Champagne & sparkling serving tips

Little fact - the pressure inside a bottle of Champagne is 2-3 times more than the pressure in your car tyres. But don’t let the pressure of serving sparkling get to you mofo, you’ve got this. 

Here’s five serving tips for when you’re getting fizzy.

Chill the night (not the week) before

If you’re inclined, the temptation is to always have a bottle of sparkling on ice ready for good times, at any time. And why not? You deserve it. 

The thing is though that most kitchen fridges don’t have great relative humidity. If your Champagne or sparkling has been chilling in there for too long the cork will begin to dry out and allow air to-and-from the wine inside, meaning you’re at risk of losing that sparkle. 

Best thing to be safe - pop your bottle of bubbles in the fridge the night before so that it’s well chilled but still full of life. 

Open like a pro

Popping corks looks cool. As does slicing the neck of a bottle with a saber. But looking like you’re in control and you do this all the time, that’s true cool. Plus, with this method you don’t even spill a drop, and the somms swear by it.

Place your thumb on top of the cork, over the top of the cage. Loosen the cage, and then whilst keeping pressure on the cork gently twist the bottle to gradually uncork the wine. When the cork releases from the bottle what you’ll get is a gentle “phut” that gives you an aura of debonair French chic and quietly announces - hey, I’m the mofo that’s got this. Less noise says more.

No flute? No worries

Flutes are as ubiquitous to serving sparkling wine as drinking it is to finer things in life, but it doesn’t always need to be so dressed up and fancy. There’s no clear consensus as to the “best” glasses for sparkling wine (cork dorks are divided as to whether it’s tulip shaped-glasses or flutes) and we’re not ones to stand on ceremony - it's your enjoyment that matters. 

To get the best from sparkling though, opt for a clean glass to allow the bubbles to freely disperse upwards, and fill to the halfway mark so that the aromas have space to collect in the top of the glass.

Play safe, pour slow

You’ve seen it done by the pros - pour slowly, with the glass at a 45 degree angle. This way the wine falls across the inside of the glass, rather than hitting what’s already in there and causing a ruckus that spills out onto your clothes, table, shoes, carpet, whatever it can find in the distance. This way, you make pouring look effortless without too much effervescence.

Keep it cool, forget the teaspoon

Pop your sparkling in an ice bucket, esky or back in the fridge between pours to maintain that chill - and leave the teaspoon in the cutlery drawer. Putting one in the neck of the bottle does nothing apart from look like the setup to a magic trick gone wrong. Instead, seal with a hermetic cork (it’s the one that reminds us of Ned Kelly’s helmet). It creates a seal that does a better job of keeping those bubbles in the bottle. Bush-bashing without a hermetic cork? Such is life - just grab some glad wrap and a couple of elastic bands to jury-rig your own.

Ready to start serving sparkling like a pro, mofo? Get the wines you need here.