19 November, 2001

You sabre champagnes, don't you?

Today I have cut the neck of one of our champagne bottles with a true sabre.

You could perceive this as a rather, violent way, but in fact it is just about as historic as champagne itself. It was the hussars of Napoléon who invented the method. Not that many years after the development of the bubbly beverage really took off.

Napoléon - coming to speak of him - always made a visit in Épernay when he headed towards a new campaign to get supplies from a good friend called Moët.

New knowledge on our bottles
The close encounter with the sabre has also led to several until this moment unknown qualities of our bottles.

  • For instance they are strong - all champagne bottles are, they must stand a pressure of six bar at least two years - but apparently not all are that strong.

  • It is rather easy to recognize the joining on the neck of the bottle. This is the weak point of a champagne bottle, so this is the place to hit it hard.

  • The bubbles don't leave the bottle in no time, even you treat it in this rather rough way.

    It is also a question of age and grape variety. The bubbles are typically less aggressive, when the champagne is a bit older, and our bottles happen to be rather venerable for the price. At the moment we sell vintage 2001, which presents you with three years for free. Since the bottle is not more expensive than those, that has only matured the necessary 15 months.

    Finally, according to Alain, the grape variety also matters. Pinot Noir typically produces bigger bubbles than Chardonnay.

    And the sabering of the bottle? Off the cork in one go, of course.

    Faster than a cook's knife
    Now when I have actually tried to sabre with a true weapon, I note, that it is a lot faster, than the cook's knifes, we have been using at parties until now.

    I even think it is a lot less dangerous with the sabre... we have seen several examples of friends who spends a lot of time moving the knife up and down the neck of the bottle, until the cork finally comes off.

    Everybody with just slight experience from a kitchen knows, that you are much more likely to cut yourself on blunt knifes than on sharp ones.

    På dansk

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