3 CHAMPAGNE TOUJOURS:
Let’s talk Sabering. CHAMPAGE’s
Noble art.
Champagne GH Mumm is the Champagne house synonymous with
the art of sabrage, the Noble Art of
sabering.
Some twenty years after the founding of GH Mumm Champagne
in Riems, the Mumm family invited le
Legion d’Honneur to their circuitous underground caves for a
reception. A guest, impatient with the
cellarmaster for taking too long to uncork what they were anticipating,
by-passing the unwinding of the string that then held the corks, he took his sabre to the bottle. Unexpectedly his sabre hit on the vulnerable spot, the
ridge where the top meets the neck, and the cork came sailing out. Voila! The “Noble Art of Sabrage” had begun.
After these illustrious guests had downed millions of
Mumm’s bubbles, another, not so steady-on-his-feet legionnaire exclaimed, “Let
us award Mumm’s excellent Champagne le
Legion d’Honneur.” Thus Mumm’s “Cordon Rouge” Champagne received its
name along with the Legion’s red sash, Mumm’s first award.
Sabrage is not
without dangers, so should not, without the cautions advised below, become a
party trick or game. Otherwise you might
wish you also practiced law. The
possibility of the bottle shattering, scattering lethal shards all over the sabreur and guests is great if the laws
of sabering are not followed. Even Julia
Child, who was an excellent sabreuse, and
who truly loved to do it, surprised herself by breaking a magnum once on
National TV. Probably the bottle had not
been properly prepared for her. If these
simple rules are followed you will delight and surprise yourself and your
guests, as that legionnaire did long ago.
After second fermentation, most bottles of Champagne
are at “full mousse”, or six atmospheres of pressure, or contain 90 pounds per
square inch. That bottle therefore can
be some powerful weapon, and caution must be taken.
1. The
bottle should be very cold, especially the neck of the bottle. Immerse it deep in ice for a good hour.
2. A
real Champagne “sabre” should be
used. A Champagne sabre, such as those LaGuiole
make for Champagne houses, is never sharpened.
The “blade” side of the sabre is simply very narrow but not sharp. It is not meant to cut anything, merely to
encourage the top to separate itself and fly away on the pressure of the bubbly
mousse.
3. A
cloth should be placed about fifteen feet in front of the sabering, and guests
should be spread away from where the cork is expected to fly and to land.
4. Handling
the neck area as little as possible to maintain its frigid temperature, keeping
the bottle on a slight upward angle, carefully remove the wrapping, find the
lateral seam along one long side of the bottle, and unwind the six
counterclockwise turns of the wire muzzle, carefully opening it as you do so.
5. If
the sabreur is right-handed, with a
napkin grasp the bottle near to the bottom with the left hand, while with the
right hand slide the sabre as close to
parallel to the bottle as possible up the seam twice. On the second slide, with the same parallel motion,
with conviction tap the rim of the neck where the wire used to be
fastened. Just that slight pressure
should be enough to send the cork and the top of the glass bottle flying about
fifteen feet into the air on a sigh of bubbles.
The pressure remaining
inside the bottle is sufficient to prevent any small pieces of glass from
entering the bottle. But as a
cautionary, pour out the first drops before serving the rest of the sabered
bottle. The napkin that was used to hold
the bottle should continue to be used to prevent the bottle from slipping in
the hand of the server as the neck where the top was removed is extremely sharp
and can cut easily.
These simple
cautions should make sabering safe and fun, causing quite a sensation at your
next Champagne party. I hope you have
one daily.
One more word
of advice: only Champagne has 6
atmospheres of pressure built up in the bottle during its long and slow
fermentation. Other sparkling wines of less
pressure will not have as ebullient a result as a bottle of Champagne.
Sante and Bon Appetit!
Champagne Toujours.
Do not
forget: Julius Caesar did invent
Champagne.
P.S. The
photos I used to show you where the Real Lion King, Agamemnon, lived, I took at
his city of Mycenae. Several of the photos were taken in Mycenae’s
Museum, and are of discoveries made by Archaeologist Elizabeth French. Mycenae and its museum are waiting for you
too to voyage back into the Bronze Age.
Don’t forget the Champagne for your picnic with the Real Lion King.
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