{"id":16608,"date":"2016-04-01T11:29:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/?p=16608"},"modified":"2016-04-01T11:29:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:29:40","slug":"complete-guide-to-champagne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/2016\/04\/01\/complete-guide-to-champagne\/","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Guide to Champagne &#8211; How to Open, Serve &#038; Store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you like champagne and like to bring out a bottle of <a title=\"Learn why champagne is 'bubbly'\" href=\"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/why-is-champagne-bubbly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fine bubby<\/a>, every time you invite special guests over for dinner, it&#8217;s a good idea to learn how to open and pour champagne &#8211; and this isn&#8217;t very difficult to learn. However, getting the bottle&#8217;s cork out is only 50% of the task done. Even before you impress your guests with your choice of champagne, there are some things you need to focus on. Read on for our <span style=\"color: #d5d5d5;\"><strong>complete guide to champagne<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n<p>[vc_separator type=&#8217;normal&#8217; position=&#8217;center&#8217; color=&#8217;#666666&#8242; thickness=&#8217;1&#8242; up=&#8221; down=&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2>Chilling<\/h2>\n<p>Most wine experts will agree that the right way to a chill a champagne bottle, is in a bucket. If you pull out a bottle from your cellar and plunge it into a bucket that&#8217;s filled with ice &amp; water, it should reach the ideal temperature within 15-20 minutes. You also have the option to set the bottle down on its side, on the bottom shelf of the fridge for a minimum of 3-4 hours before you intend to serve it. If the temperature remains constant, you can leave it there for longer than that too.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #d5d5d5;\"><strong>Caution<\/strong><\/span>: Don&#8217;t try to speed-chill the bottle by putting it in the freezer; that&#8217;s also the express path to ruining its flavours and aromas.<\/p>\n<p>[vc_separator type=&#8217;normal&#8217; position=&#8217;center&#8217; color=&#8217;#666666&#8242; thickness=&#8217;1&#8242; up=&#8221; down=&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2>Opening the bottle<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Be very careful while uncorking the bottle; keep in mind that champagne corks are like sprinters and can easily travel upto 100 kmph. It does take a bit of practice to ensure injury-free opening. You will find a number of videos on YouTube that show you the right method to uncork a bottle of champagne.<\/li>\n<li>Use your waiter&#8217;s friend to cut the foil, right at the bottom of the cage. It&#8217;s best not to tear off the tab as that often comes off unevenly.<\/li>\n<li>Take the foil off the bottle &amp; then place a cloth right over the cage &#8211; ensure your thumb is over the cork.<\/li>\n<li>Now untwist its wire cage and carefully loosen it; all the while keeping your thumb over the cork &amp; cage.<\/li>\n<li>Get some leverage by firming up your grip at the bottom of the champagne bottle &amp; hold it at an angle of 45 degrees. Use your other hand to gently twist the cork as well as the bottle towards the opposite direction.<\/li>\n<li>Now, just release the cork very silently and keep the bottle at 45 degrees even as the pressure inside reduces, and you feel the cork easing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[vc_separator type=&#8217;normal&#8217; position=&#8217;center&#8217; color=&#8217;#666666&#8242; thickness=&#8217;1&#8242; up=&#8221; down=&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2>Serving<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to serve the champagne in decent glassware like a flute. This will deliver the wine right onto your tongue, which adds to the enjoyment of drinking a bubbly. Pour out the champagne into the centre of the glass, in a single stream (use 2 pours if required).<\/p>\n<p>[vc_separator type=&#8217;normal&#8217; position=&#8217;center&#8217; color=&#8217;#666666&#8242; thickness=&#8217;1&#8242; up=&#8221; down=&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h2>Storage<\/h2>\n<p>Keep in mind that any sparkling or non-vintage wine isn\u2019t really designed for storage for any period of time; that&#8217;s because the producer had already matured the wine for you. However, vintage champagne can definitely be stored for a very long time. Store the bottles on their sides in a dark, cool place that has very little temperature variation.<\/p>\n<p>In case you are storing a bottle you have already opened, use a proper champagne stopper before putting it away in the fridge; whoever said that a spoon in the neck of the champagne bottle will ensure the bubbles are retained, obviously hasn&#8217;t tried it themselves &#8211; it doesn&#8217;t work!!<\/p>\n<p>For any kind of information about <a title=\"Signature Cellars are your experts in designing and building unique wine storage solutions\" href=\"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/signature-cellars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wine cellars and cellaring wine<\/a>, call <span style=\"color: #d5d5d5;\"><strong>Signature Cellars<\/strong><\/span> at <span style=\"color: #d5d5d5;\"><strong>02 9340 7515<\/strong><\/span>. Alternatively, simply use this <a title=\"Contact Signature Cellars to learn more about how to serve wine and champagne properly\" href=\"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contact form<\/a> to connect with us and we will get back to you shortly.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for reading,<br \/>\n<strong style=\"color: #d5d5d5;\">Neil Smallman<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Signature Cellars<\/em><br \/>\n<em>02 9340 7515<\/em>    \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you like champagne and like to bring out a bottle of fine bubby, every time you invite special guests over for dinner, it&#8217;s a good idea to learn how to open and pour champagne &#8211; and this isn&#8217;t very difficult to learn. However, getting the bottle&#8217;s cork out is only 50% of the task [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serving-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/signaturecellars.com.au\/wine-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}