Customer Reviews

Metrokane Vertical Rabbit Lever Style Corkscrew with Foil Cutter, Gun Metal Grey

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I open 1-2 bottles of wine a week and prior to purchasing the Vertical Rabbit, owned an inexpensive three handle rabit opener as well as a teflon coated screw top type. The three handle rabbit worked fine for a couple of years, though it took a bit of coordination for guests to use. However, it later gave out, and would simply screw in and out without extracting the cork. So I went back to my teflon coated screw type and it worked well with a bit of twisting effort, until the plastic broke.

So in this search I wanted a better quality product that was still easy to use. After ready many positive reviews on the Metrokane Vertical Rabbit, I decided to give it a try.

Ease of use: This corkscrew takes a couple bottles to get used to, but once you do, it is very easy to use. Because it requires some pressure around the base, I would say this is not ideal for women with small hands. My wife is taller and can use it just fine. The lack of side handles is a plus in my mind. Simply raise the lever up, drop over the bottle, squeeze, and press down on the lever. Then repeat off the bottle and the cork drops off effortlessly. Couldn't be more beautifully simple. The foil cutter works well for both lead and plastic foils in my experience.

Build Quality: The packaging is very attractive and would make a nice gift. The corkscrew itself is overall well built. The lever is heavy metal with rubber inserts for comfort and grip. I was surprised that the base was plastic, as it looked like metal in the pictures (nice paint job). However, since the pressure is primarily on the lever and the base is spread around the bottle top, I think it will hold up. And I suppose all metal construction would be a bit heavy.

Summary: The Veritical Rabbit does what it is supposed to and does it well. It looks great too. While the price is a bit steap for a corkscrew, if you enjoy wine and gadgets, I think you will find it to be worth it.

I bought this one a year and a half ago to replace an older model Rabbit which died after many years. It looks great and worked OK at first (although it does feel a lot flimsier that the original), but after several months it became sporatic, sometimes opening fine and sometimes not. Now, after a year and a half and less than 100 corks total, it either pushes the cork into the bottle or merely pushes the corkscrew in and out of the cork without removing it. I have gone to the Metrokane website and followed their instructions carefully. I also called them, but the phone message just refers you to their website. They say most defects are due to operator error, but I have been using their product for over ten years and I don't think it's me!

This is a great product, and much, much easier to use and smaller than the original version of the Rabbit. You simply slip it over the top of the wine bottle, hold it in place to grip the top of the bottle, depress the lever to place the screw into the cork, and then lift the lever to remove the cork. Very easy to do. Then you lift it from the bottle and cycle the lever again to remove the cork from the screw. It has worked flawlessly for several months now.

The foil cutter provided with it, on the other hand, is pretty much worthless.

The vertical rabbit is a unique device in that it stands nicely and can be left on a side table without looking bad and avoids taking up a bunch of space in a drawer. This rabbit works well with natural and synthetic cork. The only thing that will create a problem is occasionally we put a bottle of white in a freezer to chill it. If the cork gets very cold the corkscrew will not easly penetrate or retrieve the cork - so we use a traditional waiters cork screw for that. The action takes a little getting used to and a little muscle, but I am very pleased with it. Would give it 5 stars but the flap on the handle feels a little flimsy so I am not certain how long it will last.

I've been a bartender for over 40 years and have opened literally thousands of bottles of wine with every type of corkscrew known to man. The vertical rabbit is the best corkscrew I've ever used, and every time I use it, it brings a smile to my face with it's ease of use. It extracts the cork and ejects the cork like magic, buy it, you won't be sorry and they make a great gift because of the way they are presented in a plexiglass dome.

I've owned two rabbit style corkscrews (this one and an earlier "three arm" model) and both have suffered the same fate: after a year or two, a piece breaks in the mechanism that positions the screw plunger. This results in the screw going down at a random angle that presses the cork down instead of entering it. The cork pushes into the wine, which has to be decanted, and the corkscrew appears to be permanently broken.

I'm a hobbyist winemaker, and between that hobby and occasional tasting parties, I open more bottles than most people, probably 400 or so a year. My most recent rabbit model (the one here) lasted exactly 14 months, so I estimate perhaps 500 corks. It's possible that replacing the screw wire earlier would help, but I have no real indication of that.

Apart from reliability, how well does it work? Great -- as other reviews note, you simply clamp the sleeve over a bottle, swing the arm in and back out, and the cork pops out. In my experience, the corks never break and they come out cleanly and looking nice if you like to save them.

There are occasional issues with some bottles and corks: flared-rim bottles can be a problem (and may not even fit, if the lip is very wide). Also, if the cork is extra long, as with some high-end Italian wines for instance, then it may not pull out all the way and a bit of wiggling and tugging will be needed to retrieve it. I don't recommend it for synthetic or agglomerate corks, either, as they can be very tight and might strip the teflon off the wire. Overall, I'd guess that if you drink wines at about $10 or higher, then it should work well for 95% of them.

Conclusion: if you usually open a couple of bottles per week, this should last 5 years or so and serve you well. If you open more than that, it might break sooner than you'd like. I'm going to try a couple of other options before deciding whether to get a third rabbit.

(As for the alternatives: "waiter style" corkscrews are a non-starter for me because they tend to go sideways and break corks. The prong types are way too difficult and tend to push corks in. Fixed screw types (the t-shaped kind) are hard on corks and take too much effort. Swing-arm types are OK although the screws are often too big, so I'm going to experiment with variants there, along with the continuous pull types, that have differing screw mechanisms.)

This is so pretty I leave it out next to my wine rack. Actually, mine is race car red. I bought this one as a gift for my brother because I was so happy with the one I had bought for myself. It moves smoothly and efficiently every time, opening my wine bottle with little effort from me and then ejecting the cork just as simply. I must have opened a hundred bottles with it, each one perfectly.

We have a friend who was always struggling with corkscrews - he no longer does.

I like the foil cutter and the ease of operation of the unit. It easily pulls the corks (synthetic and otherwise) out of wine bottles with no problems. The base of the unit that goes around the neck of the bottle seems a bit flimsy to me, however. I fear for its longevity. But, as long as it is operating, I like that it is easy to use and smaller than the traditional Rabbit.

Having struggled with many other varieties of bottle openers, I was delighted to find one that always works. This one is so easy to use. I am not young and have plenty of strength to get the job done. Very happy with the purchase and my husband and I use it constantly.