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a bottle of wine, but no corkscrew

alacarte

By alacarte
in Wine

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alacarte

alacarte

Posted
Posted

Unbelievable but true -- the Wall St Journal asked the Sommelier Society of America what to do when you're caught sans corkscrew. Here's what they said:

Alternative #1: Drive the cork into the bottle.

"Use a narrow, cylindrical thing -- a tube of [lip balm] ... or the handle of a wooden spoon -- and gently, slowly push it down into the bottle," says Anne Woods, the organization's assistant to the chairman. "Then you have to be creative when you pour it," because when you tip the bottle to pour, the cork will block the flow of wine. So you'll need something long and skinny -- the spoon handle again or a skewer -- to hold the cork back as you pour

Alternative #2: Use a woodworking screw as corkscrew substitute.

it could work like a corkscrew with the help of a screwdriver, Ms. Woods says. Once you've screwed the hardware into the cork, use pliers to slowly wriggle the cork out of the neck. The Sommelier Society instructors admit this is the more difficult of the two methods.

And as an aside, they note to expect "some spillage" with either method, but they say it's better than not having access to your wine at all. (ok - I agree with that one.)

Anyone else have a creative alternative to the corkscrew?

Spice & Ice and more
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KatieLoeb

KatieLoeb

Posted
Posted (edited)

A friend of mine (a former Boy Scout) once used two Volkswagen keys to open a bottle by creating a twin pronged cork puller from the two keys. Genius! And definitely a fine example of preparedness... :biggrin:

My own personal vision of Purgatory involves me being locked in a gloriously well stocked wine cellar with no corkscrew.

Edited by KatieLoeb (log)

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
Captain Liberty of the Good Varietals, Aphrodite of Alcohol

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mappel

mappel

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Posted

Without a corkscrew, I usually push the cork inside the bottle. Theory being that if I'm without a corkscrew, I'm usually without good stemware and usually not drinking anything that would be adversely affected by the part of the cork the wine wasn't already in contact with. This produces less spoilage than cork-damaging methods.

Mark

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annecros

annecros

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Posted

Once when we were dating and on a camping trip, hubby set a screw in the cork and pulled it out with pliers gripping the screw head. I sat on the ground grasping the bottle, and he sort of used me as leverage.

Gotta love a man that never goes anywhere without a toolbox.

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Duncan

Duncan

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Anyone else have a creative alternative to the corkscrew?

Isn't the classic answer just to hit the base of the bottle

?

Recently written about A tale of two cheeks, More SousVide geeky experiments, Eggsperimenting with a Sous Vide Magic, Christmas tasting at Summertown Wine Cafe, UNDER PRESSURE AT PEMBROKE.

For some definition of 'recent'

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Alex

Alex

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Posted
how on earth does one get caught without a corkscrew?!

That was my first thought -- there's a travel Screwpull in both our cars. But then I remembered being at a friends' place when their lever-type corkscrew, the only one in the house, gave up the ghost. If I hadn't kept the Screwpull in my car, it would have been time for Plan B (a difficult choice between pushing in the cork or a trip to the 24-hour Meijer).

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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  • 3 weeks later...
NVNVGirl

NVNVGirl

Posted
Posted
how on earth does one get caught without a corkscrew?!

That was my first thought -- there's a travel Screwpull in both our cars. But then I remembered being at a friends' place when their lever-type corkscrew, the only one in the house, gave up the ghost. If I hadn't kept the Screwpull in my car, it would have been time for Plan B (a difficult choice between pushing in the cork or a trip to the 24-hour Meijer).

I agree~ I keep at the very least, those cheapy hotel corkscrews in every one of my handbags, in my luggage and in my car; you never know when you're going to want to "test" a bottle out in the parking lot of Trader Joe's before going back in to buy a case :wink: .

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Peter Green

Peter Green

Posted
Posted
how on earth does one get caught without a corkscrew?!

That was my first thought -- there's a travel Screwpull in both our cars. But then I remembered being at a friends' place when their lever-type corkscrew, the only one in the house, gave up the ghost. If I hadn't kept the Screwpull in my car, it would have been time for Plan B (a difficult choice between pushing in the cork or a trip to the 24-hour Meijer).

I agree~ I keep at the very least, those cheapy hotel corkscrews in every one of my handbags, in my luggage and in my car; you never know when you're going to want to "test" a bottle out in the parking lot of Trader Joe's before going back in to buy a case :wink: .

The Swiss Army Knife.

Don't leave home without it (although you have to pack it in the luggage now, not in your hand carry).

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NVNVGirl

NVNVGirl

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Oh yeah...I forgot about THAT :rolleyes: . I usually carry one of those in my purse too and I rarely fly, so no need to remove it....I don't know that I've ever actually used it though. But I'm prepared if I ever need it, LOL (and lose all my other corkscrews).

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  • 1 month later...
lala

lala

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I always have a corkscrew in my bag. I panicked one time as we were pulling up to the airport and lunged over the backseat to put it in my checked luggage!

“"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing," he said.”

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  • 4 weeks later...
phlox

phlox

Posted
Posted

I pretty much always have a waiters' key on me. It's one of the things that's always in my purse along with Aquaphor for lip balm and Between dental gum.

"An appetite for destruction, but I scrape the plate."

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