How To Open A Champagne Bottle Like A Boss

We all have seen it in movie. It is a celebratory moment of some kind, they bring out a bottle of champagne and, even though there is a perfectly good and safe way to open that bottle of bubbly, someone always find a knife or a saber out of thin air and pop! goes the cork, spilling the precious juice inside. What a waste, right? Ah, but the sacrifice was not in vain, since the hero of the hour gets to look badass in front of everyone because he sabered the champagne.

That’s right, it is an actual thing. There is even a special knife, designed specifically for the purpose. The technique of sabrage became popular during the era of Napoleon, when he was known to have said something along the lines of “In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it”. The saber was Napoleon’s army’s weapon of choice and, of course, with so much to do and so little time, they couldn’t just waste their precious minutes on pulling the cork. So they would hit the lip of the bottle with the blunt end of their sabers, breaking the lip away with the cork still inside, then drink their celebratory - or sorrowful - bubbly.

Today, sabrage is still a thing, albeit for ceremonial purposes only. However, someone has thought of a different and far safer way to open a bottle of champagne that will produce and equal, perhaps even far greater effect that that of a sharp weapon and no one is in danger of losing an eye!

Still, there is some technique behind this little neat trick as well. See, even a bottle of fine champagne has a weak point, and that it the seam on the side, where the two halves were joint together. Set your bottle at a rough 45 degree angle, then get a wine glass, doesn’t even have to be fancy, you just need to have enough space to hold it, so that you don’t bang on the bottle with your fingers.

Find the seam, then grab a hold of the bell of the glass, slide the foot of the glass in line with the seam of the bottle and tap the lip of the bottle a couple of times. You will notice the cork start to rise, so prepare yourself for the big finale.

Bang! Goes the cork, taking the lip of the bottle with it. Sure, there will be some spillage along the way, but what are a few gulps of the precious, golden nectar to celebrate your victory, right?

Credit: @young_makar_