Champagne Sabering at your French Wedding
Nothing says celebration more than a bottle of Champagne with approximately 50 million bubbles in a bottle. For a truly stylish wedding, nothing flows better than true Champagne. If you budget just simply will not stretch that far go for Methode Champenoise - Vouvray from the Loire Valley is a sparkling Chenin Blanc champagne style alternative. Champagne at the head table at your french wedding chateau is worth the cost. It is your wedding in France and you should splash out on yourselves.
Traditionally all champagne only comes from the Champagne Region of France. This region is situated in the area of Reims. So don’t be fooled by Champagnes from South-Africa, Germany or California. These might taste rather good, but they can’t possibly be Champagne.
French champagne at a french wedding is essential.
Second to be called champagne it must be made only from the Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or Chandonnay grapes which group in the champagne region.
France is a country that has an amazing affinity for its land. The french have an innate appreciation for the effect of soil, and sun on different plots of land at a cross-intersection where one produces bottles worth 5 euros and another worth 20 and the best worth over 150 euros. You and I might struggle with this but Oz Clark describes it poetically.
Some fine well-known champagne from France include Veuve Clicquot or Moet et Chandon.
Try champagne sabering, the delicate art of decapitating bottles of champagne. You could ask your caterers if they will do a display of sabering champagne. This will need to be done outside. You need to be very careful. The saberer needs to wear gloves, long sleeves and glasses.
The champagne should be very cold. The colder the better.
Only saber french champagne – Cheaper champagnoise alternatives have been known to explode in a shower of shards and bubbles.
Grab the bottle firmly, by the base, and obviously pointed away from any onlookers. Hold it at a 30 degree to 45 degree angle. Have a close inspection to “locate one of the two vertical seams running up the side of the bottle” to the lip. Slice the foil softly along the line of a seam for a guide to where you need to saber.
The cork will be travelling at between 30 and 50 mph when it pops depending on the size and pressure contained inside the bottle so sabering champagne should NEVER be done intoxicated.
The top of the champagne bottle needs to be collected so that no person, or animal cuts themselves on it. Be careful please.
Do not swirl your champagne in your glass like a git or a pretentious wine connoisseur. The french call this “champagne battering” because the swirling in thirty seconds destroys the bubbles that took at least three years to produce.
As one would expect, the cost of the tried and true French Champagnes are exorbitant. Savings can be found both online and by buying from case lots.
For serving champagne there are two styles of glasses to choose from. The wide rimmed round glasses with shorter stems of yester-years, perfect for a vintage themed reception, or the more modern elongated flute, which provides an elegant air.
Some venues will have both styles of glasses to choose from, while others will require you to seek an outside rental agency to provide them. You may even wish to purchase champagne flutes as a wedding favor to help guests remember what could be possibly their first taste of real champagne.
A tried and true decorative feature that incorporates champagne is the creation of a champagne fountain out of tiered glasses. If you can instruct yor caterers and your photographer that you want one.
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