Cork Pops Refill Cartridges — 2 Cartridges

Your opener runs on these. Without one it is a very well-made paperweight.

Each cartridge holds a small amount of food-safe, low-pressure inert gas — inert meaning it does not react with the wine and has no effect on flavour or bouquet, and low-pressure meaning the job is to lift a cork rather than launch it. One cartridge opens approximately 60 to 80 bottles.

• Two cartridges per box
• Fit every Cork Pops model ever made — including openers bought decades ago
• Environmentally safe propellant; no effect on the atmosphere or ozone layer
• Long shelf life — a spare in the drawer keeps

That compatibility is deliberate rather than accidental. The cartridge has never been redesigned in a way that stranded an older opener, which is unusual for anything with a consumable in it, and it is the reason openers from the eighties are still in daily use.

Buying more than one at a time is the sensible move: the six-pack works out cheaper per cartridge and covers roughly 400 bottles. If you would rather understand it properly first, here is the full guide to the cartridges.

The vinOstream takes the same cartridge, though because it works differently the number of servings per cartridge differs.

No opener yet? The Cork Pops Legacy is the one these were made for — invented in 1961 and patented in 1964.