Did anyone "saber" any Champagne?

I unfortunately had to (have) to work this evening, unfortunately. I watched some videos of people sabering their Champagne and some did it with ease whith others ended up with shattered bottles. Anyhow any tips on the practice?

happy new year..

I have seen this done on a number of occasions and have done it myself twice.

In fact, this is a play on words because "sabler le champagne" means to crack open a bottle.

This is far less dangerous than it seems.
Just three rules:
1) The wine should be well-chilled
2) a sharp, snapping motion is called for
3) you need to hit the *lip* of the bottle held at a 45° angle away from you. The break will be clean and easy.

Best regards,
Alex R.

I'm usually able to get the foil and wire cage off, and the cork out of the bottle, without using a three foot artificial sword. My approach also doesn't involve any loss of perfectly good champagne.

Hoke,

There *is* an element of danger if people don't know how to use the sabre.

However, if it is done right, not a drop is lost.

Best regards,
Alex R.

Alex, you probably don't remember this, but a couple years ago our own Anders Kallberg, made his own saber for this very purpose. Pretty handy guy that Anders!

JFTMOR:

I recently got a Laguiole Champagne sabre as a gift. It reads "Laguiole à Champagne" on the blade.

I have absolutely no intention to use it.

Michael, I now have to google on Laguiole Champagne sabre to see what this looks like. I have a Laguiole waiters corkscrew, and rarely use it, but when I do I get a sense of pride in it. Mine does not have a knife for cutting the foil, rather it has one serrated side on the part that sets on the bottle top...works well too. Happy New Year to you Michael, here is hoping we see more of you in 2007.

Bob, a short google search didn't reveal anything so I reached to the wooden box: 39 x 93 x 500mm in size (sliding top cover). Total length of the sabre is 415mm, handle is 145mm (of which 117mm wood-coated). Blade is 270 mm long, 38 mm large (for 2/3 of the length) and ~1.5mm thick . Blade is *not* sharp (thanks God!).

Don't have a scale to weigh it, but for the size it looks and feels rather light.

But still: I have no intention to use it.

If you want to change it for a few bottles of bubbly ...

Oooops ... ... forgot to mention it: It has "Michael" engraved on the other side of the blade (right looking from top); the left reads: "LAGUIOLE / à champagne / Made in FRANCE".

I have done this twice, using the back of a large chefs knife. With the first bottle, the top came off cleanly at the first stroke, the top and cork disappeared, and very little wine was lost. I found the top in the garden a year later. With the second bottle I must have tried 15-20 times to get it to break. I think I eventually gave up and opened it in the normal manner.

Michael, this sounds to me to be a wine keepsake that you would want to hang onto. I am guessing too that the person who gave this to you is a special friend who went to the trouble to give you gift that you will enjoy owning.

Thanks, Alex.

I know how to do it. I've had it done for me---originally in Epernay, as a matter of fact. by a beau sabreur from Moet who was quite practiced at it.

My back yard alone has been the site of a few saberings---one that ended up with the top of the bottle, cage, cork and all, sitting in the bottom of my pool until I fished it out.

I've also done it, and am quite nifty at it. Not the point: the point is that it's simply meaningless show, and serves no purpose. The practice loses its charm quickly.

But for those who do want to sabre, one bit of sound advice: as Michael mentioned in his earlier post, the blade should not be sharp. As a matter of fact, those who do the trick regularly will tell you the blade should NEVER be sharp---you want that blunt edged piece of metal to impact the bottom of the bottle lip to create the fracture so the pressure of the champagne can blow the cork out sufficiently. A finely honed blade just makes it much more difficult to sabre well---and will likely result in chipping, notching or cracking the blade.

And one more note a la the showmanship: practiced sabre artists will also tell you one of the secrets to a gaudy display that will elicit oohs and ahhs is to make sure the champagne is NOT well chilled. Tepid champagne froths much more and gushes out of the bottle more explosively. Makes for a more dramatic performance. [Also a total waste of champagne, of course; but then, appreciation of good champagne is not at all what this practice is about.]

In fact the blade's irrelevant. The coolest thing I've ever seen was a sommelier "sabreing" a bottle of bubbly with the base of a flute. That was awesome, but I'm afraid to try it...

In fact the blade's irrelevant. The coolest thing I've ever seen was a sommelier "sabreing" a bottle of bubbly with the base of a flute. That was awesome, but I'm afraid to try it...

I've done it with the base of a flute.

Any implement will do it, what I found worked best is to slide the edge up the bottle (held at an angle away from you) with the firm intention to continue the movement way past the top of the bottle. When I started I was psyched up to stop at the rim, whet when I change to a smooth sweep up I was always succesful, a hard strike is not ncessary, just a smooth steady sweep.

In fact the blade's irrelevant. The coolest thing I've ever seen was a sommelier "sabreing" a bottle of bubbly with the base of a flute. That was awesome, but I'm afraid to try it...

I've done it with the base of a flute.

Any implement will do it, what I found worked best is to slide the edge up the bottle (held at an angle away from you) with the firm intention to continue the movement way past the top of the bottle. When I started I was psyched up to stop at the rim, whet when I change to a smooth sweep up I was always succesful, a hard strike is not ncessary, just a smooth steady sweep.

Good way to describe the technique, Peter. In American baseball, it's what they describe as "swinging through the ball, not swinging at the ball". And I think that's how the describe the 'best' golf swing---but that is something with which I have no familiarity whatsoever, so I can't say.

"Smooth steady sweep".....sounds like my butterfly collecting swishing!!

In fact the blade's irrelevant. The coolest thing I've ever seen was a sommelier "sabreing" a bottle of bubbly with the base of a flute. That was awesome, but I'm afraid to try it...

I've done it with the base of a flute.

Any implement will do it, what I found worked best is to slide the edge up the bottle (held at an angle away from you) with the firm intention to continue the movement way past the top of the bottle. When I started I was psyched up to stop at the rim, whet when I change to a smooth sweep up I was always succesful, a hard strike is not ncessary, just a smooth steady sweep.

Hey Peter,
I remember seeing some photos of you sabreing champagne. Was that on the 'old' forum. Do you have a link?
Cheers,
Sue

That's exactly what I was told Peter: you gotta follow through. Haven't had the guts to try it myslef yet though

I'm not allowed to have anything sharp.

I can certainly relate to this as a friend who was a champers rep used to do it and I did it once, but I think that generally speaking the world would be a safer place if you all applied yourselves to cutting the mustard and left the bubbly bottles to the normal method of opening.

In fact the thought of combining a potentially hazardous activity to be followed by a potentially intoxicating activity (repeat as necessary) seems to be counter-indicated from the Darwinian perspective.....what next, holding the bottle at arms length while someone tries to shoot off the neck.......

While I can certainly see that sabering as a spectacle may be entertaining, I think its utility in the real world would rival the do-it-yourself- vasectomy kit....

I've done this, both using a proper sabre (forged from a truck leaf spring by a farrier/blacksmith who's also a wine aficianado), and using the blunt side of a Chinese cleaver. Both weapons are effective in knocking the top off of a Champagne bottle.

The tricks of the trade are, IMO:

1) Hold the bottle at arm's length, very slightly tilted up.

2) Hit the lip of the bottle at a very acute angle.

3) Whack it with absolutely as much force as you can muster, while trying to hold the bottle as steady as possible.

Remember that you can always use the weapon afterwards to threaten bodily harm to anyone with the temerity to heckle your feeble attempt, should the sabering fail.

-Paul W.

I can certainly relate to this as a friend who was a champers rep used to do it and I did it once, but I think that generally speaking the world would be a safer place if you all applied yourselves to cutting the mustard and left the bubbly bottles to the normal method of opening.

I have seen a video of a woman opening a champers bottle with the cork pointing at her head. She seemed quite surprised when it flew out of the bottle and hit her. Just lucky it missed her eye, I guess.

Hey Peter,
I remember seeing some photos of you sabreing champagne. Was that on the 'old' forum. Do you have a link?

Here they are, Sue

[img]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c237/winelabels/origSabrage2.jpg[/img]



[img]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c237/winelabels/CIMG0244.jpg[/img]

Fantastic shots Peter. Good job of the photographer to get that second one.
Thanks for posting.
Cheers,
Sue