Ready for your picnic this weekend? Right! Blanket, MP3 player, bread, cheese, your loving companion. Oh, and the wine of course. As you're setting up camp, the first thing you want to do is uncork your wine and let it breath a bit before pouring the first glasses. There you are on a beautiful hill overlooking gorgeous scenery, ready to open the bottle, but there's no corkscrew to be found. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures, so here are a few methods to try to open that bottle without a corkscrew. Tap and Pull MethodThis first method is the preferred choice when you have absolutely no other tools available. It relies on inertia alone, and provides at least a possibility that you won't break the bottle. The technique is simple but requires patience and some restraint. Essentially you will hit the bottom of the bottle, or more properly, hit the bottom of the bottle against some hard object repeatedly.Find a vertical surface like a tree or a wall and hit the bottom of the bottle against it. Eventually, the pressure of the hits will nudge the cork partially out of the bottle where you can grasp it with your hands, or some implement like pliers, and pull it the rest of the way. There are several issues with this method, not the least of which is that you may simply break the bottom of the bottle. To help avoid that, wrap a towel around the bottle, or provide some other kind of cushion like a book, to soften the hits.The reverse position is also an option, and that involves holding the bottle upside down and hitting the bottom with some firm object. I prefer this method.Screw Extraction MethodHere's your chance to be creative. Find any household tool or implement that looks to be reasonably viable, and work carefully on the cork. Of course, be sure the tool you chose is clean - there's a good chance it will come in contact with your wine at some point.Screws are pretty close in design to corkscrews. If you have one that has widely separated threads, like a drywall screw, you can screw it into the cork and pull. If you don't have a screwdriver, maybe you do have a pair of pliers that can be used to turn the screw, then to pull the cork. If you don't have pliers, see if you have something to increase your grip on the screw before attaching it to the cork, as you'll need a good bit of leverage to pull it out.Knife Twist MethodIf you brought a knife to cut your bread or cheese, you might be able to use the blade to pull the cork from the bottle. The knife needs to be narrow enough to fit inside the neck of the bottle. If you're lucky enough to have a serrated blade, your work may be a little easier because, as you work your way down the cork, the serrations may allow you to grab the rest of the cork and pull it out..This technique involves working the blade slowly and carefully into the center of the cork. Use a rocking motion rather than pushing, so as not to push the cork into the bottle (though I'll talk about that method in a bit). Once the blade is about 1/2 way into the cork, start to twist and pull the cork out of the bottle. Be careful not to pry too hard, as you may end up breaking the neck of the bottle.Wire Pull MethodWires and coat hangers can be called into service as well. You'll need to be able to bend the end of the coat hanger to a hook shape. Once you've got the hook made, slowly push the wire down alongside the cork until the hook end is below the cork. Turn the wire so that the hook can grab the cork, and pull. Your challenge with this method will be in pushing the wire past the cork. You might try putting some of that olive oil on the wire before you insert it.As an alternative to the coat hanger, if you have a few paperclips, you can perform a similar extraction by inserting at least two paperclips around the cork, then pulling them all at the same time.Push MethodThe push method is nearly foolproof, but can be messy... not to mention losing a bit of wine in the process. You can use any number of tools that are narrow enough and have enough heft to simply push the cork into the bottle. Of course, the wine and air in the bottle are already under some pressure, so expect to get splashed when you're successful.To avoid at least some of the mess, assuming you have some tools, cut a hole through the cork so the air (and some wine) can escape as you push the cork.RelaxIn the end, your picnic should be more about the day and your companion, and it's not worth ruining the moment obsessing about opening a wine bottle, or worse - injuring yourself on broken glass, or dousing yourself with red. My suggestion is to try a couple of these alternatives based on the implements you find around you. If you're successful, you'll have a nice bottle of wine to share. If you're not successful in opening the bottle, make sure you're successful in enjoying the beautiful day.
