Which came first: the cork or corkscrew?

by NavajoMX

Both the cork and the corkscrew seem like they depend on each other to exist. Were there just easy to remove corks at some point, or did "corkscrews" predate them and have a different purpose?

How did people seal their wine? (Cheers to Friday night! 🍷)

kisstheblade69

I'll assume that this question, if it is a troll, is a very subtle one. So I'll answer. The cork came first. When people made wine 2000 yrs ago all along the northern Mediterranean coastline, they made it at home, each household would have their own land, grapes, wine making facilities and storage, usually just the cantina under the house. Wine (and oil) would be kept in the cool and dark cantina in large containers - barrels and damigiane. The daily requirement of wine for the household would be poured in glass bottles, and stoppered with real cork, i.e. a piece of tree bark. The cork would have been longer than the one you find in bottled wine, because people used the bottle all the time and kept refilling it as needed. A longer cork made that easy. Corkscrews were not needed then, and invented only later, when bottled wine trade became a thing. Interestingly, this way of living with wine is still there in places around the northern coast of the Med. Away from the cities, and up the hills there are people who have never needed a corkscrew in their life. Cheers.