Best Wine Bottle Opener for 2021

I read an article the other day from Liquor.com – The 8 Best Wine Openers of 2021, According to Experts. It was published before Christmas, which leads me to believe these would have made great gifts. But since this is my birthday month (Woohoo!) I am still in gifting mode. At least, for myself.

I love looking at and shopping for all types of wine accessories. I almost bought this fun birthday girl gift box for myself. But I held out. This year, I turned my attention to the plethora of wine openers on the market. It’s been a few years since my husband bought me the Brookstone Electric Wine Opener for my birthday, and I have so loved it over the years. But maybe I’m due for an upgrade…

My collection of wine keys. The only one that I haven't actually used is the knotty wood one, which we bought in Germany because of the cool wood. It's actually really difficult to use as it relies on brute strength to pull out the cork.

I’m a collector of wine openers, though. When I was a flight attendant, I traveled with wine openers and have purchased many while traveling. Sometimes I would forget to pack my wine opener and have to buy a backup wherever I landed. So, I’ve ended up with a small army of deployable and travel-friendly openers through the years.

I’m a big fan of the electric-type openers. They make opening your wine bottle so easy. The bottom of my electric opener is also a foil cutter, which makes opening your bottle effortless. No, really. It’s super easy.

But I will always have a special place in my heart for my waiter’s friends. I have a few of these in my collection. They are compact enough to fit into a small pocket in your luggage or even your purse, so you never have to worry about how to open a wine bottle while on the go.

They work by leveraging your effort on the edge of the bottle, making pulling the cork out really easy. You don’t have to have a lot of strength in your hand to uncork your bottle elegantly.

If you have ever tried to travel with a wine key, though, you may have had yours confiscated by TSA. I had that happen once, and I was quite sad. But I went out and bought another one just like it, so I’m good.

But here’s a tip: If you’re traveling by plane and have to go through TSA, carry a wine key that doesn’t have a knife as a cutter. If it just has roll blades, then TSA will not take it from you. You’ll notice in my collection of wine openers I have an old, beat-up looking waiter’s key. That one has roll blades on it while the others have knife blade openers.

I always traveled with my green one, the one I’ve had for 25+ years, the one I named “Old Glen” because it says Glen Ellen on the side of it. We’ve been through a lot together, Old Glen and I. And he’s never let me down.

But the other waiter’s keys are also excellent, and I love them. I take them when I travel by other means, like piling in the car and driving to Texas for a family visit. I know I’ll want to drink plenty of wine when I get there.

The rest of the list looks impressive. There are some new-fangled, updated versions of the electric wine openers that look cool. I’m really interested in what makes The Rabbit so awesome over the regular electric openers. They cost double what my Brookstone cost. I think the main difference is The Rabbit is completely automatic.

I admit I’m intrigued. And I love the red metallic one here. How fancy would that look on my counter?

One thing I haven’t tried is a preserver. These fancy things use a needle to siphon wine through the cork without opening it. So, you can taste a bottle of wine without uncorking. That is super fancy.

Considering how much wine I taste for my weekly video blog, I might have to consider investing in one of these. (Business write-off?) They come with a hefty price tag at more than $200, so if you’re not a big wine person, a preserver is probably not even on your radar.

There are a few other super high-end wine openers on this list that are nice. Like, really pretty and high-functioning to boot. But for an everyday wine drinker, those are probably more over-the-top than what you need. They’re cool to check out, but I have to say my wine openers that cost around $10-$20 have done me well, hung in like a trusted side-kick, for many, many years.

And Old Glen, I believe he came to me free as a gift with purchase. It just goes to show, your best tools don’t have to break the wine bank to become invaluable.