Opening a wine bottle

Chef Shogun · August 9, 2004

A couple of years ago, my friend and I were accidentally locked in the office/wine cellar at my restaurant. We waited, sure that someone would notice that we had not returned, and after about half an hour, I gave up and offered her a drink. Then we realised that surrounded by hundreds of bottles, we had nothing to open them.
This is my own personal vision of hell. Locked in a well stocked wine cellar with no corkscrew.

It's not fair! It's not FAIR!

Wait, I can still drink the screw-cap bottles *hands fall off*

It's not fair!! Hey, look at that weird mirror.

Carlovski · August 10, 2004

Update!

I managed to find my trusty swiss Army knife.

It did have a corkscrew!

jackal10 · August 10, 2004

Decapitate the bottle with a sword, as is traditional with Champagne.

When I try, however likely as not the bottle will smash.

Does anyone know the trick to this?

jsolomon · August 10, 2004

Decapitate the bottle with a sword, as is traditional with Champagne.
When I try, however likely as not the bottle will smash.
Does anyone know the trick to this?

How are you attacking the neck of the bottle with the sabre (any other weapon would be uncivilized). You want a motion that's about at a 30 degree angle with the axis of the neck taking the lip off, otherwise, you'll destroy the whole matrix of the bottle a good portion of the time.

But, remember that Champagne has a significantly different lip at the neck...

cdh · August 10, 2004

Does the whole saberage trick work for bottles that are not under pressure? I thought that the pressure inside the champagne bottle was essential in getting the knock to crack the bottle. I never would have expected sabrage to work on a still wine bottle, if for no other reason than the have a very different shape than a fizzy wine bottle.

joiei · August 10, 2004

I would recommend picking up a nice bottle of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2001 on the way home, those crafty New Zealanders have managed to put really good wine into a bottle with a screw cap. Opener not needed.

Adam Balic · August 10, 2004

Bamboo skewers. Push on between the cork and the glass, it should go in easy. Start pulling, the friction should be enough to remove the cork, if the cork is soft you may have to use two skewers place opposite of each other. If you have plastic cork then you really have to just push it in.

Easier to push in then to pull out, I think the grain of the skewer makes it a little like stroking a cat backwards, if you see what I mean.

Or you can freeze the bottle. The cork should pop out before the bottle cracks.

jsolomon · August 10, 2004

Take two bottles to your neighbor's house and make a friend.

KatieLoeb · August 10, 2004

Does the whole saberage trick work for bottles that are not under pressure? I thought that the pressure inside the champagne bottle was essential in getting the knock to crack the bottle. I never would have expected sabrage to work on a still wine bottle, if for no other reason than the have a very different shape than a fizzy wine bottle.

It doesn't. You'd do nothing except possibly decapitate a bystander.

It's both the internal pressure and the lip on a mushroom shaped Champagne cork that gives the sabre something to "grab onto" that makes this possible with a sparkling bottle.

donk79 · August 10, 2004

The internal pressure of sparkling wine is also what keeps various crumbs and shards of glass from falling back into the wine. I wouldn't risk it with anything not under pressure.

winesonoma · August 10, 2004

Carry a corkscrew. I'm never without one. :laugh:

KatieLoeb · August 10, 2004

I would recommend picking up a nice bottle of Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2001 on the way home, those crafty New Zealanders have managed to put really good wine into a bottle with a screw cap. Opener not needed.

I like their riesling too. The whole Villa Maria line is Stelvin capped and of good quality, especially for the price.

jsolomon · August 11, 2004

The internal pressure of sparkling wine is also what keeps various crumbs and shards of glass from falling back into the wine. I wouldn't risk it with anything not under pressure.

Eh?

If you look at a properly sabre'd champagne bottle, the cork extends beyond the broken/cut neck of the bottle, making it the compressed cork which keeps the glass out.

If I had a proper champagne sabre, or at least one more substantial than my Olympic style sabre, I might try it... but my competition jobby just isn't designed for that kind of "proper" usage.

LOS · August 11, 2004

The internal pressure of sparkling wine is also what keeps various crumbs and shards of glass from falling back into the wine. I wouldn't risk it with anything not under pressure.
Eh?
If you look at a properly sabre'd champagne bottle, the cork extends beyond the broken/cut neck of the bottle, making it the compressed cork which keeps the glass out.
If I had a proper champagne sabre, or at least one more substantial than my Olympic style sabre, I might try it... but my competition jobby just isn't designed for that kind of "proper" usage.

If the sabre is electric, I'd not chance it -- but any other sabre should work just fine. Just make sure you use the base of the blade. I've seen a bottle of bubbly "sabered" with a wine glass.

arielle · August 11, 2004

Okay, I've heard of people 'sabering' Champagne bottles.........but I must ask 'why?', that is: here you finally have a bottle of wine that requires no corkscrew, rather, a certain amount of talent to open correctly - to produce the 'sigh of a contented woman' (cannot remember WHO said that, but it's a good one, no?) sound - in gently releasing the cork from the bottle. I thought that this was what Champane service (and consumption) was all about.....? So why do this? I would guess that it would also lead to a loss of quite a bit of the champagne...sort of like shaking the bottle before opening...? Katie, do you know?

chezcherie · August 11, 2004

Okay, I've heard of people 'sabering' Champagne bottles.........but I must ask 'why?', that is: here you finally have a bottle of wine that requires no corkscrew, rather, a certain amount of talent to open correctly - to produce the 'sigh of a contented woman' (cannot remember WHO said that, but it's a good one, no?) sound - in gently releasing the cork from the bottle. I thought that this was what Champane service (and consumption) was all about.....? So why do this? I would guess that it would also lead to a loss of quite a bit of the champagne...sort of like shaking the bottle before opening...? Katie, do you know?

two words:

drama

and

tradition

(confession--i recently purchased a laguiole champagne sabre, but have yet to muster the brio and safety googles to try it out!)

KatieLoeb · August 11, 2004

Okay, I've heard of people 'sabering' Champagne bottles.........but I must ask 'why?', that is: here you finally have a bottle of wine that requires no corkscrew, rather, a certain amount of talent to open correctly - to produce the 'sigh of a contented woman' (cannot remember WHO said that, but it's a good one, no?) sound - in gently releasing the cork from the bottle. I thought that this was what Champane service (and consumption) was all about.....? So why do this? I would guess that it would also lead to a loss of quite a bit of the champagne...sort of like shaking the bottle before opening...? Katie, do you know?

Yes - Drama and Tradition pretty much covers it. It covers a lot of other macho chest beating displays as well. It's just a silly fatuous display of some "specialized" skills. Like tossing a cabre.

The violent release of the cork definitely wastes some of the precious contents, so I'm with you in doing this more gently.

And "the sigh of a contented woman" thing was me. I'd heard it from someone else and it's stuck with me ever since.

Craig Camp · August 11, 2004

Okay, I've heard of people 'sabering' Champagne bottles.........but I must ask 'why?', that is: here you finally have a bottle of wine that requires no corkscrew, rather, a certain amount of talent to open correctly - to produce the 'sigh of a contented woman' (cannot remember WHO said that, but it's a good one, no?) sound - in gently releasing the cork from the bottle. I thought that this was what Champane service (and consumption) was all about.....? So why do this? I would guess that it would also lead to a loss of quite a bit of the champagne...sort of like shaking the bottle before opening...? Katie, do you know?

The Hussards (French mounted soldiers of the Napoleonic era) started this tradition. It seems they carried more sabers around than the average person and it is also reasonable to assume that Champagne corks were probably harder to get out in those days. Put the two together with the urgent need to celebrate a victory and you get the tradition of sabering champagne. Unless you happen to carry a saber to work every day there are other, albeit less colorful, methods recommended, unless macho chest beating seems appropriate at the moment.

Carlovski · August 11, 2004

The internal pressure of sparkling wine is also what keeps various crumbs and shards of glass from falling back into the wine. I wouldn't risk it with anything not under pressure.
Eh?
If you look at a properly sabre'd champagne bottle, the cork extends beyond the broken/cut neck of the bottle, making it the compressed cork which keeps the glass out.
If I had a proper champagne sabre, or at least one more substantial than my Olympic style sabre, I might try it... but my competition jobby just isn't designed for that kind of "proper" usage.

Now if you managed it with single thrust of a foil, that would be impressive!

jsolomon · August 11, 2004

Now if you managed it with single thrust of a foil, that would be impressive!

Methinks that would cause 2 holes in the bottle. Would it then need to be shotgunned? Or <gasp> shared? :hmmm:

:blink: I didn't think that's what the stuff was for. :raz:

arielle · August 11, 2004

And "the sigh of a contented woman" thing was me. I'd heard it from someone else and it's stuck with me ever since.

No, that's what I mean.....who said it originally? I heard it from Bernadette O'Shea - considered the foremost expert on Champagne in Australia (before you laugh, she's been awarded an honorary knighthood by the French Government for her services to this great French wine*), and who I used to work for in her tastings - she held Champagne education classes, and she made the 'sigh of a contented woman' comment, but did say that it was someone else who said it first.....

AHA!!!! I know who said it: Len Evans (Aussie wine guru) - but then he probably stole it from someone else :raz:

*Yes, CtznCane, Champagne is, and will always be, a French wine from the region of Champagne. The French themselves respect this appelation, hence the existence of Cremant de Bourgogne etc.

naguere · August 11, 2004

PS anyone ever seen the New Yorker cartoon of a "French Army Knife?" It's just like the Swiss version, except all the blades are corkscrews.

Yep:

joiei · August 11, 2004

And "the sigh of a contented woman" thing was me. I'd heard it from someone else and it's stuck with me ever since.

THe first time I heard this quote, the wording was "as an erotic sigh or a baby's kiss" from the cellarmaster of Domaine Chandon before they had their original press tasting at the little restaurant I was working at in San Francisco at that time. This was late 70's and the restaurant was the London Wine Bar on Sansome Street. It was a great time, I remember when we had our first shipment of the 74 Mondavi Cabernet, it retailed for under $10 a bottle. This was back when families owned the wineries, not corporations.

KatieLoeb · August 12, 2004

A cursory search on Google for the "Champagne 'sigh'" quote has yielded the following:

Open with a Sigh

Apparently this is a common metaphor in the Champagne world.

NeroW · August 12, 2004

What is a sabre?

Also, I have opened a bottle with an electric drill.

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