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Frank Schoonmaker

Frank Schoonmaker was born on August 20, 1905 in Spearfish, South Dakota. In

1925 Frank left Princeton University where he had studied for two years and

went off to see the world. He headed for Europe and wandered about for several

years as an early day

“

Hippie.

”

He first wrote a book about surviving cheaply in

Europe but after he had toured a lot of wine country, his knowledge of wines

and expertise in the subject grew.

Schoonmaker got to know winemakers, exporters, and importers worldwide and

soon became a well-recognized, respected member of the wine community. He

wrote extensively about the subject for many years and in the year before his

January, 1976 death, his

Encyclopedia of Wine

was published.

Here

‟

s some of what Frank said about corkscrews:

Corkscrew - Device for pulling corks: in its

simplest, traditional form, a wire spiral

attached to some sort of handle. But there are

literally hundreds of diverse and ingenious

modifications today, some admirably efficient,

some wholly worthless.

A wine-drinker, in choosing a corkscrew,

should keep in mind that the screw itself, or

worm or mèche, is far more important than all

the elaborate, silver-plated or wooden levers or

double-levers, or reverse helixes, which are

supposed to bring out the cork with a minimum of effort. All are

pretentious and ridiculous unless the screw itself is properly designed.

He goes on to describe the best type of worm and the features of prong pullers

and cork ejectors. The book has details on thousands of wine terms, wine types,

wine tools, and related items. It should be in every wine enthusiast

‟

s library.