There are several corkscrew museum around the
world now. On these pages we will provide a short description and some pictures for
your enjoyment. Click on the one you want to see.
Musée du Tire-Bouchon
Brother
Timothy at the CIA
Musée le Secq des
Tournelles
The Center of Unusual
Museums
Museo de la
Cultura del Vino
The Virtual
Corkscrew Museum
Museo di
Cavatappi
Domaine Gerovassiliou
Wine Museum
Musée du Tire-Bouchon

Located in Mènerbes in the South of France, within the Domaine de la Citadel winery whose
proprietor, Yves Rousset-Rouard, is an avid corkscrew collector himself. The Corkscrew
Museum has over a 1,500 pieces very nicely displayed. The exhibits were reorganized in
1998 by Ron MacLean, a Canadian corkscrew expert. The exhibits have several unique pieces
from the 17th century as well as their modern counterparts for contrast. The corkscrews
were lent to a Japanese wine institute during 1996-97 and the museum now has a
relationship with that organization. If you are in the South of France, visiting this
exceptional Corkscrew Museum is a must.
Also, while you are there, visit their store where they sell wine, a large variety of
new corkscrews and other paraphernalia related to wine. Corkscrew posters and postcards
are among the nicest around and the "T" shirts are well designed. The Domaine de
la Citadel also offers wine-tasting sessions.
The museum is opened from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day from April to September and
from Monday to Friday from October to March. For groups, they prefer advance appointments.
Musée du Tire-Bouchon
Domaine de la Citadelle
84560 Mènerbes
France
For North Americans, dial the following numbers:
Tel: 011-33-04-90-72-41-58
Fax: 011-33-04-90-72-41-59
Brother
Timothy's Collection at the Culinary Institute of
America
The exhibition at
the Culinary Institute of America's Greystone
facility in Napa is the first class collection of the legendary Brother
Timothy of the Christian Brothers winery fame can be seen. His
corkscrews are on a permanent display at the CIA West and if you are in California, it is a must see.
The
collection was started in 1949, the year before the Christian Brothers
purchased the Greystone property. But by the time they were ready to
open the facility to visitors, about the beginning of 1955, Brother Tim
had about 200 or more pieces in his collection. They displayed the
corkscrews for visitors to see while they were waiting to take a tour of
the wine operations - to keep them occupied, you might say. And
today, they are displayed in cases and
cabinets as you will see below, almost returning to the early days of the
collection keeping visitors occupied while they wait for the tours.
In a 1993 interview, Brother Tim recalled
that: "My initial motivation, before we started Greystone, was to
study them and find out about the function of corkscrews. Which were
the ones that performed properly? Which were the bad ones? So
I was concerned about the efficiency or function of corkscrews, at
first."
There is one more thing that needs to be
said and that there is fabulous food to be had at the CIA restaurant
located at the North end of the building. And if you are into
cooking, they have theatres where the experts do demos and a Campus Store
for everything related to cooking and wine you could imagine.
Now here are pictures of the showcases, but
you just have to see them in person. Click on the thumb-nails below
to see the whole story.
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Advertising corkscrews |
Animal Farm |
Brother Tim's Favorites |
Screw-less cork removers |
The evolution of the
corkscrew |
And more on the evolution |
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Brother Tim proudly shows
off his treasures |
Handles of horn and tusks |
The "Little
People" |
Modern corkscrew |
Multi purpose corkscrews |
Pocket corkscrews |
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Here we see Brother Tim
beside a large mural showing how wine was made in the early days of
Greystone, circa 1920. Of course, prohibition had hurt the
Napa wine trade, but they survived and unquestionably
prospered. People like to say that: "If you want to
make a small fortune in wine in the valley, start with a big
one". Seriously, however, the Napa valley is a hot
property and everyone from movie people to multinational wine firms
are there. Some of the small operators make outstanding wines,
and several have corkscrew collections on display for visitors. |

Here he is posing beside the
plaque explaining to visitors about him and the collection. The
Culinary institute people are most hospitable and will assist in any way
you need.

Here we photographed Brother
Tim and Hillery Hersberger one of the CIA's Concierges at Greystone holding
the famous painting of Brother Tim with a corkscrew.

The painting beside Brother
Tim's Office.
The Culinary Institute of
America Greystone
2555 Main Street
St. Helena, California, 94574
U.S.A.
Restaurant reservations: (707) 967-1010
Tour reservation: (707) 967-2328
Musée le Secq des
Tournelles
The museum at Rouen, France has amassed what may well be the most
important collection of antique steel implements and tools. The museum
is housed in the old church of St. Laurent, a part of the
museum
of Fine Arts of France. It was established in 1921 and was given the
extensive personal collection of objects by Henry Le Secq des Tournelles
(1854-1925). The collection has been enriched ever since and now there
are in excess of 15,000 pieces of a wide variety of provenances, but
primarily European in origin. All the ages since Roman times are
represented and all kinds of items can be found there, including some
wonderful corkscrews, but there are no arms related objects. It should
be noted that not all of the museum's collection is on display at any one
time, so if you do research, it is advisable to contact the curators to get
permission to examine the items of interest. Here are another three
fabulous pieces for your pleasure:

Rouen, France
Can be seen on website:
http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Museums/Secq-Tournelles.shtml
The Center of Unusual
Museums
This is the privately owned museum
established by a German entrepreneur/collector. There are several
unique collections including a collection of chamber pots and a fine
collection of corkscrews. If you are in the area, this is well worth a
visit. |
Several
glass cases hold the collection in this Museum where everything seems
to be a little strange use. I suppose the creator/curator of the
museum felt that corkscrew collecting is "weird", so he
built a collection for his museum.
The collection contains
some excellent German patents, rare pieces from all over the world and
an assortment of other, less costly corkscrews.
The pieces are held in large cabinets
built such that getting into them is quite difficult without the
proper glass handling equipment.
While there is no documentation or
writeup on the museum's contents, a small brochure is easy to come by,
just for the asking. The lion's share |
The
Museum has the following collections (and some small ones in
addition).
1. Schutzengel
2. Ethnic dolls collection
3. Ur-Wolpertinger
4. Rachttopf
5. Tretauto
6. Corkscrew museum. |
83708 Kreuth-Enterbach, Tegenseer Str. 32, Germany
Tel: 0 80 22/9 53 00
Bodega and
Museo de la Cultura del Vino in Briones, La Rioja,
Spain
This
museum is one of the best in the World for both wine related items
and has a lot of excellent corkscrews on display. Well worth
the visit when you are in Spain. |
Inside
the Museum there is a display
of original pieces dating from
Mesopotamian times
to Picasso, and of course they show a
selection of about 3000 pieces from their great
corkscrew collection, arranged in cabinets
depending on the type, material, origin...
of the corkscrew.
In the wine business it's considered as the best Wine Museum in the
World (as an example,
they were awarded in 2004 The Best in wine tourism, in
Melbourne, Australia and recently" Best
Winery for 2009 by VEREMA.com) in terms of modern conception,
quality and diversity of the collections,
educational... and in the of region La
Rioja it has become the
most visited tourist attraction with about 150,000
visitors a year. |
Contact
details:
Rafael Vivanco
Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco
26330 Briones
La Rioja, Spain
T. +34 941 32 23 32, F. +34 941 32 23 16
e-mail: rvs@dinastiavivanco.es
Website:
www.dinastiavivanco.es
The Virtual Corkscrew Museum
This museum is a "virtual"
one as the whole thing is on the web, the actual premises are not
available for visit. However, Don Bull, the "curator", is easy
to contact at:
corkscrew@bullworks.net. A weekly newsletter is also
published, the "Weekly Screw" to which you can subscribe at the same
address. He has also authored over 20 books on corkscrew
related information and is involved in selling corkscrews as
collections or individually on his website, eBay and the
ICCAuctions
website. |
The
Virtual Corkscrew Museum has its roots in a small corkscrew website
begun on America On Line in 1994. By 1999, the museum had grown to a
nine megabyte site and in May the museum moved to
www.corkscrewmuseum.com.
Since May 1999, the museum has had over 28,000,000 page hits.
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Here are some other museum facts as of July
1, 2008:
- The museum has 36 "rooms"
- There are about 4000 html pages in the
museum
- There are over 16,000 photos in the
museum
- Individuals from 102+ countries have visited the museum |
Museo dei Cavatappi
This
museum was born from
the passion for collecting antique corkscrews by Paolo Annoni, a
chemist born in Turin in Piedmont and moved two decades ago.
A former wine cellar with vaulted ceilings
in brick, lovingly restored, houses the Museum.
The collection is divided into nineteen sections.
The Corkscrew Museum presents 500 pieces
today, from various periods, countries and types. The
corkscrew development history allows us to
understand what has been the birth and evolution over the centuries
of this everyday tool.
In 19 pages we can see corkscrews decorative and figural, but also
pocket , advertising, multi-purpose systems, those themed animal,
even erotic themes, and there are those miniature perfumes and
medicines and precious corkscrews. The wesbite is at:
www.museodeicavatappi.it.
The museum is located by the Falletti Castle, Piazza Castello 4,
Barolo. |
Domaine Gerovassiliou Wine Museum
The
corkscrew collection was started in the 1980s and counts more than
2600 exhibits today. Vangelis Gerovassiliou has one of the largest
collections of corkscrews in the world. The collection includes rare
and unique pieces dating back to the 18th century, true symbols of
the technological advances, aesthetically pleasing and reflecting
the era of late 17th century to this day.
This collection of corkscrews and wine-growing tools is housed in
the Gerovassiliou Wine Museum, located at the heart of the Domaine's
winery, next to the underground ageing cellars
and the wine tasting room. Renovation of the site was carried out by
scientists-professors of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
and the new museum was inaugurated in 2008 by the President of the
Hellenic Republic, Mr. Karolos Papulias. |
Contact information:
Epanomi 57 500, Thessaloniki, Greece
T +30 2392 044 567 F +30 2392 044 560
ktima@gerovassiliou.gr |