Opening Your Wine Bottle

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

If you're reading this, there is a decent chance that you are going to be drinking wine with your Thanksgiving meal today. And, if that's the case, you need to open the wine properly. Failing to do so can cause accidents including ... no, don't say it ... wine spillage.

For purposes of this post, I am going to assume that you are working with a waiter's corkscrew; that is, a double pull corkscrew that comes with a small blade and a hinged threaded screw.

You've decided that you are going to start your guests (depending on who you are and where you live, those may be the people that live in the same home with you anyway) with some bubbly. Opening this is not difficult, but it's likely that you have not been doing this correctly.

First off, the goal is to not make a large pop when the cork is extracted. Instead, you'd like to let the air out without that pop which might cause the Champagne to visit your floor. And, while Champagne might like your floor, please understand that your floor does not, under any circumstances, like Champagne. 

Start with the foil. Cut the foil with the knife or blade from your corkscrew to remove it. Once that is removed, you will see a cage surrounding the cork. This cage, technically, a muselet, is placed over the cork to prevent it from inadvertently coming out prematurely due to the high pressure under which the wine is bottled. 

Gently grasp the little circular piece at the end of the muselet. Give it six half turns (yes, six, and because I like math, I am going to lie to you and tell you that it is six because six is a perfect number). After these six half turns, the muselet will have been freed from the cork and you can lift it off.

Next, grasp the cork and hold it steady while you turn the champagne bottle until the cork is sufficiently loosened so that it may be gently removed from the bottle. You will hear and see a little poof, but no large explosion.

For a traditional bottle of wine, use the knife to cut the foil and either remove the entire foil from the bottle (this is proper service, but a pain in the butt) or enough that it will not interfere with pouring the wine. Put the tip of the threaded screw at the center of the top of the cork and hold it about a 30 to 45 degree angle to the cork as you gently insert that tip into the top of the cork. Straightening the corkscrew, turn it clockwise until the last thread is barely into the top of the cork. Place the fulcrum on the lip of the bottle and using the hinged corkscrew, pull the cork halfway out. Then place the end of the device on the lip of the bottle and remove about 40% more of the cork so that it is nearly extracted. At this point, give the cork one or two gentle turns so that it easily extracts from the bottle. No big sound, no spillage.

Now, pour the darn wine; it's about time.