Opening the Bottle

opening the bottle is an important and potentially difficult operation for bottles sealed with a cork. A wide range of corkscrews is available for opening bottles of still wine. See closures for details of alternatives to cork, most of which are much easier to remove and need no special equipment.

If the cork proves too recalcitrant for a corkscrew, the cork should simply be pushed in, if possible, and the wine poured out of the bottle, possibly into a jug, while the cork is held down with a long, thin instrument. See port tongs for one way of opening bottles with very old corks.