get WineSpeed

Join tens of thousands of other wine lovers. Get each week’s edition of WineSpeed delivered to your inbox every Friday. It’s fast. It’s free. It’s the smartest way to stay up to speed on wine.
Email address
First Name
Last Name
Other Way You Heard About Us
Be sure to check your inbox to confim your subscription.