Depending on your age and background, you will either have a preference of how to drink champagne, or you simply will not care as long as you can drink it. With many alcoholic beverages, there aren’t specific ways to drink them, and people won’t turn their noses up at you if you drink beer out of a bottle.
However, amongst the few beverages with rules how to drink them is champagne, and you would be surprised how many people are doing it completely wrong, and disregarding the experience of drinking champagne.
There are certain occasions when you are willing to splash the cash and go all out on an expensive bottle of champagne, and when you choose to do this, it is important to respect the drink and enjoy it the optimum way. In order to do it the right way, the help of Hervé Deschamps, a Cellar Master at Maison Perrier-Jouët was enlisted.
The a high-end champagne brand has been in business for over 200 years, and if anyone knows how to drink champagne correctly, it’s them. Deschamps kindly gave a breakdown of how to treat a $65 bottle of Perrier-Jouët Blason Rosé, and in all honesty, all champagne should be drank this way.
Pop With Caution
Despite the reaction that champagne gets when the bottle is popped open and flies across the room, people don’t realize that it is going to total waste by being sprayed everywhere. If you want to pop bottles on prosecco then fine, but when it comes to good champagne, Deschamps noted “pop the cork of the champagne bottle quietly and safely,” and when it comes to pouring it, he added “If the champagne is poured incorrectly, it can lose its distinctive bubbly taste. You should incline the glass to a 45° angle and pour carefully.”
The Glass Is Important
While it is a given that drinking champagne out of a plastic cup is a total insult, Deschamps noted that if you’re going to invest in glassware for it, you should buy stemware. He also explained “The proper way to hold your glass is by the stem so you don’t affect the temperature of the drink.”
Chilling & Serving
Although you might be desperate to chill the champagne as fast as possible so you can start drinking it, Deschamps explained that slow and steady is the way to go. He said, “At minimum, any champagne should be chilled for up to three hours, but no more than a day in advance, for best enjoyment, around 10-12°C (50-53°F).”
Keep It Cold
Once you have gone through the motions of preparing the glasses and chilling the champagne to perfection, Deschamps suggested that keeping it cold in an ice bucket is the way to go. However, if you plan to drink it for over an hour, the Cellar Master said “After an hour you might consider using a ‘bouchon stoppeur’ to reseal the bottle so it doesn’t lose its bubbles.”
Now go ahead and drink champagne the right way, it will taste better, too!