How to Open a Bottle of Champagne

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"""*E$3hFVVVDDDVDVDDD $u:c`"D0EDDD0@"Db~:EVVVV$Andrew Stover: Hi, I am Andrew from OYA Restaurant & Lounge in Washington, DC and today we are discussing tips from a Sommelier. In this clip, I am going to show you how to safely open a bottle of sparkling wine. So, few things that you may need to get started. A corkscrew with knife, just in case your bottle of sparkling wine doesn't have a pull tab as this wine does, because you want to go ahead and make a slice in order to remove the top portion of the metal capsule. You also want to have around a napkin or towel that way when you are getting ready to remove the cork, you will have a little bit more grip and just in case it foams up on you, it will be there to sop up any wine that flies out.

So, let's get started. First, always make sure that the wine is fully chilled and we are talking about 37 degrees. If it's not quite cold enough, the cork may fly out and the wine will foam up all over you and any guest that might be around. Also, when opening bottles of sparkling wine, remember to keep it away from yourself and other people that might be in a room, because you definitely don't want to hit somebody with the flying cork. It's about eight atmospheres worth of pressure inside most bottles of the sparkling wine and that really could hurt someone. Also if you happen to have any glass plates in your kitchen or anything breakable, at any walls, you probably don't want to be placing the bottle towards those walls because it could break something.

So, let's do it. Go ahead and remove the foil from the top of the bottle. This one was easy. Again, if it didn't have a pull tab, you would have gotten your corkscrew out and you would made a slice around the bottom of the metal cage here and then you would have just had to pick it back. But most everyday sparkling wines these days seem to be coming with the pull tabs. Sommelier higher in champagnes not so much. Now, here is the tricky part because you want to make sure at all times that you have one thumb over the cork. Just in case it decides to fly out unexpectedly. So, I am going to use my left hand since I am a right-handed kind of guy.

So, first we have to get off the metal cage. As you can see it has a little little hook here that you need to undo. So, we are going to go ahead and undo it, there, see. Now, you want to also at this point then go around without taking your thumb off and loosen this cage. Okay, see it's almost all the way off. Here is the tricky part. You just want to slide off the metal cage and then put your other thumb on there, just in case again, it wants to fly out. So, I am going to switch back to my left hand and get my napkin out. Place the napkin over the cork and push down. Now, do not pull the cork because if you pull the cork it might break and the last thing you want is a broken cork.

So, you are going to actually twist the bottom of the bottle, very slowly, while pushing down on the napkin and the cork and it's coming out and we just want to woo -- there we go, voila. You also want to be careful not to pull it out or let it come out too quickly because the bigger the pop, the more carbon dioxide that's being released and that means there will be less bubbles in your wine and you know the bubbles that make the bubbly. So after you got it off, you are ready to serve. Here we go, beautiful and as mentioned before, it's a good idea to have a bucket around just in case you need to keep the wine chilled while you are enjoying it. So there you have it, how to open a bottle of sparkling wine safely. Stay tuned for my next clip where I will show you how to decant a bottle of red wine. $*_jvrtEK QR-03z 1/23/43/43/43/43/43/43/43/43/43/43/43/43/4yoyoh;I,CJOJQJh.

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