How To Open Sparkling Wine
We urge students in our wine classes to drink sparkling wine with dinner throughout the year. It pairs with a range of foods and transforms any meal into a celebration. But we know that most people think of sparklers as a holiday treat and open more at this time of year than any other.
With party season in full swing, we want to provide a reminder about the proper way to open a bottle of sparkling wine. Here's a hint: It's not about how far the cork flies. Sure, that's fun, especially when you attach a parachute to the cork, but aside from the obvious safety issues around a small, hard object hurtling out of a bottle at high speed, you run the risk of losing some of the wine. Even if you don't lose an eye or some wine, the pressure change of a vigorous pop pulls the carbon dioxide out of the wine, making your bubbles go away faster.
These tragedies are easy to avoid. Just keep control of the bottle. Once you take off the foil, quickly remove the cage and put your thumb on top of the cork to hold it in place as 88 pounds per square inch of pressure pushes against it. We remember undoing the cage on a bottle of Belgian beer and then absentmindedly chatting with our friends. Midway through our conversation, we simultaneously heard a loud pop, felt a whoosh by our left eye, and looked up to see the small dent in the ceiling.
Photo by Melissa Schneider
You should also put your hand on the base of the bottle and hold the bottle at an angle. A sommelier once told us a story of a waiter who dutifully held down the cork, only to have the bottle push itself out of his hand and onto the floor in a spinning wheel of gushing wine. See our picture? Imagine there's no cage there, and you've got the right position (except, hold the bottle in front of you).
Now you're ready to open it. Don't point the bottle at your friends as you do this. We once watched in horror as the host of a dinner removed the cage and without bothering to put his thumb over the cork, gave a long speech during which he unknowingly pointed the bottle at each person in turn. Maybe it was some sort of passive-aggressive statement.
While not strictly necessary, we like to put a clean dish towel over the cork as we open the bottle. Remember to keep pressure on the cork with your hand. Now turn the base of the bottle. This will loosen the cork and it will start to come out. Hold the cork and allow it to come out slowly. As it gets close to popping, gently slant the cork so that one side comes out first. As in whip cracking, the quieter the pop the better. We once saw wine pro Rebecca Chapa remove a cork with a small ssst.
Wine wits who talk about the volume often reiterate the old saying, "It should be no louder than a contented woman's sigh." To which we always respond, "That person clearly never heard the woman in the building next door." To which one wine buffoon replied, "Or my wife."
Enjoy your holiday sparklers!