Opening bubbly with style

[alden]

Ok Gents, do you all have a bottle of bubbles ready to practice with? Now you probably won't get it right on the first go, so you should have a few bottles ready just to make sure. And you'll need some friends to help drink the bottles as well.

OK, here we go.....

Hold the cork firmly in your right hand, placing your palm over the cork and fingers around it...

With your left hand, turn the bottom of the bottle while holding and retaining the cork in place. Your left hand turns back and forth in small clockwise and counterclockwise movements....until your right hand gets the message from the cork that it wants to move on out. Retain the cork against its will to explode out of the bottle, and let it ease out of the bottle as slowly as possible. At the last moment when the cork is about to come out, glently tilt the cork with the right hand so the aperture of the opening is as small as possible. This tilting modulates the amount, tone and force of the Angel's whisper.

OK, time for the practical part of the lesson...

Good luck!

Chin chin

[ccox]

Right, that's it. I'm taking an early afternoon away from work.

Now how about that trick using bubbles to shine shoes? Seems a good excuse to open a magnum. Is it Mme. Berlutti who advocates this approach?

Onegin!
CCox

[nick]

Is it Mme. Berlutti who advocates this approach?

She does, but she stole it from Beau Brummell. But, his attribution of the brillance of the shine on his Hessian boots to the use of Champagne as polish was only a jeu d'esprit.

Returning to the main subject, Mr. A does not explicitly mention the wire cage around the cork. At the demonstrationof uncorking that I attended many decades ago (mentioned in a post in a kindred thread), the representative advised that one should, of course, loosen the wire so that the cork is no longer fastened, but that the wire itself should be removed with the cork, not before.

Gentlemen, what is your best advice?

Regards.

[alden]

Nick

I just loosen the twists on the wire cage without removing it, actually there is no reason to remove the material that covers the wire cage either, and then follow the steps as in my post above...

The key is to let the left hand do all the work. Once you get the hang of it you open the bottle in a fraction of a second with an Angel's whispering as a reward

Cheers

[Concordia]

I tend to remove the wire, although never without some awareness that I am living dangerously. After all, if the wire is truly stuck to the cork, you could accelerate the whole process beyond the point of return.

On the positive side, though, you get a small increase in control after you have regrasped the cork.

And I use my left hand for this. May come from a background with string instruments, but I prefer to turn the bottle slowly with my right hand, using the left to regulate the pressure.

[alden]

A southpaw Champs opening technique sounds fine. The important thing for beginners to learn is that you open a bottle from the bottom of the bottle and not the top.

I normally don't remove the wrapper or cage and it has nothing to do with security, it has to do with haste to see and smell Epernay's elixir and have it work wonders on the system as soon as possible.

Champagne is a medication. Consumed in moderate and appropriate doses (what an awful thought), it imparts an immediate sense of well being that no other medication can provide. It enlivens and sharpens the wit, where other substances dull and drown. It brings a pleasant, rosy flush to the faces of our Dames who suspended in its hearty glow, forgive us (momentarily) for having seduced them so well.