Opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew
 

I am currently in BOD and got a couple of bottles of wine from a local shop.

I am now back in the hotel and there's no corkscrew here. I need advice on how to open these without a corkscrew.

I think this is not OT as I arrived this morning on a BA flight. Also, a lot of people here are professional drinkers, so I thought this would be a good place to do some, ahem, research.

Moved from the BA forum.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

Must be a very down market hotel if there's no corkscrew available.

Opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew
 

All you need is a wall and a shoe.

http://m.today.com/food/no-corkscrew-no-problem-how-open-wine-shoe-2D11899299

For your first attempt, I would use someone else's shoe :)

Toothbrush
 

Gently push the cork in with the back of a toothbrush. Gently. Too much pressure can have explosive results.

I travel with one of these on my keyring. I was stopped once at LCY. After they had taken a look at it they let me through.

Palmer

Yup - go with this method, I've used it many times (anything pointy will do, not just a toothbrush). The first glass is a bit awkward to get out, but after that it's fine.

xxxxx

Go back to the shop if it's not too far. They'll usually open it for you.

Go to the bathroom,presuming there is one,take of all your clothes and press the cork down!! That is unless you dont mind having your clothing stained acording to the colour of the wine,offcause.

By the way,I have been in 4 star hotels that did not provide corkscrews,supose it depends on the definition of down market,and to be honest they were not VERY good 4 stars.

Handy, but difficult to use? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yduvl5rxEK0

We had this happen last week, asked the front desk for one.

Spoon not toothbrush.

Yes. Used it twice but it beats a spoon/toothbrush when nothing else is available.

Palmer

I think I found a gift for my father-in-law!

In my experience,spoons tended to divide the the cork into litle pieces,making the wine rather unpleasent to drink,even in the state of inebriation when I have practised this,-but maybe with unenibriated practice its good advice!!

Could maybe be praticiable if combined with the advice abouth using T-shirts or underpants for getting the cork out of the wine,in that case I strongly advice using YOUR OWN,but ofcs. that also rather depends on your state of inebriation,-one tends to use whats on hand,if the need to use is strong enough!!

Opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew
 

Never had this problem with Boone's Farm. You are obviously drinking inferior wine.

I beg to differ,although at the times when I pracitsed this the quality of the wine was not realy imperative,to me it seems that the cheaper corks were easyer to open withouth the correct implement. Although,from the name of your chosen wine,although Im not so familiar with north american viticulture,I might detect a wiff of sarcasm,which in the very serious context of this thread,is certainly not called fore.

Just go down to the bar. They're usually happy to open a bottle for a hotel guest.

Judging from the hotel,and the fact that the hotel was in a rather small town in France,-I think it did not have a bar. Small French hotels generally do not have bars!!

But we're talking wine. And France. Even the smallest French hotel should have a corkscrew!! @:-)

Yeah and shouldn't every passerby on the street have one as well?

OK, just out of sheer curiosity, I bought a bottle of 2 Buck Chuck (or $2.50 rather) and tried this with an old boot of mine. I'm shocked and pleased to report this works. :)

It absolutely works. Did it this past summer at a family reunion.

On a different note... can anyone get a cork out from the bottom of an empty bottle of wine w/out breaking the bottle? Another great bar trick...

I'd guess in this case the front desk would have one. But, i've pushed more than my share of corks down into bottles, be very careful or you'll have a wine bath. I always have my house keys somewhere in my bag and my front door key is perfect.

The best part of this problem is the resulting problem! Since the cork is inside the bottle there is no option but to drink the entire thing!:D

Thus providing a full circle back to the "bugger I'm drunk" thread. :D

Many years ago... 10? I was at a tiny hotel near FCO with a bottle of wine I bought in Rome, wanting to drink it with my then GF before we flew back to the states the next day.

No corkscrew to be had anywhere. We kept trying to break the bottle to get in, but it just wouldn't budge. At no point did we think about pushing the cork INTO the bottle.

I felt stupid years later when I realized that.

Well here in Australia I would just twist the screwtop off.
90% of our wine (including imports) is bottled that way now.

I was going to mention this. Increasingly, you can find GREAT bottles of white with the screw cap, and decent reds with the same. Great red wines still tend to use a cork, but for casual drinking in a hotel room you can usually find something OK that is a screw cap.

And so many NZ pinot noirs now come with screw top thus allowing for great reds also. The only place I have problems now on this score is the USA which seems to have some prejudice against screwtops.

Great find. I was impressed by the demonstration video, as I also have been using toothbrushes and other utensils to press the cork down into the bottle. No more of that! ^

I've pushed a cork down a bottle with disastrous results - I don't recommend it. :eek:

Another time I was in a limited service hotel with no bar, so no place on the property for a corkscrew. I unscrewed the metal hook from a wooden hanger and used that as a makeshift corkscrew. It worked, after a few tries, but I did end up with a few chunks of cork in the bottle.

Wow, that is cool! Although the person in the room next to me may not appreciate me banging on the wall. :D I'll try that on the bathroom door jamb.

The person in the room next door may appreciate a glass of wine :cool:;)