How to Open a Bottle of Wine

Before you learn how to open a bottle of wine you’ll need one essential tool, a simple wine bottle opener or corkscrew. They are widely available at most grocery stores and cost around $8-15. You don’t need to get fancy. A simple corkscrew will work just as well as those fancy gadgets. Make sure it has a serrated blade, this will make cutting the foil much easier. Ready to start opening that bottle?

Waiter’s Friend

The ‘waiter’s friend’ or ‘wine key’ consists of a flat housing (often plastic covered) similar to a Swiss army knife with a corkscrew and lever (which doubles as crown cork opener) with either a knife or auto-foiler to remove the foil top of wine bottles and then the cork. Designed to be screwed in to within 1 full rotation before the end of the screw (more will pierce the bottom of the cork and result in extra flotsam on the surface of your wine) before levering out the cork.

You’ll want to master this easy foolproof method.

Place a knife under the lip of the bottle and turn to remove foil.
Position corkscrew in center of the cork and twist clockwise.
Place the first step onto the lip of the bottle.
Lift handle until the cork is halfway out.
Repeat using the second step in the corkscrew, pulling until the cork is almost out.
Use your hand to pull the cork all the way out.
Wipe off any tartrate crystals or sediment with a napkin.

Twin prong cork puller

The twin prong cork puller, also called the Butler’s Friend, is shaped like a large key with a squared oval handle about 5 cm × 8 cm, and two thin metal strips, approximately 10 cm long, 5 mm wide, and 0.5 mm thick, descending in tandem from the center of the handle. The two strips are spread open and then wiggled into the space between the cork and the bottle on either side. Once fully in place, a turn and pull of the handle causes friction to turn the cork and pull it out of the bottle.

Mounted corkscrew

The mounted corkscrew is used by businesses that need to open a large volume of wine efficiently and without waste or breakage. It is a large brass tubular device, fixed at a 45° angle to the bar, with a lever pivoted halfway and extending towards the user. The bottle’s neck is inserted firmly in the lower aperture of the tube and the lever pulled down firmly and steadily to the bottom. This drives a corkscrew into the cork at a regular depth each time. When the lever is returned to its original position it extracts the cork. When the bottle is removed pull the lever to expose the cork at the bottom, it loosens the cork and returns the lever firmly to its starting position, whereupon the cork will then fall out.