I wished I’d looked up how to do this before I tried it, but I was in a hurry and didn't think about safety. It looked simple, but I was using my sister’s knife, which was pretty sharp, and I cut myself slightly. I just tried chipping the wax or wax/plastic seal off.
The best way to open them is to stick your corkscrew through the wax and pretend it’s not there, said Dr. Vinifera or Dr. Vinny. But you need to use a waiter’s corkscrew, preferably one that isn’t coated with Teflon.
Estimate where the center of the cork is, put in your corkscrew, and before you make the final tug to get the cork out, brush off any stray bits of wax so they don’t fall into the bottle.
See “Ask Dr. Vinny” for more information.
