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There are approximately seventy pounds per square inch of pressure
inside a champagne bottle. To give you an idea of how much 70 psi is, if you had this much pressure on your entire body it would be about 210,000 lbs. Although you've seen it in the movies,
shaking a bottle of champagne and letting the cork shoot off is both
dangerous and messy. Unless you live for danger, and have a welder's
mask and cleaning crew handy you'll want to go for a more traditional
opening. |
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If the champagne foams or pops, it will lose many of the bubbles that
makes it so good. The following method will preserve that bubbly
goodness. |
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Opening champagne is not as hard as it sounds. Although there is
some
skill involved, it's easy to learn and impresses when you've mastered
it. Start by peeling off the foil protecting the cork. Put your thumb on the cork as a kind of insurance, keeping the
bottle
pointed in a safe direction."Safe" meaning "away from your face". |
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Holding the bottle with the cork-thumb hand, loosen the wire cage
around the cork and take it off. Some people save the cage, but it's
useless (it doesn't even hold very small critters and has a low resale
value).
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Nothing can spoil a party faster than a puddle of champagne on the
floor, so place a towel over the cork to catch any spills and make the
bottle easier to hold and handle. |
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Ease the cork out gently by holding it still and giving the bottle a
slow and gentle twist. There ought to be a suave name for this maneuver
but there isn't. Listen carefully for a "pop" or a soft "whoomp" sound. That is the
sound of the cork being released from the bottle and a party about to
hit full swing. |
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Pour about an inch of champagne into the glass and let the bubbles settle. Then pour again until the glass is about two-thirds filled. Filling the glass more than
two-thirds is not preferred, but more than likely no one will complain
if you do. |
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A quick turn of the bottle after each pour catches the drops from
the
lip, preserves the champagne, and makes you look like a pro. And in the
end, that's what really counts. |
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| Umm, one time...umm...my friend Johnny...umm...he opened a bottle of champagne...and he like...shot this birds eye out. |
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Jimmy
Odgenville, USA |
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Strawberrys make champagne taste purty. |
Bob
Shelbyville, USA |
Have a tip? E-mail it to us! |
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