There is a special moment in every birthday parties: that’s when someone pops up the champagne. Usually there is a lot of singing, clapping, and laughing involved, and many believe the party isn’t quite the same if you don’t hear the cork popping with a bang while flying over your guests’ heads – eventually hitting one of them hard.
For the sake of festivity, that’s alright. Now when it comes to the drinking part, there’s a serious downside. The thing is that all that popping means that much of that gas actually flew away from the champagne, killing its bubble. This, combined with the old habit of serving champagne (sometimes even Brut!) with extra-sweet birthday cakes, might help explaining why some people never drink sparkling wines other than at birthday parties. It is understandable – there is a limit to suffering.
So, if you are having champagne and it is not because you just won a Formula 1 race, here are couple rules-of-thumb:
- If you are having it with cake, make sure it is sweet champagne
- Gas must never “think” outside of the bottle. Don’t pop the cork
- To open a bottle of champagne, hold the cork firmly
- Slowly rotate the bottle with your free hand
- When you feel the cork pushing, control that pushing firmly
- No noise is good noise, let it open smoothly
Cheers!
