Prakash Bastola Khursanitar, Kathmandu I agree, they can be a problem. I avoid using my normal corkscrew (a screwpull lever device) because the worm (the technical term for the screw bit) is coated with teflon to make it easier to get it in and out of the cork, and plastic corks tend to strip this teflon layer off. So I use a good old fashioned corkscrew and pull hard. It won�t be a solution for everyone, though, because it does require a good deal of effort. This is where a �waiter�s friend� style of corkscrew, which has a bit on the side that acts as a lever against the lip of the bottle, could come in handy. The good news is that the newer synthetic corks are much easier to extract than their predecessors. Unfortunately, there�s no way of knowing what sort of cork is in the bottle when you buy it.