6 Ways to Open a Bottle of Wine Without a Corkscrew

So you’re all settled in with a bottle of wine for your Netflix night/picnic/romantic date/et cetera, and then you discover that you can’t actually open the wine, because you do not have a corkscrew.

Is there any worse feeling in the world?!

Photo Credit: iStock

But you don’t have to just stare longingly at your closed bottle of wine all night, nor do you have to suck it up and run to the store for a corkscrew. You can open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew, and Reader’s Digest suggests a few useful ways.

The first option is to push the cork into the bottle of wine rather than pulling it out. Be careful, because the wine may shoot up out of the bottle when you push it in.

If you want to avoid getting any cork in your drink, you can make a (very dangerous) makeshift corkscrew out of a pair of scissors. Stick one of the blades straight down into the corkscrew and spread the scissors open. Then grip the center of the scissors and twist and pull.

You can do the same thing with a house key by driving it in at a 45-degree angle.

Photo Credit: iStock

There are a couple more adventurous options, too. The screw method: Hammer a large screw into the cork and leave about half an inch of the screw out on top. Then hook the hammer into the screw and pull the cork out.

My favorite? Use a bike pump.

That’s right, just stick the needle into the cork, pump for a few seconds, and the cork should pop free!

One that’s not on the list, but I’ve always loved how insane it is… try that banging-it-on-the-wall trick that once went viral on YouTube.