88 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
WINE
OF ALL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, champagne is certainly
the most abused.
ink of all those victorious Formula One drivers shaking mag-
nums of the stuff to shower the crowds around their victory po-
diums; or Stanley Cup winners and World Series celebrants who
shampoo each other in their dressing rooms for all to see.
en there is the tradition of smashing a bottle of champagne
against the bow of a boat at its launching for good luck. (Someone
must have forgotten to do that for the Titanic. No bottle was ever
broken over her bow, and we all know how that story ended.)
Athletes and ladies who launch are not the only guilty ones when
it comes to treating champagne badly. ere are also those exhib-
itionists who delight in sabering champagne bottles in public.
is dangerous practice was started in the 18th century by Napo-
leon's generals. Aer the heat of battle, they were understandably
impatient to toast their victories. Bypassing the niceties of remov-
ing the foil and unwinding the wire muzzle that keeps the cork in
place, the generals swept the blunt edge of their sabres along the
contour of the bottle and off came the cork, still muzzled to the
mouth of the bottle.
Why does this work without leaving shards of glass in the wine?
When a steel blade slides up the bottle and strikes the lip, the shock
waves, combined with the pressure in the bottle, cause the neck to
fracture at its weakest point. e break is clean, and the pressure of
the escaping gas ejects the cork that is still wired to the mouth of
the bottle.
e entrapped gas in champagne creates a pressure of six atmos-
pheres, or 90 pounds per square inch, which is the same pressure
that is pumped into a bus tire. So, be warned: once you have loos-
ened the wire cage of a champagne bottle you have a live grenade in
your hand, with the pin pulled out.
While racing drivers and baseball players can be excused for such
barbarism, it does little to explain the behaviour of the French, who
actually make the world's most elegant beverage?
| DETOURS |
Champagne Is Best When It's Drunk
The abuse of this beverage includes breaking bottles of it over bows of ships and 'sabering'the mouth of the bottle
