Everyday Life

Beaujolais Nouveau 2024 Is Here! The LUSCIOUZ Sommelier Knife Makes Year-End Wine Even More Fun

Hi, I’m Hide — tech journalist and part-time house-husband. If I’d known a corkscrew like this existed, I’d have gotten one ages ago…

The LUSCIOUZ sommelier knife has a specially treated screw that glides in shockingly smoothly, so even beginners can open wine easily.

In our house, there’s been an unspoken (generations-old?) rule that opening the wine is Dad’s job. But with this sommelier knife, even my wife — opening wine for the first time — did it easily.

Official site: LUSCIOUZ

Where to buy: LUSCIOUZ sommelier knife

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The better the wine, the harder to open

Aged wines, great vintages — the better the wine, the harder it usually is to open. Of course, people who drink those are probably used to sommelier knives, but everyone has a “first time.”

You splurge on a fancy bottle, and then: “The cork wouldn’t come out,” or “It snapped halfway, so I sadly pushed it in.” That can happen even to intermediate wine drinkers.

The LUSCIOUZ sommelier knife eliminates those fails and makes your wine life even more fun.

I didn’t believe it could be this different

The hole from the LUSCIOUZ knife (left) vs. a typical sommelier knife (right). You can tell from the hole how smoothly the screw went in.
The hole from the LUSCIOUZ knife (left) vs. a typical sommelier knife (right). You can tell from the hole how smoothly the screw went in.
When I first reached out to them, I thought, “Can it really be that different?” I’m a bit obsessive, so I’d already tried quite a few surprisingly pricey sommelier knives.

In the end I’d settled on a cheap one, thinking “eh, they’re all about the same,” so I was really surprised by the difference from the very first use.

The LUSCIOUZ knife (left) and the cheap one I’d been using (right)
The LUSCIOUZ knife (left) and the cheap one I’d been using (right)
The LUSCIOUZ foil cutter is curved, so the blade doesn’t slip and prepping the bottle is easy. It’s sharp too, so the foil came off effortlessly.
Many foil cutters are straight, but LUSCIOUZ’s is curved
Many foil cutters are straight, but LUSCIOUZ’s is curved
And the key is the screw. They claim “zero friction,” and it’s no exaggeration — it just slides right in.
The LUSCIOUZ goes in easily and straight
The LUSCIOUZ goes in easily and straight
A regular sommelier knife fights friction going in, and the strain makes the tip of the cork lift up. Hard to get it in straight, too.
A regular sommelier knife fights friction going in, and the strain makes the tip of the cork lift up. Hard to get it in straight, too.
The smoothness of this screw is on another level. It completely changed what I thought a sommelier knife could be.

With this, I won’t get nervous when I say “Time to open that nice bottle I splurged on!” (lol). Plenty of people only drink good wine on special occasions, so it’s practical in that way too.

Even my wife opened it on her first try!

I’m pretty used to it, so I had my wife give it a go. Her first time, of course.
I’m pretty used to it, so I had my wife give it a go. Her first time, of course.
From cutting the foil to pulling the cork — like this. I talked her through it, but she opened it with no trouble.
From cutting the foil to pulling the cork — like this. I talked her through it, but she opened it with no trouble.
What I especially liked is the grip point as you lift the cork. When you apply force, it moves inward and catches, so you naturally end up holding the cork and the bottle together.
What I especially liked is the grip point as you lift the cork. When you apply force, it moves inward and catches, so you naturally end up holding the cork and the bottle together.
That keeps weird forces off the cork and helps prevent it from breaking. Really well thought out.

It’s Beaujolais season again — let’s enjoy wine through the holidays!

Beaujolais Nouveau is released today, the 21st, in 2024 too. From here on it’s Christmas and New Year — the season when drinks are extra fun.
Beaujolais Nouveau is released today, the 21st, in 2024 too. From here on it’s Christmas and New Year — the season when drinks are extra fun.
The LUSCIOUZ sommelier knife comes with a lifetime warranty, so get one and it’ll last you forever. I probably won’t ever need to replace mine. Good tools make wine even more fun, so I wanted to introduce it right at the Nouveau release.

This story was originally published (in Japanese) on Yahoo! News Japan Expert.

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