You have a bottle, no corkscrew, and people waiting. Here are seven methods, ranked by how well they actually work — plus two that circulate widely and shouldn't.
A word before you start: the cork is wedged in glass under compression, and glass under stress breaks. Take the extra thirty seconds. A cut hand is a much worse evening than a closed bottle.
1. The screw and claw hammer
Works reliably. Best option if you have a toolbox.
Drive a long wood screw two-thirds of the way into the cork, leaving enough proud to grab. Hook the claw of a hammer under the screw head and lever it out slowly and straight.
This is genuinely just an improvised corkscrew, which is why it works. Use the longest screw you have — short ones tear out of the cork's core.
2. The shoe method
Works, but slowly, and it isn't as safe as the internet suggests.
Put the base of the bottle inside a flat-soled shoe, hold it firmly, and strike the sole against a solid wall — brick or concrete, never plaster. The shock wave travels through the liquid and walks the cork out a few millimetres per hit. It takes twenty or thirty strikes.
The risk nobody mentions: this relies on hydraulic shock, and the bottle base takes it. Older or thinner bottles can fail, usually at the punt. Keep your face away and stop if you see any change in the glass.
3. The wooden spoon (push it in)
Always works. Ruins the bottle for storing.
Press the cork down into the wine with the handle of a wooden spoon. It will drop in with a splash. Pour through a strainer to catch the crumbs.
Fastest, most reliable, and completely irreversible. Fine for a bottle you're finishing tonight. Not for anything you want to re-seal, and not for anything you care about — you cannot get that cork back out.
4. The serrated knife
Works on synthetic corks. Poor on natural cork.
Push a thin serrated knife into the cork at a slight angle, then twist the knife and the cork together, drawing upward as it turns. Synthetic corks grip the blade and come out in one piece. Natural cork tends to shred.
Keep the blade in the cork, not against the glass, and keep your other hand off the neck.
5. Bicycle pump with a needle
Works well. It is also, revealingly, exactly how a gas opener works.
Push a ball-inflation needle through the cork until it clears the underside, then pump slowly. Pressure builds beneath the cork and walks it up the neck.
This is the same principle as a proper needle-and-gas opener, improvised. Two differences worth knowing: you're pumping ordinary air, which contains oxygen, and you have no way to meter how much goes in. Pump gently and stop the moment the cork starts moving.
6. The key or screwdriver
Works badly. Use only if nothing else is available.
Insert a long key or screwdriver at a 45-degree angle, push it most of the way in, then rotate the bottle while pulling gently upward. The cork turns with it and gradually climbs out.
Expect it to take several minutes and expect cork in your wine. It's the method of last resort.
7. Warm the neck
Physics is sound. Practice is fiddly.
Warming the glass at the neck makes it expand very slightly and raises the pressure of the air between wine and cork, easing the cork upward. A hot cloth wrapped around the neck for a minute or two is the safe version.
The version you'll find in videos uses a naked flame from a lighter, rotating the neck constantly. It does work. It also heats glass unevenly, which is how glass cracks. If you try it, rotate continuously, never hold the flame still, and don't do it with a cold bottle straight from the fridge — the temperature difference is what causes failures.
Two methods we'd skip entirely
Pushing the cork with your thumb
You will not generate enough force to move it, and pushing hard on a bottle neck is a good way to end up in A&E if the glass gives.
Smashing the neck
It appears in sabrage videos and is a completely different technique performed on sparkling wine, where internal pressure does the work along a specific seam. Attempting it on a still bottle produces broken glass and glass in the wine.
If the cork is already stuck or broken
Different problem, different fix.
Cork broken with part still in the neck. Go in beside the remaining piece at an angle rather than through its centre — the middle is already compromised. If half or more remains, a two-pronged "ah-so" opener slid down both sides is the right tool.
Cork pushed into the bottle. Nothing gets it out intact. Either decant through a fine strainer, or use a cork retriever — three wire hooks that go in, catch the cork and draw it back through the neck.
Cork crumbling as you work. Stop pulling. Every further attempt makes it worse. Push the remains in and strain.
The real answer, for next time
Every method above is a workaround, and every one of them risks the cork, the wine, or you. The reason they circulate so widely is that traditional openers fail often enough for people to go looking.
If broken corks are a recurring theme rather than a one-off emergency, the cause is usually the opener rather than the bottles. Screw-based openers grip the core of the cork and drag it against the glass, and older corks aren't strong enough to take it. We wrote about why in the complete guide to wine openers.
An opener that lifts the cork from underneath with gas doesn't grip it at all, which is why fragile corks tend to survive. The Cork Pops Legacy is $34.50, has a foil cutter built into the cap, and comes with a cartridge good for 60–80 bottles. We've been making them in California since 1961.
Keep the wooden spoon trick in reserve regardless. Everyone needs it eventually.
Frequently asked questions
What is the safest way to open wine without a corkscrew?
The screw-and-hammer method, if you have both. It's a genuine corkscrew substitute rather than an improvisation that stresses the bottle. The wooden spoon is the safest of all if you don't mind losing the cork.
Does the shoe method actually work?
Yes, but slowly — twenty to thirty strikes against a solid wall. It relies on hydraulic shock through the base of the bottle, so there is a real risk of the glass failing on older or thinner bottles.
Can you open wine with a lighter?
Yes. Heating the neck raises the pressure inside and pushes the cork up. Rotate the bottle constantly, never hold the flame in one place, and never do it with a bottle straight from the fridge — uneven heating is what cracks glass.
Is it bad to push the cork into the bottle?
Not for the wine, no. Strain it as you pour to catch fragments. You just can't re-seal the bottle afterwards, so finish it that evening.
How do I get a cork out that's fallen into the bottle?
A cork retriever — three wire hooks that catch the cork and draw it back through the neck. Otherwise decant through a fine strainer and leave the cork where it is.