Opening Champagne

Video Transcript

"Hello my name's Gary Westby, and I'm going to show you how to open a bottle of champagne. The first thing to keep in mind with opening a bottle of champagne is to make sure that it's cold enough. It's very, very dangerous to open a bottle that hasn't been chilled, even if you do know what you're doing. First thing to do is to remove the foil. Keep in mind that this bottle is at about six atmospheres of pressure, so that's six times the natural atmosphere, and is quite dangerous. The court of master sommeliers would have you remove the entire cage, as would many people when doing instructions on how to open a bottle of champagne. I myself am far too concerned about that, after having seen a producer actually hit a customer in the face with a bottle. So, I start by loosening the cage, after firmly placing my hand over the cork so it can't go anywhere. So you loosen the cage until it's completely loose, and off of the little indentation around the bottom. Then you tilt the bottle away from any person, so you're never facing the cork toward somebody where they could get hurt. And then you hold onto the cork, and you twist the bottle; not the cork, very slowly, until it starts to come out. You have it tilted so you can make sure that you've got the air bubble in the right place, and then what you want it to do is to make a sigh, rather than a pop, so I'm going to try and get this right for you, just like that. After many years of aging on the lees, it's a darn shame to let it pop out, shoot across the room, and spew champagne all over the place. This particular bottle from Ariston has had more than five years on the lees. After all that aging, to let it go off in an explosion would be a shame. And the only thing left to do now is to pour it. Make sure you get the ladies first; enjoy."