Thanks for the updated link. Wow, that is indeed ingenious. Since it's been couple months from the last post, I am curious to know if anyone had actually tried to open a bottle this way? and your result?

I tried and failed, but was banging against the floor as have no vertical wall hard enough to ram against.

I always pack a pocket corkscrew with me on business. It may mean I have a drinking problem, but I'd like to think I don't ^

practice makes perfect......

I can recall, in Italy with the Navy decades ago, using the method (after having seen an Italian do it). The bottle in shoe, bang on wall version likely spreads the impact for a more effective hydraulic effect. I do recall the caveat that accompanies the trick. Use only "new" wine which as been stored vertically, so that the cork will not have swollen from absorption. It must have been in Taranto, where there was not much else to do and the local "vintage" had little to recommend it. Old naval engineers and gunners could probably prove up that the narrow neck of the bottle increases the pressure of the liquid slammed against the cork. The floor is a bad choice. Gravity limits the hydraulic "ram" effect.

I understand the principle but I'm skeptical of the results. I can't read the wine label in the video but it looks like a new dry cork to me.

No, the drinking problem is when you can't open the bottle...semper paratus.