Sabrage: Opening Champagne With A Sword

Most normal people open champagne the way it’s supposed to be opened these days – take off the foil, undo the metal that holds the cork in place, hold the cork, twist the bottle and the cork comes out, allowing you to enjoy the bubbles inside. But, here at Wine Times we aren’t ‘normal’ per se and so, after a festive season where Champagne consumption was at its maximum, and where nearly every bottle was opened in a method called ‘sabrage’, we thought we’d give you a heads up on what it is and how it’s a very cool – and sometimes exceedingly dangerous – way of opening a bottle of Champagne.

‘Sabrage’ is the French term for opening a bottle of Champagne with a sword, yes, with a metal instrument designed to kill people, not to open alcoholic beverage! But, as quirky as the French are, I have to admit that this ‘invention’ is one of their best (along with the baguette, the pornographic movie, the bra, the bikini and the discovery of oxygen).

The technique itself became popular at the time of Napoleon, right after the French revolution when the country was at a time of celebration and most of them were armed to the teeth with swords and various sharp objects that were kept on hand in the case that a rogue monarch may try to regain power once more.

Champagne was a big favourite of Napoleon who once famously quoted that; “In victory you deserve Champagne, in defeat you need it”. Never one to turn a bottle of Champagne down, Napoleon was also a close friend of the house of Verve Clicquot and was suitably plied with the stuff during his time in charge of the country.

The traditional Champagne sword (or sabre in French) was approximately 30 centremeters long and was actually fairly blunt. The idea of sabrage is not to actually chop the top of the bottle off but to use the sword to exploit the weakest part of the bottle – at the top of the neck down the line where the two halves of the bottle have been put together (you can see a small line down the side of every bottle of champagne if you look carefully enough).

By taking off the foil, moving the position of the wire holding the cork in place (or just removing it entirely) and running the sword up the line of the bottle at its weakest point, the action of this coupled with the intense pressure in the bottle will cause the top of the bottle to come off (glass and cork together) in one swift movement (if you get it right!) Get it wrong and you are liable to have a lot of Champagne all over the floor and a lot of glass all over your party.

I can’t tell you how many times I have done this (once at my friends fathers 60^th birthday in England a few years ago we must have opened 20 bottles in this way – all successful I might add) and it is cool way to show off to your mates. In fact, you don’t even need a sword to do it, a simple kitchen knife will work, as will the base of a champagne glass but with this you need to be really careful and I am not endorsing anyone inexperienced to try this without a trained professional.

Once such professional is a man called Ian MacCallum here in Hong Kong. The act of sabrage takes place in his restaurant, Jaa Kitchen, here in Hong Kong almost on a daily basis, in fact, he encourages customer participation in doing so and is always happy to help teach people how to do it properly on a special occasion such as a birthday or a wedding anniversary. Speaking with Mr. MacCallum yesterday to find out more he told me.

“The act of opening Champagne with a Sabre has brought some personality back to table service especially with the growing number of screw top wines. To add that WOW to the act we train and guide our guests through the procedure ensuring safety for themselves and nearby diners”.

“There really are some safety guidelines to follow so it truly is a, "do not try this at home" act. There are always a range of Champagne promotions on in Jaa Kitchen to encourage you to have a go”.

I hear that the management can be quite generous if it happens to be your birthday, so if you want to give it a try you had better get in touch with Ian at Jaa Kitchen and head down there for some excitement on your special day!

And that, in a nutshell, is that! Once again, I must re-iterate that it is not something that you should try at home on your own, unless you have a friend with a mobile phone and 999 (or 911) on speed dial, as things can (and sometimes do) go terribly wrong – just look at the main picture of my brother where you can see the bottle has pretty much split in half and there are pieces of glass flying around all over the place! But next time you fancy a little fun with a bottle of Champagne, head on down to Jaa Kitchen and ask Ian to let you have a try.  

Jaa Kitchen – 61-63 Hollywood Road, Lower Ground Floor, Central, Hong Kong (entrance just off Peel Street). Telephone: 2545-5988