4 Ways to Open a Wine Bottle Without a Corkscrew, According to Wine Experts

All it takes is some household tools and elbow grease!

Reviewed by Dietitian Jessica Ball, M.S., RD

Wine drinkers, we've all been there. You're ready to pop open that bottle of wine, but you have no corkscrew to get it open! In most cases, you might expect that visiting the store to buy a new corkscrew would be the best option, but wine expert Uriah Fulghum and seasoned sommelier Hans Holzmann from Three Sisters Vineyards have our backs with these tricks they've used to open wine bottles in a pinch.

Related: Wine Corks vs. Screw Caps: Which Is Better?

1. Push the cork into the bottle.

Holzmann was rather quick in telling me that his go-to method for opening wine without a corkscrew is to, "just push the cork into the bottle. Take a screwdriver or something else strong and narrow. Then, use a hammer and just bang the cork in." I was advised that you should be careful not to accidentally tap the glass bottle itself. Just carefully hammer a blunt item onto the cork itself. You should also prepare for potential splashing due to the pressure. Despite these required safety measures, Holzmann was confident in his conviction that pushing the cork inward is a surefire solution.

2. Force the cork out with heat.

You may have seen servers using a special tool to open wine bottles called Tenaz do Porto or Port Tongs. You can heat the tongs above a fire and use that heat to crack open a wine bottle (literally) below the cork. One would usually do this with older bottles of wine which are prone to cork deterioration. Fulghum suggests using a similar method to cleanly open any bottle new or old. Start a lighter at the base of the corkscrew to create heat within the bottle. That heat should cause the air particles to expand and slowly push the cork out of the bottle. While using a lighter is a clean method for opening wine bottles, we do suggest performing the task outside with the bottletop facing slightly away from your body to avoid injury.

3. Hit the bottle on a hard surface…with a shoe.

When especially desperate, Fulghum says you should, "Place the base of a wine bottle in the opening of a shoe. Then, hold the bottle and bang the heel of the shoe onto a hard surface." You should do this repeatedly until the upward pressure sends the cork flying. If you are brave enough to try this method, you may want to ensure your bottle is thick and durable before execution. Fulghum also warns us to try this only when outdoors, as the potential for making a mess is pretty high.

4. Bend or break off the outer prongs of a fork.

Have you ever tried opening a cork-sealed bottle with a knife? It's often very difficult to twist and lift the cork with that one, slippery blade. If you have a fork that you don't need on hand, try bending the outside prongs upward or breaking them off completely. Then, Fulghum suggests you "stick the middle prongs into the cork, twist and lift." Holzmann agreed that this works much better than just a knife and can prevent you from having to dig the cork from the bottle.