by Sheila O'Connor

othing says “celebration” like opening a nice bottle of champagne. Picture it now: the bubbly is chilled and ready. The metal holder is unscrewed with excitement. You wait for that familiar pop until—oops! The cork has not only gone airborne, it has taken on a life of its own and sailed smack into your beautiful chandelier. Not so much of a celebration now, is it?

There must be a better way to get the cork out of that bottle. Well, now there is, because Claude Mauffette, a designer and native of Montreal, (Montreal is the city of design in Canada), has invented the Cork Catcher.

“I originally designed the Cork Catcher because a friend of mine was opening a bottle of champagne and broke her nose when the cork came flying off,” says Mauffette.

Not only is the Cork Catcher useful, it has won a host of design awards, including the IDM (Institute of Design Montreal) Canadian Award in 2006 and the 2007 IHA (International Houseware Association) award in Chicago. In addition to designing the Cork Catcher, Mauffette has designed trophies for designers themselves. The Cork Catcher however, is his pièce de résistance. Mauffette designed various other corkscrews over a four-year period, but none were as successful as the Cork Catcher.

Still, he had to go through a lot of these “less worthy” ideas to get to the right one. “At first I tried a lever idea, but that didn’t work. Then I thought of blades to grab the cork.”

If outcomes and science are your interest, then you’ll be interested to know that, with the current invention, the cork flies off at 30 MPH and the cylinder at the top acts as a brake. Polycarbonate and aluminum versions are both available. The Cork Catcher has no moving parts.

For those of us without the scientific background, it’s enough to know that it’s easy to use: all you do is press the device down while moving the champagne or sparkling wine bottle a quarter turn. The cork comes out, complete with the festive “pop,” but without the drama of flying objects. Or the pain and tears afterward.

In 2004, Mauffette met with a representative from Screwpull, a German company, to showcase his product. Screwpull had a patent that was about to expire and they were more than interested in marketing the product. “Fantastic! I want it!” was the instant reaction of the rep, and Mauffette’s dream of a company with an outstanding reputation to sell his product was the result. These days, Mauffette gets royalties from the sales.

Originally available only in Europe, where it has already sold over 150,000 units, the Cork Catcher now sells in North America too. It retails for around US$20 for the plastic version and around double that for the aluminum one.

“The whole idea behind making it was to keep safety in mind,” says Mauffette, as he demonstrates with ease how the Cork Catcher works.

Sounds like a good philosophy to have. Let’s raise our glasses and say “Cheers” to that.

Cork Catcher: www.screwpull.com.
Montreal Tourism office: www.tourisme-montreal.org.

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