Opening a bottle of sparkling wine is the highlight of any celebration, but one can pop the cork for the mere pleasure of enjoying a drink, or simply to wrap up a successful day.
The traditionally bottle fermented and aged sparkling wines serve perfectly as celebratory drinks for any occasion.
On the other hand, sparkling wines made in tanks are excellent refreshments, or they can accompany any meal.
The ideal drinking temperature can be achieved by sufficient pre-cooling, and sparkling wines should be stored at the same ideal temperature as well.
To safely maintain the ideal 4-8 °C temperature, the sparkling wine bottle should be placed in an ice bucket filled with ice and water. Keep in mind, that sparkling wine cools 2 °C per 10 minutes. (When the sparkling wine is warmer, it is more likely that the cork soars and the drink foams up.)
When we take out the bottle form the bucket, it must be dried up by using a clean white serving towel. Take care not to damage the label representing the brand on the bottle
It is much easier to untie the wire cage or the cork-wiring, and it also prevents the cork from soaring, if the bottle is held in an angle of 45 degrees. By tearing around the cap, untie the hook holding the wire that restrains the wire cage, and loosen its legs.
Check if the cork is pushing itself upwards, because it shouldn’t. If the cork is indeed moving, press the cork, the cap and the wire cage down hard with the palm of your hand at the same time, and remove the cork very slowly. If the cork is not pushing upwards, remove the cap and the wire rack together. Hold the bottle body in one hand, and in the other, hold the bottle neck tightly in way, that you thumb should cover the cork.
Turn the bottle, and tilt it, so that you would be able to open it without a noise. If the cork does not loosen, turn the bottle again with one hand, this time holding its bottom. If it doesn’t work either, use a cork lifter.
Sparkling wine corks should be removed without a noise - except in some merry, special occasions. Popping the cork bothers most people, and not much sparkling wine is left in the bottle, because if the cork soars, and the drink foams up, most of the carbon dioxide and the drink is wasted.
Use a clean serving towel to dry the mouth of the bottle. If the cork smells bad, the drink is at fault.
Smell it and have a taste to check if the sparkling wine is up to standard regarding its aroma, taste, carbon dioxide content and mildness. This is always the host’s duty and right.
The glasses should not be cooled before serving sparkling wine. Unlike wine, sparkling wine should not be turned around in the glass, because it might lose most of its carbon dioxide and its mildness.
Therefore, sparkling wine glasses can be filled up to 5/6 full.
In order to enjoy nice foaming and fizz, use long, so-called flute-shaped glasses, and fill them carefully in more than one go. Sparkling wine glasses should be tilted in a 60 degree angle towards the bottle while filling. This way, as the sparkling wine flows slowly into the glass it produces way less foam, and loses less carbon dioxide. The wide and shallow, goblet-shaped glasses can be filled in one go, but these are recommended for aromatic sparkling wines.
