A man has shared the ultimate hack for clumsy wine lovers who accidentally drop the cork into their bottle — just as Brits prepare for a scorching bank holiday weekend.
With temperatures set to soar across the UK over the long weekend, many people will be cracking open chilled rosé and white wine in gardens, parks and at BBQs.
But anyone who has accidentally pushed the cork into the bottle knows it can quickly ruin the mood.
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Thankfully, TikTokker Charles Biolo has revealed a surprisingly simple trick to rescue the cork using nothing more than a plastic bag, as reported by Whats The Jam.
The clever hack racked up more than 1.5 million views online, with viewers calling it “genius” ahead of summer drinking season.
When the 25-year-old found himself in the sticky situation recently, he came up with a genius way to retrieve it – by using a plastic bag.
“Without twisting the bag, carefully fold it up such that the bottom eight inches or so can be inserted into the wine bottle,” Charles, a business owner from Chicago, Illinois.
“Unfold the top of the bag around the neck of the wine bottle and blow into the bag, slightly inflating it inside the wine bottle.
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“As it inflates, it will press the cork against the side of the bottle.
“This is the tricky part and may require a few tries.
“Slowly begin to remove the bag from the bottle so that it pulls the cork with it.
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“This takes some finesse, as you don’t want too much air to be trapped as it’s being pulled through the bottleneck which can cause it to pop.
“I found that slowly pulling on the edges of the bag will allow air to escape as the bag is being removed.
“You’ll also want to change where you are pulling on the bag from to try and orient the cork so that it is properly aligned with the bottleneck.
“Once the cork is seated within the bottleneck, you can fully remove it with the bag.”
He shared the video to TikTok with the caption: “Life hack for wine drinkers.”
In the clip, he can be seen pushing a cork into a wine bottle, showing it floating in the water.
He then puts it in a rolled plastic bag, before inflating it with his mouth.
Slowly pulling the bag back out of the bottle, the cork gets stuck in the plastic and slides out.
The post has garnered 762,000 likes and thousands of comments from fans.
Nanda joked: “Or easier, drink it all.”
Efe joked: “Brilliant excuse to drink whole bottle. Cheers!”
Cara quipped: “Nahhh I just leave the cork floating and drink the whole bottle.” [sic]
Treb added: “Or just drink the whole damn bottle.”
Shashank said: “There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I execute this without shattering that bottle or spilling EVERYTHING out.”
Charles added: “There are only a few ways you’d realistically get a cork stuck in the first place.
“You do not have access to a standard corkscrew and are trying to remove a cork using an unconventional method or, more commonly for brewers, you miscalibrated your corking tool.
“Being in the latter situation, I remembered I’d seen methods of using a plastic bag to remove stuck items.
“And thought it might work with a wine bottle… surprisingly, it did!
“I recommend getting a strong plastic bag that has been properly sanitised – avoid dirty produce bags from the grocery store.”
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