At Wine Insiders, we find some wine newbies underappreciate the importance of effectively opening and pouring their wine.
Eager to enjoy the bottle they’ve selected for the given meal or occasion, these uninitiated drinkers all too often compromise their vino, improperly serve their guests, or hamper their overall experience.
To help you avoid these classic mistakes, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to make the ultimate opening and pouring techniques too simple to avoid.
For our easy-to-follow tips on serving wine like a seasoned veteran, enjoy our introductory Guide to Opening and Pouring Wine:
How to Open Wine
Now that you understand why it’s so critical to open wine correctly, let’s dive into our step-by-step guides for opening wine like a sommelier.
This section will focus on opening with a standard waiter’s corkscrew — arguably the most common type of wine opener — and without one:
The standard waiter’s corkscrew is the vino lovers ultimate tool.
Thanks to excellent craftsmanship, this handy, portable device allows you to safely open your bottle without harming you or your wine.
To use it properly, here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Use the Opener’s Blade to Cut and Remove the Foil
Cut slowly, starting near the neck-end of the foil. Be careful not to harm yourself.
- Line Up the Screw Directly above the Cork
Keep a firm grip on both the bottle and the opener.
- Gently Screw Clockwise into the Cork
Don’t feel the need to force the screw down to the very end of the cork.
- Attach the Opener’s Lever to the Lid of the Bottle
The lever is the final “step” (component) of the opener — i.e., the non-corkscrew or
- Slowly Lift Up the Cork
Be careful not to pull too aggressively and risk damaging yourself or the bottle.
Opening wine without an opener is not recommended, but it’s a common predicament practically all wine drinkers encounter at one point or another.
Using our experience and expertise, let’s break down two ways to safely open wine sans opener without compromising your vino:
This method requires a long screw, a screwdriver, and a hammer.
After removing any foil, carefully use the screwdriver to twist the long screw into your bottle’s cork. Make sure the screw is firmly in the cork, leaving ~one inch of it exposed.
Once you complete this step, use the back of your hammer to slowly but forcefully pull the cork from your bottle.
This method may sound counterintuitive, but it can work in a jam.
You’ll need a wooden spoon, or another long, thin and dull object, and a newer bottle of wine — corks in older bottles tend to crumble with this technique.
After removing all foil from the cork, use your object to fully push the cork down into your bottle.
While not ideal, this will allow you to pour from your bottle of wine with the cork still inside.
Wine Insiders Tip: DON’T use even a remotely sharp object for this method. No bottle of vino is worth a trip to the emergency room.
The Importance of Properly Pouring Wine
Just like opening a bottle, pouring wine requires effort, care, and the proper technique.
After all, once you smoothly remove the cork from your bottle, the last thing you want to do is let down yourself or your guests with a weak, heavy, or messy pour.
Weak pours shortchange your guests, heavy pours over-serve them, and messy pours disrupt the ambiance of your event, leading to a panicked blur of paper towels, trash bags, and wasted vino.