5 Hacks To Get Broken Corks Out Of Wine Bottles

It's easy to screw up with a corkscrew — and we've all fallen victim to a broken cork. Perhaps you were waiting to enjoy an expensive old vintage, only to discover its worn-down and brittle cork. Perhaps you'd had a few glasses already, and you fumbled opening the next bottle. Whatever the cause, a broken cork stinks — though still probably not enough to invest in a $1000 gadget that allows you to pour wine without removing the cork.

When breaking out a bottle, wine enjoyers hope for a clean, easy experience, where they can focus their attention on the delicate intricacies of the liquid. A broken cork doesn't just get in the way of reaching the wine — it disturbs the entire tasting. Broken corks can be caused by a number of factors, including the cork's quality, the bottle's age, and the resting environment of the wine, among others.

Though pulling out a corkscrew to find half of the cork still in the bottle is deeply discouraging, there are some quick and simple ways (nowhere near as hard as sabering a bottle of champagne) to retrieve the remainder of the cork and resume the degustation.

A waiter's corkscrew (also known as a wine key) is the Swiss Army Knife of corkscrews. You may recognize it as the wine bottle opener that is most commonly found in a sommelier's suit pocket: a thin, folding corkscrew that uses a double-hinged lever to pull the cork out. These corkscrews are slim and mobile, allowing sommeliers to insert the screw into a cork at various angles. 

To extract a broken cork with a waiter's corkscrew, twist the corkscrew into the cork at a 45-degree angle. This will maximize the screw-to-cork contact area, giving the screw more leverage on a brittle cork. Be gentle as you twist the corkscrew — when a cork has broken once, it's more susceptible to further damage. Place the lever on the lip of the bottle as you would normally, and slowly pull out the cork. If the cork breaks again, repeat the process until it is fully extracted. The more a cork breaks, however, the higher the chance that pieces will fall into the wine, so move gently throughout the process. (Cork in the wine will dampen the tasting experience, but is not the same as the term "corked," used for wines tainted with a particular chemical.)

Another way to remove a broken cork is to insert the corkscrew near the edge of the cork — close to the neck of the bottle — which gives the screw a stronger grasp of the cork. Low-quality corks are weak, and pulling from the center of a weak cork may result in breakage. So, getting at the side of the cork, where it touches the glass of the bottle, will reinforce an easy exit. This hack is not the best option for old, brittle corks, which are likely to break under that strain. Drilling into the side of a brittle cork may make your problem worse, so avoid this method for older bottles.

This can be done with the same waiter's corkscrew, though other varieties of corkscrew may also work for this method. The benefit to using a waiter's corkscrew is that its minimalist design allows you to see exactly where the screw is going.

Perhaps the most sophisticated hack on this list, a butler's thief is a common instrument for a sommelier to have in their toolbox. A butler's thief consists of a handle with two thin prongs that span the width of a wine bottle's neck. To use this bottle opener, slide the two prongs into the bottle on opposite sides of the cork. Slowly rock the device back and forth, wedging the prongs down between the cork and the bottle. Once you have enough cork covered, gently twist and pull. This tool is especially useful in opening old vintages, because as a bottle ages its cork begins to decay and attach to the sides of the bottle. The butler's thief separates the cork from the bottle, and the pressure from the two prongs keeps the brittle cork intact. When a cork breaks, the butler's thief can extract the remainder while mitigating the risk of further breakage.

Though some ultra-professional versions of this tool may be expensive, most are quite affordable, like this DeVine Wine Opener for Vintage Bottles from Agog.

If you don't have a wine key or butler's thief at the ready, a knife can also be used to release a broken cork. A butter knife is best for the task because it is thin and the dull edge poses a lower risk of injury. To use a knife to get at the leftover half of a cork, you will begin by inserting the knife into the cork at an angle, just like you did with the waiter's corkscrew. You can try to wedge the cork out as best you can from its attachment to the bottle, but this risks further breakage, particularly with brittle or low-quality corks. If that doesn't work, mimic the movement of the butler's thief, spinning the bottle while pulling gently up on the cork. Because this method involves sharp objects, be extra cautious as you work the cork out.

This is the most barbaric of the methods — but if it works, it works. When push comes to shove, sometimes all you can do is shove. If you've tried other methods and nothing seems to work, take a thin, blunt object that can fit into a wine bottle (like the handle of a wooden spoon), and push the cork down into the liquid.

Trust us, we know it hurts to see a cork cannonball into a beautiful bottle of wine. Luckily, there are still some ways to salvage it. First, pass the wine through a fine sieve. Though it may be annoying to add an extra step, this will actually initiate the aeration process. You can then use a decanter to remove any cork bits. Once the wine is in the decanter, the wider mouth will make it easier to scoop floating bits of cork from the wine.

Though plunging a cork into the bottle may feel like a complete betrayal of everything you know about wine, it is much better than ditching the bottle entirely. Plus, it's nowhere near as bad as the wine-opening shoe hack that some suggest.