Champagne stopper recalcitrant

Opening a bottle of Champagne

- Hold the bottle tight with one hand, inclined by 45 °
- After loosening the muselet (but without undoing it), it is held firmly (muselet, skirt and stopper).
- One turns the bottle (especially not the cork) of a quarter of turn fiercely and calmly.

... In case of failure, help yourself with a towel or a special clip ...

In desperation, saber the bottle! Never abdicate!

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Sabrating Champagne!

Instructions before party!

Under the empire, the hussars launched the fashion of breaking the neck of bottles on the reverse of a saber, from where the expression sabrer'.

This elegant gesture is lost today!

To celebrate with luster, great occasions, do not hesitate to impress with a simple kitchen knife. All you have to do is to scratch the glass under the neck beforehand. And all you have to do now is hit the neck with the back of your knife.

Your bottle is sabred!

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The Champagne Cup

An inconvenient glass for tasting

You have all noticed how little the cup lends itself to Champagne tasting.

Yet it is customary to say, "I serve you a cup?" And very rarely do I serve you a flute?

The legend says that the first cut was molded on the breast of the Pompadour. In this case, the cup has beautiful days before it!


 

 

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Monks and wine

These religions which have so advanced the wine ...

The Church has always permitted the expansion of vine growing. In difficult times, it has even sometimes been the only supporter of a know-how in terms of driving the vine and winemaking. The reason is simple: she needed wine for the Eucharist ...

The first religious who had an important influence in the history of wine are the Cistercians. They have done much for Burgundy by selecting plants, improving the size, selecting the plots, surrounding them with walls that today still amaze us ...

In Domagne, Dom Perignon is also one of those monks whose wine owes much. It is considered the father of modern Champagne as sparkling wine. He devoted his life to experimenting and trying to tame this wine.

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The name of the champagne bottles

From the bottle to the Nebuchadnezzar


Quart: 20 cl
Half: 37.5 cl
Bottle: 75 cl
Magnum: 1.5 liters
Jeroboam: 3 liters
Rehoboam: 4.5 liters
Methuselah: 6 liters
Salmanazar: 9 liters
Balthazar: 12 liters
Nabuchodonosor: 15 liters

Note that in Bordeaux some of these bottles do not have the same name. We are talking about double magnum!

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Two famous widows

Madame Pommery and the widow Clicquot

Champagne has two widows who have remained famous. Two houses of Champagne still bear their name:

Madame Pommery, who remained a widow in 1858, took the destiny of Maison Pommery into her own hands. She inherited a healthy house, but was not satisfied with it and developed sales, especially towards exports, to England.

In 1889, in order to silence rumors about her financial situation, she bought Jean-Francois Millet's Gleaners for 300,000 gold francs. The painting is now in the Louvre!

The Veuve Clicquot, on the other hand, made her fortune in Russia with the Tsars. Before long, Madame Veuve Clicquot anticipated the return of peace to Russia after the defeat of Napoleon in 1915. Her whole ship loaded with Champagne was sold easily and decided on her fortune.

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An advertising genius

Eugène Mercier, Marketing Manager

In 1889, the year of the centenary of the French Revolution, Eugene Mercier built a lightning with a capacity of 200,000 bottles, the biggest of the time!

He had this lightning transported to Paris, drawn by 24 oxen: the journey lasted 10 days, required the consolidation of a few bridges, the demolition of houses ...

In 1900, for the Universal Exhibition, he distinguished himself by producing an advertising film on his Champagne. In the same year he installed a balloon at the Champ de Mars, where one could come and taste his Champagne!

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