How to Serve Champagne

by Brad Prescott

Serving champagne with style — removing the cork quietly, cooling the wine to right temperature, and to keep it in the glass and off your guests — is not a natural gift. It requires a little dexterity, concentration, and a good dose of practice.

Champagne should be served in long-stemmed flutes or tulip shaped glasses. These are designed to enhance the flow of bubbles to the crown and to concentrate the aromas of the wine. Never chill or ice the glass as it would take away from the enjoyment of the wine. Incidentally, since the surface texture of crystal is rougher than ordinary glass, more bubbles form on these glasses.

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What one drinks champagne out of has often been dictated by fashion. The champagne coupe or saucer-shaped glass, while very popular, was never designed for drinking champagne. It is unstable and does not allow you to fully appreciate the benefits of the wine. There is a legend that it was modelled from the bosom of Marie-Antoinette. Hugh Johnson states that this is not entirely without foundation. "The Sèvres porcelain factory did take a cast from this august model and produced four detailed white bowls that were mounted on elaborate bases of three goat's heads to adorn the Queen's Dairy Temple at the Château de Rambouillet near Versailles. The dairy still exists; as does one of the four coupes."

"I drink champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I'm thirsty." – Madam Lilly Bollinger

Champagne is to be served cold at about 43 to 48°F (7°C). In this range the smell and taste of the wine can be fully appreciated. This temperature can be achieved by placing the unopened bottle in an ice bucket — one-half ice and one-half water — for 20 to 30 minutes. Or, you may refrigerate it for 3 to 4 hours. The refrigerator temperature is too cold for the bottle to be left in there for extended periods. It should never be placed in the freezer.

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Comments

How many bottles of champagne are needed for an anniversary toast at a party for forty people?

If you start with champagne and then move on to something else, two glasses per person should suffice. That would be about 6-7 bottles for 40 people.
If you want to stay with champagne for quite a while count one bottle for every second guest, hence 20 bottles for your party.

Can champagne be served with strawberries inside de flute?

Is there a proper way to wrap the champagne bottle so that moisture on the bottle will not drip on the linens or my guest??

why should the champagne be served cold? is it to open the cork easy or does it make more bubbbles/

I personally would not pollute my champagne with strawberries, but rather eat them by the side, if i had a sweeter champagne. I am more to brut or extra brut, so i would probably not eat something sweet as it would make the champagne taste bitter/sour.

A champagne cloth or a simple white cloth folded a couple of times will help in wiping the bottle, you can fold it and hang it on the neck while the bottle is in the cooler and wipe the bottle before serving.

As for all liquids the taste changes with temperature and as far as I know 7-10 degrees C, is about where champagne does its best. As for white wine its a little higher and red wine even more so. Even whisky is considered not to be drunk with ice cubes, not because of dilution, but because colder whiskeys have less aroma and taste.

Hope this helps. JP

When pouring the champagne, does one pour down the side of the glass (such as with beer, tilting the
glass to let the liquid run down the side) or vertically pour it in?

It is customary to pour the champagne in a tilted glass so that the rising bubbles doesnt create a trubulance ,keep the glass dry from inside , the bubbles stay longer on the inside of glass surface and the aroma of the vine is trapped .
while drinking maximize the contact of champagne inside the mouth so that you capture the fineness, aroma and taste of champagne.

At the dinner table, when is the right time to drink champagne?

If I drink champagne out of a wine glass, is it better to drink brute or rose champagne? If I have both, which one should I drink first?
Thanks!

Dom