You don't have a corkscrew? Use a French wine and a shoe
Here is a mystery regarding French bottles being uncorked and Montalcino bottles remaining still well sealed
Rosso di Montalcino attempted uncorking with shoe
By Donatella Cinelli Colombini
Remove the capsule, get a leather man’s shoe, with a nice hard heel, put the bottle into the shoe so that the bottom of the bottle stands where your heel goes and then hot the bottle on the wall holding it securely in the shoes. Three bangs and it’s done, voila! The cork comes out about a centimeter e and a half and that way it is easy to pull it out with your fingers. Amazing!
On YouTube you can find so many videos with French bottles being opened with shoes- there are even some young Russians doing it – and here I discovered that there are actually two uncorking systems: there are also those who open the bottle by hitting the heel of the shoe on the bottom of the upturned bottle after having removed the capsule. It seems really easy in fact the only worry seems to be not to hit too hard as the cork might shoot out and allow the wine out .
I wonder if it will work with bottles of Brunello, which, to ensure long life to the wine are corked with very thick and long corks. Watching a video on YouTube I realize however that the bottle used for the shoe-uncorking is a Château Haut-Brion. So feeling reassured, if it works with a Premier Cru Classé (First Growth), it will obviously work with the wines from Casato Prime Donne!
My husband Carlo decides to try with our l Rosso di Montalcino, he finds a leather shoe with a low old fashioned heel, a corner of the fireplace with a brick wall and he starts to bang the bottle and shoe. He tries harder, but nothing- In the end, cracked brick, scratched heel and bottle still well sealed!
Uncorking with shoe
I begin to think that our cousins on the other side of the Alps use smaller and shorter corks the we do and with a lot of paraffin. It is also possible that the operation “shoe heel” needs very strong banging and so risks breaking the bottle in you hand, in the end the good old corkscrew is much better!