Welcome to Vine Geeks, where Brian Reeder and Pavle Milic of AZ Wine Merchants take the drinking game quite seriously. Pay attention -- you might just learn something.
Many times, I've needed to crack a bottle of wine and found myself without the means to do so -- or so I thought. In reality, there are many ways to break open that delicious bottle, and many of them don't need to shatter the bottle or leave broken glass embedded in your arm! Here are a few 'how to' videos for opening a bottle of wine without the beloved corkscrew.
With a Sharpie Sanitary? Probably not. Using a Sharpie pen to open a bottle of wine seems like the equivalent of using Kool-Aid to deglaze a pan . . . probably not adding the right flavors. But, you can't argue with results, and this guy gets his glass of wine -- albeit with a touch of Sharpie flavor infused.
With your shoe I love this one. A drunken Frenchman manages to wow his audience and get into the bottle against all odds, and with his shoe. I've tried this one and it does work -- just be careful you don't break the bottom of the bottle off in the process!
With your toolkit Just step away from your dinner guests and into the garage for this one, it's surprisingly easy and certainly effective. Be sure you use a screw that is shorter than the cork (or rather you don't pass through the cork and into the wine) or you'll have a little added metallic quality to your wine.
With a knife DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. You'll ruin your kitchen knife. And possible bleed out while the ambulance is on the way. If you must try it, use a bottle of bubbly, do it outside -- while sober -- and use something aside from a knife. The bottle still may explode, but your death count should still be pretty low. AGAIN, do not try this at home!
With a pen and an apron This is clearly an old server trick that I never learned. I am most impressed that the guy manages to get the cork out with the apron -- I suggest using a clean towel at home and trying this in private once or twice before using it as a party trick.
My advice for any of the above -- experiment on a bottle you don't care about rather than trying it on a bottle you actually want to drink! Also, first try these over a sink or outside, unless you want to clean red wine off the carpet, like I did . . .
