How to Open a Wine Bottle Without an Opener?

.Wine is a very popular drink and it is often served during special occasions. We all know that a wine bottle should be opened with a wine opener. But what if you don’t have one? Don’t worry, we will show you how to open the bottle using common household items.

Opening a wine bottle without an opener is not as hard as it sounds. In this article, we will explore some of the most popular methods for opening wine bottles and see which ones work best and which ones don’t work so well. This skill is sure to be useful in emergency situation when you don’t have a wine opener available.

4 Simple Ways To Open A Wine Bottle Without A Corkscrew

Some wine bottles come with a matching opener. However, if you have to open a wine bottle and have no bottle opener, then do not worry. You can try the under mentioned techniques for opening your wine bottle anyway.

1. Open wine bottle with a Lighter

The lighter is one of the most underrated items in your toolkit. It can be used for all sorts of things, like lighting candles, starting a fire, or yes, even opening a bottle.

To open a sealed wine bottle, you can use your lighter.

1. Open the wrapper around the cork if any.
2. Light up the lighter and move it around the bottle mouth slowly to make the glass expand and loosen the cork or cap grip.
3. Once the cap or cork is quite loose, it can be pulled open by any tool like a spoon or screwdriver and finger pressure.
4. Sometimes the cork or cap may be too tightly sealed, and the lighter’s flame may not be enough to open up the bottle quickly, and you may start losing patience.
5. But hold on, by getting mad, you will only spoil your camping or outdoor night. Get a grip over yourself and refrain from doing a clumsy job, breaking the wine bottle, and losing all that precious wine!

Also, be aware that alcohol is flammable. Don’t put that bottle over the campfire. If you put your bottle on a large flame-like that, you will certainly see it explode to catch fire!

Using a bigger flame like that of a gas stove, may make your job easier. If you are camping outdoor, someone may be carrying a portable gas stove, or you can build a small fire. Once you have the desired flame size, you have to rotate the bottle mouth over the flame with due caution. Soon the glass grip over the cork will loosen enough to pull it out with a handy tool.

2. Open wine bottle with a spoon

1. If you have a wine bottle with a skirted metal cap on top, then you may as well open it with a spoon with little or no heating.
2. The metal body of the cap extends to become thin. The spoon can be used to pull the cap away from the thin clasp.
3. As the clasp loosens with air entering in, it eventually becomes easier to pull away from the entire metal cap.

3. Open wine bottle with a screwdriver

1. You can open a cork or small tin cap over the bottle mouth with a screwdriver.
2. First, roll the bottle mouth over a right sized fire flame.
3. Soon enough, the glass expands and the clasp loosens.
4. You can insert a screwdriver between the cap and the bottle surface to pull away the cap using your fingers.

4. Open wine bottle with a key

Several keys have slits that are designed to open soda or wine bottles.

1. If you have a key with a slit, then fit the slit over the cork or cap. Then, apply pressure with your fingers.
2. Finally, pull back the cap to open the wine bottle.

Do remember, if your wine is of the fizzy type, then you can avoid spilling by keeping an eye on the fizz and managing the pressure while applying your tool.

Let’s also check the bottling of wines, why is it important and why they seem so difficult to open.

Bottling preserves wines

• Once the wine is bottled, it is preserved by corking the bottle or fixing a metal cap so that there is no interaction of wine with the outside oxygen.
• Oxygen is a reactive gas that interacts with wine elements. Hence, before corking the bottle should be vacuum sucked, and add some inert gasses to increase the shelf life of the wine.
• Some wines like champagne are fizzier than others as the interacting yeast produces carbon dioxide. However, carbon dioxide only adds to the fizz and is not reactive and does not spoil the wine.

Shelf life of wine

• The shelf life of an unopened bottle of wine can be one to two years and even three years, depending on the type of wine.
• Red wine has a very long shelf life.
• However, once a wine bottle is opened, it is best to consume it within three days, unless you have a bottling machine to bottle it back the way it was done initially.
• It is best to pour out the wine in glasses and drink from them rather than drinking directly from the bottle.
• Wine bottles should be stocked in a cool, dry place away from direct heat or sunlight.

The long shelf life of wine in the tightly capped bottles makes them an ideal gift for several occasions. If you have extra wine bottles, you can always think of gifting them at office parties, wedding anniversaries and other family or formal celebration occasions.

Different ways of sealing wine bottles

• Wine bottles are tightly sealed with cork or cap to make them airtight and are difficult to open by hand.
• To seal the wine bottle with cork, a half conical cork stopper is inserted at the mouth of the bottle. Using a bottle sealing device the cork is plugged tightly into the wine bottle mouth to prevent any passage of air inside.
• Wine bottles can also be sealed using skirted metal caps or small metal caps used in soda and cold drink bottles.

Conclusion

So, don’t worry even if you are out on a picnic and simply don’t have a corkscrew with you. There is still hope! In this article you have learnt a really handy skill for emergency situations.

Check these unique needle wine openers that not only open the bottle easily but also help to preserve a partially opened bottle for future use.