How do you open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew?
The tricky question in this article’s title may have passed through your mind at some point. Have you ever been traveling or found yourself in some unexpected situation in the company of a good bottle of wine – without a corkscrew? Is it better in cases like this to let your desire to drink it fade away, or to find a solution? Decide for yourselves …
First, a little theory by way of introducing the topic. There are several ways that wine bottles can be sealed besides with cork stoppers. Screw caps are increasingly popular for young wines that are intended to be consumed within a year – for example, in Australia, 85% of wine bottles have screw caps.
One of the other options that comes from the famous Czech tradition of craftsmanship is the vinolok – a stopper made from Czech glass. You may also encounter stoppers made from plastic, and the new Zork plug system. Vintage wines are a special case because they need a long time to mature. They are therefore only sealed with plugs made from the highest quality purely natural cork.
On the internet you can find various instructions or advice on how to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. Without recommending any of them to you, we have prepared an overview of the most common ones.
1. How to open a bottle of wine using household tools
Pliers and a screw:
- Take the screw and twist it into the cork using a circular motion. Let the upper part of it stick out.
- Take hold of the head of the screw using the pliers and pull. When you pull on the screw it comes out along with the entire cork.
Hammer and nail:
- Use the hammer to pound the nail into the cork. Be sure to leave a large enough section of the nail protruding.
- Take hold of the upper part of the nail above the cork and use as much strength as you can to pull it out.
2. Put it in your shoe: the corkshoe method
- Take off your shoe and place it on the ground.
- Put the bottle of wine into it, bottom down.
- Pick up your shoe along with the bottle so that one hand is firmly holding the wine and the other hand holds onto the toe of the shoe.
- Now you need to smack the shoe against the wall. Aim the sole of the shoe straight at the wall and strike it hard several times.
- The blows against the wall will cause the cork to rise up out of the bottle by itself. When it’s about halfway out you can grab it with your fingers and pull it out the rest of the way.
3. How to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew: the key to success is a key
- Place the key on the cork and screw it in. Start by the edge of the bottle’s neck, pushing the key into the cork aiming toward its center. You don’t want it sticking straight out of the bottleneck, but rather angled slantwise.
- Start twisting the key clockwise. It will go more easily if you can hold into the key firmly using a keychain, ring, or something else attached to it.
- Loosen the cork using this circular motion, and you’ll be able to unscrew it from the bottle.
Pushing the cork inside? A common but bad way to open a bottle
What about the experience many of us had at summer festivals when we opened a bottle of wine by using the blunt end of some object to push the cork inside the bottle? Forget about trying this with a good quality wine. The upper side of the cork that was in contact with the bottle’s surroundings could be dusty or contaminated in some other way. If you press it down into the wine you may ruin its taste or aroma.
The correct way to open a bottle of wine
You don’t like to treat wine like this? Neither do we, so we advise you to always use a corkscrew, a lever opener or a specialized planchet wine opener. The last one we mentioned will be especially useful if a bottle of vintage wine is waiting on your table.
While classic corkscrews work by twisting into the cork, the planchet opener only comes into contact with the cork’s outside surfaces – without harming it. The opposing planchets slide into the space between the cork and the bottle and they release it by gradually drawing it out.
In the forthcoming article titled How to open wine like a professional we’ll show you how to do it. But even using professional equipment the job isn’t easy.
Select wines. In your email.
once every month. You can look forward to our recommendations, interesting content, and great offers for your archive for your archive.
By sending an email you agree to the Terms and Conditions for Protection of Personal Data
