To Enjoy Champagne, Treat It Like Beer

[Smuterella]

I heard Marie Antoinette.

And if you get my mum drunk enough, she will try to demonstrate that hers fit.

I heard the same.

And do we have the same mother?

 

[Undertow]

Not in France you haven't. Or in any restaurant with properly trained waiters.

Do the French not pour down the side of the glass? And what training would waiters need? I'm not trying to call you out, I'm just interested in this statement.

First, I agree with Yeps in that red wine can be poured straight down and into a nice big glass (big = broad). Helps mellow the flavor, etc.

Champagne, on the other hand, is often mishandled all around. Usually, some sop uses his thumb to shoot the cork across the room and pour the resulting bubbly out all over the floor, with a fraction making it in to your glass. You should wrap the end in a towel and gently twist/wiggle the cork out. Then pour slowly. Whether or not it's down the side of the glass isn't as important as how you're going about the whole thing to begin with. If you just tip the bottle tail up, it's gonna foam no matter what you do.

I prefer buckets, really; the kind with a protruding lip with which I can wrap my entire mouth around to drink. lol

 

[Miss Golightly]

I love the style of Champagne saucers but it's true the bubbly goes flat too quickly so the flute is the better option in that regard. It's hard to find the saucers in the shops (I eventually tracked a few down) - maybe they are no longer in vogue for the above reason?

 

[Puzzicato]

I heard the same.

And do we have the same mother?

lol Surely there can't be two of them?

 

[Geesie]

I may be dense but I don't understand...............

Irony that the "best" training is in a suboptimal technique.

 

[Tomasso]

Do the French not pour down the side of the glass? And what training would waiters need?

At table, the waiter should not touch your glass when pouring.

 

[Undertow]

At table, the waiter should not touch your glass when pouring.

Very good point! I pictured a waiter trying to pour down the side of a glass (probably spilling everywhere) and I wondered how this would help anyone. [huh]

 

[LordBest]

I loathe champagne flutes, they seem to be getting smaller and less attractive every year. This is in contrast to red wine glasses which are getting larger and increasingly vulgar annually. I fully expect to find one for sale soon the size of a football(soccer).
I would rather use a champagne saucer, but I've not been able to find any I like.

 

[Undertow]

I loathe champagne flutes, they seem to be getting smaller and less attractive every year. This is in contrast to red wine glasses which are getting larger and increasingly vulgar annually. I fully expect to find one for sale soon the size of a football(soccer).
I would rather use a champagne saucer, but I've not been able to find any I like.

Oh, you mean like this:

 

[LordBest]

Oh, dear lord, yes that sort of thing.

Oh, you mean like this:

 

[Richard Warren]

Only the NYTimes could write a piece on drinking champagne and beer that would make you wonder whether the writer had ever had a glass of either.

 

[Undertow]

So...what happens when you start enjoying your beer like champagne?

 

[Rathdown]

Flutes, saucers, and bon-bon dishes

Enough of this silliness! Prior to the discovery of the technique for disgorging sediment from champagne all sparkling wines were served in flutes to allow the sediment to sink to the bottom of the glass. When Louis Roederer began the wholesale export of champagne to Imperial Russia he did two clever things: first he used clear bottles (to show that there was no sediment in the wine) and, second, he popularized the use of saucers, again because there was no sediment in Roederer Champagne. Before WWI (and until right after WWII) champagne was properly served chilled in champagne jugs with the fizz removed. In public, where champagne was usually served from the bottle, fashionable ladies used to have little gold swizzles with which to stir their champagne once it was poured.

The reason that the flute made a come back is down to it's compact size on the table-- now that all of the glasses are jumbled on the table, instead of being presented with each course, there just isn't room for a champagne saucer along with a goblet, white, red, sherry, and desert wine glasses; hence the return of the tall, skinny flute.

As far as saucers being the shape of a breast... HA! As everyone knows it is the bon-bon dish that was shaped after the breast of Madame DuBarry... (okay, I made that last part up, but the rest is gospel)

 

[Icthruu74]

I have read that the difference between coupes and flutes is due to the changes in sweetness of champagnes over time too.

There are many theories on why one shape is favored over another historically.

Personally I don't care for flutes, I find a coupe to be more elegant. Plus I like to use them for other cocktails. They can be difficult to find, especially since I can be quite particular about my stemware.

 

[rue]

I was once told by a friend who knew about this sort of thing that the reason you see Champagne drunk from those wide topped glasses in old movies is that that's how the British upper crust used to drink it. And the reason for that was that they DIDN'T like the bubbles. The wide top makes the bubbles fizz away quicker, leaving a flatter drink.
Maybe this was so those old upper class sots could gulp the stuff down quicker without having a fizz bomb go off in their noses.
And the reason that a tall narrow flute glass is used by the French, and by Americans now, is that it preserves the bubbles.

I prefer the Champagne saucers and I don't have a problem with it going flat.... I drink it too fast for that

 

[fortworthgal]

I can't help it, every time I see the title of this thread I think to myself, "What? Chug it with a bag of pork rinds?" lol

I know, I know, but I couldn't resist. Sorry!!!

 

[rue]

That's hilarious! lol

 

[Haversack]

Call the fried pork rinds lardons and there you go!

 

[fortworthgal]

^ Brilliant!

I guess now champagne bongs will be all the rage at the frat parties. lol

 

[rue]

^ Brilliant!

I guess now champagne bongs will be all the rage at the frat parties. lol

Champagne bongs... :rofl: