Photos Victorinox Wine Master, or: In dubio pro Vino

[TheHunt]

The best time of year, summer vacation!
So, if the worlds most best wife of all times (which is mine!), decides to go to a guided tour on a wineyard, what else to say than yes?
..including a tasting of the offerings, of course.

So, off we went.

The inclined beer drinker will think of Rhein, Mosel or Aar, even Chateaux Lafite, but far from it!

We are talking about a small island in the northsea, Föhr to be exact.
A wineyard in the northsea?
How should that work?

...well lets say, clima change has its benefits, after all.

If you´re interested in the whereabouts, I encourage you to have a look for your self: https://www.weingut-waalem.de/de/

That´s what it looks like:

All good and fine, but what the heck has this rambling to do on a knifeboard?
Perfect question!

Surely you won´t think we came back without some appropriate souveniers?

Hah!

For a grasp of the selfimage of the frisian people, have a look, and let google translate be your guide

Sooo…. wine, bottle, cork…
Does that ring a bell?

Actually we don´t own a „real“ canopener, or corkscrew. But we have one or two Victorinox pocket tools...

And as faith will have it, Victorinox just released the new Wine Master.
A perfect excuse to get the above mentioned outstanding wife to agree to a new tool in the collection

The brown sheath is made from real leather, by the way.
The Wine Master comes with walnut or olive scales, the later having found its way to our collection.

Thank God for the manual, even I can manage this.

Second from the bottom:

Linerlock, as the „big boys“ from Victorinox all come with:

No surprises with the large blade, all in top notch quality, as we came to love and expect from the offerings from Ibach.

So, what´s new?
This:

 

[TheHunt]

I hope i get the designations right, please chime in if not!
Here we have a foil cutter, the serrations are sharp, but robust, perfectly fitted to gut the foil on the glass neck of the bottle. Too sharp would be counter productive here…

Corkscrew and lever mechanism:

The corkscrew is larger and more substantial than the one used in the other large tools:
I think you can see it quite clearly:

Even the circumfence is larger, the mini screwdriver nearly drowns in the windings...

All nice and shiny, but does it work?
Some corks require much more force than others to be pulled. And here the Wine Master realy shines.
The level mechanism should look vaguely familiar, as its often found in cheaply made waiter´s knifes. „Give me a lever long enough….“ you shloud know the rest

Same here:

Foil cutter, one swift motion, done.

How to screw in a corkscrew is common knowlege, right?

As usual, a two stage lever to get the cork out:

One hearthy push, and:

Free, free at last!

And no to the main course:

Candlelight:

And, what´s the verdict?
The wine is outstanding!
2016er Waalem, Johanniter, Solaris. Very aromatic, fruity and fresh, lots of character.

The Wine Master?
Top notch!

Did you realy expect anything eles from the Swiss?
Initially I had a some difficulties with the foil cutter, my fault, not the knives. Pulling the cork is easily done, the lever makes short work with even the most stubborn corks. But some training doesn´t hurt

A little special:
For those of you who, like me, normaly grabs a cold beer instead of wine, theres a little easter egg for you:

The manual doesn´t mentions it, but there is a hidden bottleopener as well.

...nothing to see here, right?

But:

Swiss engineering, I love it! And this comes from a German


At the end of the day, what´s the verdict?
A new tool in the Line Up von Victorinox. New as in new new.
Sexy.
Leather.
Nice Wood.

Good buy!

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, shoot!

 

[Neko2]

Great in-depth review on a knife/tool that I may have overlooked otherwise.
It may make an excellent gift for my mother in law.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy your newfound love of wine.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Very nice! I have an old waiter's corkscrew that uses a similar geometry to create leverage for cork removal, but the capsule cutter is worthless. This looks to be very well designed.

 

[ScottK]

Informative post, I like those walnut scales on the Victorinox. Thanks!

 

[Piso Mojado]

I like the olive wood scales.



This is the competition.



Pulltex AKA Pulltap's double-hinged waiter's corkscrew, made in Barcelona. There are Chinese knockoffs of varying cheapness, but Pulltex/Pulltap's holds the double-hinged patent, and theirs is the one you want if you open 40-50 bottles a day. Very robust.

The business end.



Results of the bar tending derby:

Pulling corks: tie. Both are superb corkscrews — but if I was pulling 40-50 corks per day, I'd use Pulltex. Much cheaper, no one but a bartender would steal it, and it looks good to last a lifetime.

Lifting caps: tie. Both are superb cap lifters.

Cutting foil: Victorinox. Pulltex's foil cutter blade is chisel ground. If you hold it left handed and cut away from yourself, it will cut foil — but I would use any pocket knife first. Victorinox's foil cutter blade is superb.

 

[TheHunt]

@Piso:
Nice addition to my review, thank you!

Looks like the Pulltex has a notch for beer bottles as well as the victorinox, very clever...


Merry Christmas!

 

[Steely_Gunz]

Great review. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I would ever need one of those monstrous rabbit ear-looking Houdini contraptions like my mother in law favors.

My wife and I go throw a substantial amount of wine. My go-to for years has been a cheap waiters knife that was given to me at a wine tasting a decade ago. The design works wonderfully, but it has always left me wanting something a bit more quality.

This Vic looks like a nice tool all around. The olive wood sets the whole thing off. Might have to put it on my birthday wish list

 

[Piso Mojado]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I would ever need one of those monstrous rabbit ear-looking Houdini contraptions like my mother in law favors.

She has probably never seen a double-hinged waiter's corkscrew. The single-hinged version is a little better than a simple steel screw, but not much better.

Pulltex's patented double hinge gives leverage for both primary and secondary extraction.

 

[A.L.]

Great review and good looking tool for wine enthusiast (and good enough "excuse" for SAK/knife person to get another knife).

 

[Hickory n steel]

I love the looks of the blade on this model, but am in absolutely zero need for a corkscrew.

 

[Piso Mojado]

I love the looks of this model and the functionality of its double hinged cork extractor, but I seldom need a 3¾" main blade. I use a GAK once a week to break down pallet loads of canned beans and dried beans at my neighborhood food pantry. I'd like to see Victorinox's Cheese Knife fitted with the Wine Master's cork extractor. That is something I could use every day!

 

[neal70]

Can the wooden handled models be modified? I would love to have one of these, if I could fit an awl in somewhere.
Thanks, Neal