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VinePair: 8 Ways to Open a Bottle of Wine Without a Corkscrew.
Flawed list
Don’t mention tonging. Most often done for old Vintage Port. It works for any other bottle as well.
I think I’d probably go for the missing item 3A.
Go to 7-11 and buy a corkscrew.
I’ve done the shoe thing quite a few times… takes a while but always a fun party gag especially when you don’t have a corkscrew.
Hold my beer…
I once opened half bottles of Cheval Blanc ‘55, Ducru Beaucaillou ‘61, and Latour ‘62 with a metal nail file and an olive fork.
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Homemade Ah-So?
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Closer to a half Durand I’d say. Nail file down alongside the cork with olive fork at a 45° angle for purchase. Reapply olive fork as the cork is on it’s way out to maintain grip.
I forgot about the ‘81 Ygay, which was lovely! Corks came out fine though did get some splits at the angle of the olive fork. Cheval Blanc just slid out - hard cork.
Does the article say 10 ways? or am i just reading it wrong? 
Please tell me this isn’t really how they open a bottle there. Please.
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Have you never seen port tongs? They’re great. I am sure they don’t open every bottle like that, but if I ordered something old and they offered, I would definitely take them up on it.
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We had a wonderful lunch at EMP last year. Opened several great bottles, Savart, Raveneau, and Unico, and d’Yquem.
The Unico was a 1983, that they offered to do this. I have had old port and d’Yquem opened that way at Berns and a few other places. We politely declined but they really wanted to do it, so we let them.
Wholly unnecessary, but wine was not harmed and other guests seemed to enjoy the show.
They missed one method:
