How to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew
We’re sure you’ve been caught out at least once needing to know how to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew.
It’s typical when you’re on holiday, staying in an apartment or home you’re not familiar with and, when you go to open the wine, bam! The kitchen has everything but a corkscrew or wine opener. Or it breaks and there’s nothing else to open the bottle with. Or you’ve just misplaced it and can’t find it anywhere. And if you’re far from the shops or they’re all closed...you’ve got a problem.
But don’t worry! If you want to enjoy your glass of wine even though you don’t have an open to hand, here are some tricks (that take more skill than strength in most cases) to resolve the problem whenever it comes up.
Good luck!
Option 1: How to open a wine bottle with a knife
The most important thing here is to choose a knife that is less wide than the cork, so it will fit in the bottleneck, and has a very sharp point.
- Set the bottle upright and slide the knife into the cork halfway (more or less, you’ll have to do it by feel).
- Then try to turn it very slowly, rocking from side to side, to pull it out of the bottle.
- It takes a lot of patience and skill or you’ll end up with pieces of cork in the bottle or cracking the cork in two.
- Pull up slowly and viola, bottle open!
Option 2: Open the wine by pushing the cork into the bottle
One of the most common solutions to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew is to just push the cork into the bottle. Obviously, this isn’t the best option but if you’re going to drink the whole bottle in a sitting, it will get you out of a tight spot!
To do this, you need a cylindrical object without a sharp point, so you don’t destroy the cork as you push it in and break it into a million pieces. If it’s a silicone cork, however, something sharp will do. Take a fat marker or lipstick, for example, and push the cork until it falls into the bottle.
Option 3: Open the wine with a shoe
Did you know you can open a bottle of wine with a shoe? And no, you don’t need a stiletto or something like that. What you have to do, with patience and skill, is:
- Find a flat shoe, without a heel, like a slipper or a moccasin.
- Put the wine bottle in the heel of the shoe.
- Tap the heel against a wall, holding the bottle firmly in your hand. The shoe will cushion the blows, but make sure you protect the bottle carefully.
- Repeat several times, with gusto.
- The cork will push out little by little and, when it’s out about two centimetres, just pull it out with your hand.
If you like these tricks, we’ve got some for removing red wine stains...
Option 4: Open the bottle with a screw
This is the closest thing to a corkscrew for opening a wine bottle.
- All you have to do is screw a long screw into the cork, slowly, nearly all the way in.
- Then, with some pliers on the head of the screw, prise it out slowly, moving back and forth.
- When the cork is partway out, like in the previous options, finish the job with your hands!
Other options for opening a wine bottle without a corkscrew
With scissors
The process with scissors is exactly the same as the one with a sharp knife: put the tip halfway into the cork and turn the handle of the scissors slowly and prise the cork out.
With house keys
Push the tip of a long key into the cork at an angle. Then turn it as you pull upwards. Slowly but surely, and carefully so you don’t break the cork, it will end up coming out.
With a hanger
You’ll need a wire hanger you can reshape, bending the tip into a hook: time to catch a cork! Push it all the way in, through the cork, and then pull up. It will act just like a hook and remove the cork easily.
After all that, did you know our special format wines come with screw tops so you no longer need a corkscrew? For example, El Coto Crianza de 37.5cl.
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