Unfiltered, Unfined

Yesterday, as I was trying to uncork a bottle with a very skimpy corkscrew, the cork broke in half widthwise and I couldn’t get the second half out. I finally tried pushing it down into the bottle and eventually succeeded, but back-pressure caused sprinkles of wine to shower down on me, the counter, the cabinets, everything. I was using the wine for cooking, so I strained out the cork. What a mess!

Would you kindly recommend a corkscrew that a woman - a not very strong woman - could use with ease?

A few columns back I promised the rest of the story of my recent trip to North California, specifically the portion that occurred after my media tour had ended…Tasting is always more fun with friends, and so for this two-day trek across Napa and Sonoma I had coordinated with Asbjoern, a young Danish sommelier I met in Austria, and Amos, brother of the much-mentioned Jerry, who lives in nearby Santa Rosa. The overall idea was to give Asbjoern, who was visiting U.S. wine country for the first time, an overall view of North Cali wine. I had therefore organized three winery tours in Napa on Day One; Day Two included the same number of visits but in Sonoma.