There you are, trying your best to demonstrate your sommelier-like skills when – WHOOPS! (I haven’t used the actual word you’d likely be thinking or saying, so “whoops” will have to do.) – the cork falls into the wine. Now what? OPPORTUNITY! Because this is not that uncommon, and because few people know how to extricate that cork, here’s where you can show off advanced sommelier-like skills. First, gather your equipment: a chopstick and a shoelace or 18-inch piece of string should suffice. Second, tie a healthy-sized knot in the end of the shoelace or string, with “healthy-sized” being just smaller than the bottle opening. Third, push the knot into the bottle and then push it down below the cork using the chopstick. Fourth, pull, bearing in mind that, when the cork emerges 7 seconds later, it will spray a lot of wine . . . a problem when it’s red. And that’s it.
