The Quickest No-Frills Method To Open Wine Without A Corkscrew

It's bound to happen at some point. Maybe you decided a little park picnic was in order, and brought a bottle of wine along for the ride. Maybe you're celebrating a new move with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, but your kitchen supplies are still packed up in boxes. Either way, you're without a corkscrew. So what are you supposed to do?

Luckily, for as long as there has been wine, there have been methods for opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. Some people use drills, keys, or even the back of a shoe to squeeze or smack a cork out. Well here's another method to add to your arsenal, and we think it might be the simplest considering it requires nothing more than a wooden spoon and a little elbow grease. 

Simply remove the foil from the bottle, and press it into the cork with the handle of a wooden spoon until it pops into the bottle. Other blunt household objects would also work, such as a heavy-duty pen, marker, or sturdy chopstick. Some particularly strong folks can even do this with their thumb. You might get sprayed from the reverse pressure, and it's best to drink the wine pronto since you won't be able to reseal it, but this is a handy technique for when all else fails.

Older bottles of wine may not be as well suited to the wooden spoon technique, as old corks have a tendency to crumble. As time goes on, cork, which is a natural substance sourced from living trees, dries out and becomes brittle. This is why you should store already opened wine horizontally so the cork stays in contact with the hydrating liquid. But even if your cork breaks, this can be easily resolved: just pour your wine through a cocktail strainer or coffee filter if you're worried about small pieces of cork dust.

Many people fear that drinking wine with a cork pushed into it will interfere with the taste of the wine, but this common misconception has to do with the term "corked" wine. A wine that has been corked is not one in which the wine has been in contact with the cork, but rather one which has been contaminated by a cork with a certain chemical compound in it.But really most wine is completely fine if it comes in contact with the cork, so grab a wooden spoon push that cork into the bottle, and drink up!