How To: Get a Cork Out of an Empty Wine Bottle

by kelleymarie

184K25252

Intro: How To: Get a Cork Out of an Empty Wine Bottle

Getting a cork out of an empty wine bottle is not only easy, it's a fun parlor trick to share with everyone. 

Every once in awhile, in the pursuit of a glass of wine a cork breaks or perhaps you've found yourself without a corkscrew and pushed the cork into the bottle yourself--no matter what the case, you now have a cork in your wine bottle. It may seem impossible to remove it, but with one simple item--a plastic shopping bag--you can remove the cork in a matter of minutes. Keep reading to find out how.

STEP 1: Materials

You'll need:
  • Plastic Grocery Bag (without holes)
That's it! Simple. It can be an old produce bag, a take out bag, whatever you've got laying around. The only requirement is that it doesn't have any holes. 

STEP 2: Insert the Bag

Starting with the closed or sealed end of your plastic bag, feed it into your empty wine bottle. Continue to push the bag inside until the portion of the bag thats inside the bottle is longer than the cork.

STEP 3: Orient the Cork

Maneuver the wine bottle until the cork is sitting vertically--parallel to the neck of the wine bottle. Your cork should be nestled in the bottom of the opening. 

STEP 4: Fill Your Bag

Blow air into the bag, inflating the bottom of the bag inside the wine bottle around the cork. 

STEP 5: Pull

Grasping the bottom of the bag that is sticking out of the wine bottle, pull gently. As you pull the bag out of the bottle, the pressure will increase in the end of the bag, around the cork. Your air filled bag should grab the cork and pull it out of the bottle with the bag. 

This step can take some patience. Go slow and make sure your air filled bag is grabbing the cork. 

STEP 6: You're Done!

Congrats!  You can also perform this trick with a napkin, but it's a little harder without the air pocket to grab on to the cork. Recycle or up-cycle that wine bottle however you'd like!

43 Comments

GreggF8 2 years ago

Worked like a charm. Once the cork was “captured” inside the bag, I quickly flipped the bottle 180 degrees and used a takeout chopstick end to position the bag so it enveloped the bottom of the cork. Using a “back and forth” motion (if you pull straight out the plastic could stretch and break) I gently pulled the cork out. Thanks!

Tinyyorky 3 years ago

This worked perfectly, the only thing I would add is after blowing up the bag and securing the cork in the right position you may need to let a little air out in order to get it moving! Took about 5 mins but worked a treat, thanks :)

avanderveen 3 years ago

The bag ripped while I was trying to get the cork out, but it jammed the cork in the neck so that I was able to get it out with a corkscrew.

ethalfrida 5 years ago

A produce bag worked for me. The shopping bag didn’t. Such a cool trick!

bob_the_builder21804 7 years ago

I've been making my own wines, so I reuse/recycle wine bottles. I've only accidentally pushed the cork inside the bottle once so far, but hat to throw a bottle way when I can reuse it.

brreed 8 years ago

To get a cork out of a wine bottle. Sheesh.

moraisecastro 8 years ago

That's only useful if you are going to use the bottle again. Otherwise is a sterile exercise...

synthdust 10 years ago

This is pretty, neat, but I agree with 'moraisecastro' here, what is the point?

stereo123 10 years ago

The point is being able to do it. I had the need once, wish I knew about this :/

mauriceh 7 years ago

First try. got the cork to the neck of the bottle, and at that point the bag broke.
Then I just took a corkscrew and the cork came right out.
Magic!
Thanks

DeborahW53 7 years ago

This was so helpful! I poured out all the rest of the wine, filtering all the tiny and not-so-tiny bits of cork through a coffee filter set over a strainer set over a pitcher. But I really wanted to pour the rest of the wine back into bottle, "recork" with a reusable wine stopper, and enjoy the rest of the wine with tomorrow's dinner (duh! I really can't understand those who don't see the utility of this trick/never consumed less than a full bottle at one sitting). At sny rate, I guessed that there was a physics-based solution to this problem. Thank you so much!

JasmineB31 8 years ago

hey! this was a great idea! we had a beautiful wine bottle and we qanted to use it but couldnt because of the cork inside it but we tried this and it works wonders! thanks :)

mattclary 10 years ago

I'd like to try a little Vaseline in the neck, put the bottle in the freezer. Take the bottle out, ensuring the cork falls into the opening of the neck. Warm the bottle, that should force the cork farther into the neck. Once far enough that it will stay in place, put the bottle in boiling water.

stephenp5 8 years ago

I thought this was going to be the way it was done to be honest. Great party trick :-) Thnx

Kinnishian 10 years ago

Talk about glass explosion...wine bottles have a low pressure threshold, be careful.

CEVMarauder 10 years ago

If the pressure from shoving the cork into the full bottle didn't blow it, it's not likely to explode before the cork gives way.

But we won't know until we test it. Lemme go get a couple bottles of wine and my goggles. FOR SCIENCE!!!

Anarchaic 10 years ago

Try that as a bar trick!

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