How to Properly Saber Your Champagne Bottle To Make New Year’s Celebrations Pop With Joy!

Wishing you peace, love, and good health in 2024. 

And great adventures in the new year…

For tonight, we’ll enjoy a delicious dinner and a movie at home.  

And copious amounts of champagne.

Have you ever sabered your champagne?  It’s quite an adventure unto itself.  Here’s how:

Despite the bad luck associated with eating lobster on New Year’s Eve ~ the thinking here that lobsters walk backwards ~ Bill and I are feasting on our own home cooked Surf & Turf: Filet and lobster claws.  And roasted vegetables.  

And oh, my favorite: champagne,    

Have you ever sabered your bottle of champagne?

I did it once. It was thrilling.  You will see the look of sheer astonishment on my face.  A satisfying accomplishment. 

Enjoy this video of my sabering initiation as instructed by the champagne brand, Nicolas Feuillatte out on the streets of Gotham.  (I couldn’t help but think at the time that only in New York City can a group swing a really big knife on the sidewalk and no one even blinks!) 

Sabring a champagne bottle started in France where it was said that Napoleon’s army would open champagne bottles with their sabers during Napoleon’s victory celebrations across Europe.

So, what are the secrets to sabering a champagne bottle? Here they are, according to the St. Regis hotel:

• A young vintage champagne with pressure still on the cork is optimal for sabering. Do not try to saber prosecco or sparkling wine, unless you want to possibly shatter a bottle and wind up in the emergency room. champagne bottles are thicker and you should only attempt to saber champagne.

• Prepare the bottle by chilling it between 45-48°F or 7-8°C for 24 hours to lower its pressure and vibration.

• Set the bottle upside down in an ice bucket approximately 20 minutes before opening.

• When ready, reveal the cork by removing the foil in its entirety. Then, unwind and discard the wire basket.

• Carefully point the bottle upwards at about a 30-degree angle. Find one of the two vertical seams running up the bottle, and quickly slide the blade of the saber along the body towards the neck.   

• Do not hesitate. Take one long, quick swoop of the blade along the neck of the bottle. Be committed.  I was initially too shy/scared, but you need to be deliberate and confident. 

• The force of the blade as it hits the lip of the bottle’s neck will break the glass.  I had thought I was just hitting the cork off but no ~ it’s the entire bottle neck. 

• The cork and collar will remain intact, and the champagne will be ready for a toast.

These tips and background were suggested in a recent Broken Palate email I received.  Good advice to augment my experience to share with you. 

Now, you are ready to toast with your loved one(s).

For us, we’ll offset the bad lobster luck (I am soooo superstitious…) with the tradition of sharing a kiss at midnight.  

We all know it’s believed to bring luck in love.