# How do you open a wine bottle without a corkscrew? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721 "2004-10-23T01:52:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/41 "2004-10-24T02:43:18Z")
Actually, a waiter’s corkscrew looks like [this.](http://www.barparts.com/Waiters+Corkscrews.html)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/42 "2004-10-24T04:12:14Z")
Hasn’t anyone here read Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Cask of Amontillado”? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/43 "2004-10-24T04:13:22Z")
> [@chula](#): > > That’s for champagne bottles. It works because the cork sticks out of the bottle. With a wine bottle, you’d have to break the glass - not easy or suave. Nah. I’ve sabred all sorts of bottles, cordial, wine etc. Back of a breadknife works fine. ---
**Author:** ![fighting\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ac8455/32.png) [@fighting\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fighting_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/44 "2004-10-24T15:49:31Z")
[Arouse a pig.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_060.html)😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/45 "2004-10-24T19:11:00Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > For those not corkscrewey savvy-it has a screwin dingus on top, which lifts two handly parts on either side. When you’re screwy, push the handly parts down and you’re ready for some vintage MD20/20. Actually, you’re describing a butterfly/wing(ed) corkscrew. Also, the true spiral corkscrews work better than the auger variety (the ones that look a screw). ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/46 "2004-10-24T20:18:17Z")
I’m not a big fan of butterfly-style corkscrews, though some of them are [very pretty](http://www.themagazine.info/products/-/331.html). IMO the easiest to operate corkscrews are of the [Screwpull](http://www.corkscrew.com/sales_screwpull_pocket.html)-style, where all you have to do is keep turning the handle, and the cork will drive itself out of the bottle and up the worm. No pulling necessary. (Screwpull is a brand, but you can get the same type of corkscrew from [other makers](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002M0K2Y) as well.) Another possibility is to use an [ah-so](http://www.corkscrew.com/sales_monopol_ahso.html) (I’ve never figured out how that name came about), which is made of two spring-steel tines that you wedge in between the bottle and the cork, and then twist/pull to get the cork out. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/47 "2004-10-24T20:30:05Z")
> [@](#): > > [Boring and serious] I wouldn’t recommend drinking any wine that was from a bottle where the integrity of the bottle glass was compromised. Little slivers of glass was how Caligula dispatched of party guests he didn’t like. That said, if you poured it through a paper coffee filter first, you’d probably be OK. [/Bas] Not according to [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/glass.htm). And be it known that not all Swiss army knives have a corkscrew. Mine, for instance, has an auger and a Phillips screwdriver in the two half-spots where one would find a corkscrew. Personally, I would favor any method involving high explosive, but then, I wouldn’t be planning on drinking the wine. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721/48 "2004-10-24T20:50:17Z")
Well, I once openned a bottle of wine with two hotel room keys. You know those funny wine openners that were popular in the early 80s-- the ones with two thin metal prongs about as far apart as a wine bottle top? You use the same principle, but with two keys instead of the metal prongs. It took some patience, but let me tell you… it sure impressed the ladies. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-open-a-wine-bottle-without-a-corkscrew/270721.md?page=2)