Let the first stone cast by the one who really knows how to open a wine bottle. Correctly. Or without there being home accidents. One of the most common fears among mortals who like wine but are not academically versed in the matter is not knowing how to open a bottle of wine and look like Pleistocene jugs in front of our friends. It seems like an easy task that a sommelier makes you look silly and by following the right steps, it is. With a little logic and respect for that fantastic wine that we have chosen to taste, we will do more than well. And these steps that we share will not hurt.
How to open a wine bottle step by step?
1-Cut the capsule
The capsule is the cap that covers the cork and the top of the bottle. Apart from shine and combine the color with the label, it also protects the cork from enemies that may arise. It is made of plastic and is cut either with the little knife that the corkscrew carries or with an ordinary knife that you have at hand. Please avoid unsuitable items such as pens, spoons or large sharp objects. The cut must be at the bottom of the slit, as you can see in the image.
Important: you only have to cut the upper part, as you can see in the photo. A vertical cut will help you get it out cleanly.
2-Clean the mouth of the wine bottle
This step is dispensable if the bottle is new and was in a safe place, safe from various dirty things. If it is a bottle of wine with years and has been in indeterminate places, it is better to wipe it down out of our reach and imagination.
And that the cloth is clean, please.
3-Insert the spiral of the corkscrew until the last visible thread
This is the moment of truth. You will only need a little pressure and stick the spiral in the center of the cork until you can no longer see the spiral. That is the time to stop or the cap may break, causing a small cork rain.
4-Activate the corkscrew tab and pull up
This is the first of the two movements that will leave us with the cork in hand.
Not everything will come out, we will have to change the corkscrew support flange, but I anticipate the next step.
5-Place the final tab and gently remove the cork
If all is well and we have followed the steps, we have a shiny cork in hand and we have successfully opened a bottle of wine, like the finest of sommeliers. Our friends will be in awe of our ability and it won’t be for less!
6-Smell the cork
You don’t have to be an expert or a winemaker or anything to detect that the wine is dodgy in bad condition smelling the cork. If it smells like damp cardboard, a closed grandmother’s closet or good mold, a bottle of wine contaminated by TCA (an acronym for the expletive trichloroanisole), a fungus that contaminates the cork and other elements of the cellar. Better not drink it and open another.
7-Clean the mouth of the bottle
Like step 2, only applicable to questionable provenances and naked eye crystal detections. As romantic as that fuck is, it doesn’t need to end up in the glass.
And that’s it. Opening a bottle of wine with a corkscrew is not complicated if we follow these steps. To whom you have opened three or four, you will be masters skilled in the matter and you will be able to dedicate yourself to what is important: enjoying that great liquid that the stopper keeps.