Here's the basic halacha: A Jew is prohibited from benefiting from a מלאכה performed on Shabbos; even when done by a non-Jew. Simple. You are in a completely dark room, someone comes in and turns on the light for you -- thus enabling things that were heretofore impossible (reading, for example) -- you have to leave the room. Simple; I mean, you know, more or less simple in the grand scheme of halacha; which is never simple. Check out this TftD for more on that topic, as well as a bonus story!
This, however, is simple: It is much worse to benefit from a מלאכה performed on Shabbos by a Jew, which is an actual violation of Shabbos. That is the bare halacha. Now, of course, is when the fun starts.
There is a well known difference in opinion regarding unscrewing plastic bottle caps and breaking the seal on Shabbos. The issues are actually quite interesting and depend on some subtle halachic principles. Not for now. The dayan, R' Fuerst, shlita, is stringent and rules that it is forbidden. As a consequence, whenever we acquire such bottles, I spend a few minutes breaking the seal on each bottle before putting it away. I don't open the cap, as that lets (potentially contaminated) air in and "fizz" out. We may not use the contents for some time, so we want them left factory closed with all the fizz intact; we just don't need the tamper seal to be intact. (Some of you may have seen the "Do Not Remove This Tag Under Penalty of Law" tags on mattresses that serve a similar purpose.)
There are reputable authorities, however, that rule leniently. For someone's whose rav follows those authorities, it is perfectly permissible for them to open a bottle of Be'er Mayim Chaim on Shabbos. If I did it, I would be going against the p'sak of my rav, and -- ipso facto -- violating Shabbos. They, however, can open the bottle for themselves and there is no violation of Shabbos. May I ask them to open a bottle for me? Absolutely not! That would be making them my agent, and therefore subject to the same halachic guidelines to which I adhere, and therefore they would not be permitted to open the bottle for me. Even if they choose on their own to open the bottle for me, they are making themselves my agent. On the other hand, if they opened it for themselves, there was no violation of Shabbos. Hence, I am permitted to pour for myself from the bottle.
The metal caps on sparkling grape juice are a different matter. Those caps are actually formed on the bottle. They are not actually usable as caps before the seal is broken. That means that opening the cap on Shabbos is a straight out violation of one of the 39 categories of labor prohibited by the Torah -- מכה בפטיש/final hammer blow; aka, putting the finishing touches on a vessel. Suppose your host cracks that open for kiddush on Friday night? Can you drink that grape juice? Actually, yes. Why? Because you are not benefiting from a מלאכה; you are benefiting from the cap being off. There are ways to remove the cap in a permissible way. That means that even though the host has chosen to violate Shabbos, that violation was not inextricably tied to your enjoyment of the grape juice. You benefited from the bottle being open, but not the violation. This would be similar to someone carrying a key through a public domain -- in violation of Shabbos -- and then opening a shul door. You are allowed to enter the shul.
Now... what about the Shabbos day meal from that same bottle? In this case the vessel -- which was created on and in violation of Shabbos -- was needed to keep the carbonation in the juice. It would have been impossible to have that carbonated beverage without that cap. And you really, really want that carbonation. Now what?
So... there are authorities (we don't follow them in this area) who say the cap is temporary so is it not a vessel. (It is not an opinion that we follow, but it is not out of left field.) Also, be real -- you will drink that flat grape juice. You won't enjoy it as much as the carbonated variety, but you will drink it. Therefore you can still enjoy your Shabbos meal and kiddush, even though your host has done something untoward.
Nonetheless -- if (1) the cap thus created was not meant to be temporary, but used for a long time; and (2) they juice would have turned to vinegar by morning without that cap -- then it would be forbidden for your to use that juice to make kiddush, or even to benefit from your host making kiddush on it.
So please -- just break the seal or crack the cap before Shabbos, or keep some permissibly created caps in the drawer so you can destroy the cap if you forget. Thank you.
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