Two Mirkos and the Sabering Record Wars of 2026

by Nello Olivo Winery · Published September 13, 2026

If you have ever wrestled a cork out of a bottle of bubbly and felt quietly proud of yourself, look away now.

On 22 May 2026, at the Winkler sparkling wine house in Cornaiano, a village in the town of Eppan in Italy's South Tyrol, a chef named Mirko Rainer took a saber to 91 bottles of sparkling wine in 60 seconds and set a Guinness World Record. That is a bottle every two-thirds of a second, with a sword, in front of a crowd, for charity.

Rainer is 46, runs two restaurants in Switzerland, and has been at this for a while. He set his first sabering record in 2014 with 64 bottles, lost it the next year, and won it back in 2023 with 68 on the Italian television show Lo Show dei Record.

This spring, according to the South Tyrol paper UnserTirol24, word got around that an American record hunter named Ashrita Furman was planning a run at the title, so Rainer decided to move first.

The bottles were premium Italian sparkling wine, all sold in advance. Afterward the record bottles and the saber itself went to auction, and Kinderherz Südtirol, a charity for children with heart conditions, received 14,275 euros.

A local jury with a regional councillor, the mayor of Eppan and a sommelier counted 96 bottles on the day. When Guinness published the record, the official number was 91. Neither report explains the missing five, and we like to imagine they simply did not want to talk about it.

Rainer told Guinness his technique had not changed since 2023; he had just worked on speed and strength. He also offered a warning worth repeating at any backyard party: the bottles have to be cold, because there are six to seven bars of pressure inside, and warm glass gets dangerous. He says he has never been hurt. Asked about future attempts, he said that if it is for a good cause like charity, why not.

Here is where it gets silly. On 26 August the wine news site Vinetur reported that in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, a dentist named Mirko Bozin had opened 118 bottles of Champagne with a saber in 60 seconds. Yes, another Mirko. He had been hoping for 150. Two notaries watched and documented the attempt.

Bozin skipped Guinness entirely; Vinetur says he did not want registration fees eating into the money raised, which went to Free Go, a group that collects unsold food and puts it in public refrigerators for anyone who needs it.

The Champagne came from Pommery. So the official Guinness record stands at 91, a notarized 118 sits beside it, and two men named Mirko have between them opened 209 bottles in two minutes this year, not one of them with a corkscrew.

We admire the courage. Our own Italian varietals, grown in El Dorado County, are best opened slowly, with the kind of tool your grandfather used. If you want something flying through the air, the closest we can offer is live music at the Camino tasting room, where it is only guitar chords. Bring a friend who has read this and will not stop talking about it.

Two Mirkos and the Sabering Record Wars of 2026

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