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