Saturday 11 January 2014

Opening Wine without a corkscrew


I've not seen this technique before, but apparently it works because of the pressure hits the wine, that hits the air and the air pushes the cork out. Rather neat I think, and not likely to cause damage.

Just to note: people have done tests on corks vs alternative stoppers and broadly speaking, for young drinking wines screwcaps are just as good as corks, don't need a corkscrew and don't have the problem of cork taint that natural corks can get. The writer Jancis Robinson has a comprehensive article about the ups and downs, if anyone's interested.

5 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Assuming that's not a trick, that is quite impressive.

Alternatively, push it in with your thumb. The key is to just use the last joint of your thumb, i.e. bend it at the knuckle and press on the knuckle with your other hand.

Now… how about the claim that you can remove a cork from a wine bottle using a plastic bag?

Tim Almond said...

It's real according to people on snopes forums.

That's a neat trick about the plastic bag.

There's also opening a champagne bottle with a sword

Bayard said...

You'd have to check that the wine hadn't thrown a sediment first, unless you like drinking cloudy wine.

Tim Almond said...

Bayard,

Agreed. For something off a supermarket shelf, probably OK. For your vintage port, probably not.

James Higham said...

There's one with a shoe too I believe.