Is the Durand Wine Opener Worth the Hype?

Once in a while, something emerges that’s so useful and necessary that everybody pretty much forgets about what life was like before it (think: smart phones, espresso machines, and electric guitars). In the wine world, one of those tools is the Durand, a multi-faceted device that lets collectors open old and fragile bottles without having to worry (much) about broken or pushed-in corks. 

Though it’s a sort of amalgamation of other simpler wine tools, the Durand itself emerged in the late aughts. Wine collector Mark Taylor started the company to produce a new kind of opener specifically designed to make opening special bottles far less precarious. It’s been in the conversation (and in our cellars and restaurants) ever since.

The Durand

As with any widely discussed product, it’s natural to wonder whether it’s worth the hype, and, if so, whether you need to jump on the bandwagon. On the one hand, the Durand’s $145 price tag and hyper-specific application could mean that it might not be accessible or necessary for someone who simply loves trying new low-intervention skin contact wines from their neighborhood bottle shop. On the other hand, if dropping a few bucks now can prevent you from possibly wrecking thousands of dollars worth of great bottles from your cellar in the coming years, it very well might be something you should have. 

In order to figure out who, exactly, the Durand is for, and whether it really lives up to its reputation, I spoke to Certified Wine Specialist Chris Voll of Bommarito Wine & Spirits. 

“It’s pretty essential for opening bottles that have been aged correctly for a very long time. We’re talking 10, 15, 20-plus years,” Voll said, explaining that the device isn’t always necessary for super young bottles with fully intact corks. After some aging, cork decay slowly begins, and that’s where the Durand comes in. 

“Ideally, if a bottle is stored on its side, that helps keep the cork from drying out. But there’s going to be an inevitable amount of drying out, and the cork will become brittle, crumbly, easily broken,” he said.

But why can’t one simply use a regular corkscrew and just be extremely careful? (Asking for a friend.) Ultimately, the Durand relies on two components to ensure that the cork is stabilized and removed as carefully as possible, much more so than a traditional waiter’s corkscrew can ensure. 

“The Durand combines a traditional corkscrew and what’s called an Ah-So, two prongs inserted on the side of the cork,” Voll explained, pointing out that the Durand corkscrew is typically longer than your typical one, meaning it can go all the way through the cork. 

“That’s part of the problem with a traditional corkscrew,” he said. “If you’re trying to leverage it out, it could leave part of the cork in there.” Simply put, newer bottles’ corks still have enough structural integrity that they’re (hopefully) going to slide out even if the corkscrew doesn’t fully penetrate.

Still, the Durand is not always a guaranteed win. “There’s definitely user error with any tool,” Voll said. “The state of a cork can get pretty bad, and sometimes there’s not going to be any tool that’s going to get it out cleanly.” 

But if one is trying to ensure the highest possibility of success for opening special bottles, there’s really no substitute. “I think my official stance on it is that if you’re a serious wine collector with access to bottles that are 20 to 30 years old, you have to have it,” Voll proclaimed. 

Thus, if you have some special bottles that you want to be extra sure will make it to your glass safely, the Durand seems to be the way to go.

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At the time of publishing, the price was $145.