Champagne is the most festive wine, meant for the happiest occasions. The bubbles in Champagne uplift the spirit and create an attractive sight, enhanced by a whole range of customs and small rules for chilling, opening, and serving. We present some of them.
The recommendation from the Union des Maisons de Champagne, the organization that gathers all major Champagne houses, is to chill Champagne to a temperature between 6 and 9 degrees Celsius, so that after warming in the glass, the temperature is between 8 and 13 degrees. Full-bodied Champagnes – vintage and rosé wines – can be served at a slightly higher temperature to bring out their aroma, and the same applies to sweeter sec and demi-sec Champagnes. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, Champagne, which generally contained much more sugar than today, was chilled to a temperature of 4-6 degrees Celsius.
Chilling the bottle requires patience
Champagne is typically chilled by placing an unopened bottle in Champagne bucket filled with equal parts water and ice. The water level should be about 3 centimeters below the rim of the container. At an air temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, it will take about 40 minutes for the Champagne to chill to 11 degrees. It goes without saying that sometimes you will break this rule and chill Champagne in the refrigerator, and it is actually more likely that you will do so at home rather than in an ice bucket: after all, our home is not a restaurant, and we are allowed to break the rules somewhat. Place the Champagne on a shelf to ensure it is exposed to an even temperature across its entire surface: different zones of the refrigerator have different temperatures. It will take the bottle three hours to go from room temperature to serving temperature. The biggest issue with the refrigerator is that the bottle starts to warm up as soon as it is taken out, and there is usually no remedy for this unless you close it with a Coravin Sparkling system for preserving sparkling wines and return it to the refrigerator.
Opening: silent or with a loud “Pop”?
Opening Champagne requires great care. According to the rules of wine etiquette, removing the cork should be silent, but if the Union des Maisons de Champagne says that the popping of a Champagne cork is an „explosion of joy,“ it means there are occasions when nothing should stop us from opening the bottle as loudly as we can. However, there are good reasons to open the bottle as discreetly as possible during less boisterous occasions. An explosive loss of pressure means fewer bubbles in the glass. Furthermore, a certain amount of the wine itself is lost in the process. And third, corks can turn into painful and even dangerous projectiles. Champagne can also be opened with a saber (sabrage). The process, they say, is easier than it looks, but you need a saber, a steady, trained arm, and a large number of sparkling wine bottles that you are willing to sacrifice.
Before we get to removing the cork, we should first show the bottle to the guests, so they can admire the label and read the details from it. Next comes the removal of the foil and the metal cage around the cork, all while holding the cork. The highlight of the process is gently opening the bottle, which you hold at an angle of about 30-45 degrees, without pointing the cork at people or precious, fragile items: while holding the cork, slowly rotate the bottle, and gently rock the cork if it’s needed in order to dislodge it, and at one moment the gas will almost silently escape the bottle.
A white wine glass is the ideal choice
Serving Champagne is an art in itself. Nowadays, it is recommended to use quality white wine glasses—they beautifully concentrate the wine’s aromas, maintain its temperature, and preserve its precious bubbles, and they are indeed better than old-school wide glasses and, still fashionable, flute-shaped glasses. When serving, the best practice is to pour wine for one guest at a time, turning that gesture into a small celebration. Hold the bottle directly above the glass, and carefully pour the wine so that a ring of bubbles forms around the inside of the glass. If you are serving a larger number of guests, it is best to pour a little wine into each glass and continue pouring only after serving wine to the other guests, as this will calm the formation of bubbles. Do not wait for the glass to be emptied before pouring more Champagne: an empty Champagne glass is a sad sight that we want to avoid, even though all beautiful things sometimes come to an end; let’s postpone that as long as we can.
