How to open a bottle of sparkling wine or Champagne in three easy steps

Opening a bottle of sparkling wine or Champagne is a pretty quick and fairly intuitive process even for the not-so “expert”.

 

If you don’t want to have problems – and enjoy only the best of the special occasion you are about to celebrate – there are a few simple tricks to take into consideration:

 

Step 1 – the first thing to do when you open a bottle of sparkling wine orChampagne is remove the foil capsule.

 

Use the little blade attached a corkscrew to cut through the foil capsule and peel off; some capsules have a handy pull tab to make this easier.

 

Once you have removed the capsule, pull the loop on the wire cage outwards and untwist it – 6 half turns should be enough – keeping the cage intact. Grip the neck of the bottle with your hand, keeping your thumb firmly on the cork.

 

Step 2 – still keeping a firm grip on the cork, hold the bottle at a 45° angle and start to rotate the base of the bottle firmly and gently, in this way you will start to ease off the cork.

 

Step 3 – as you rotate the bottle you will feel the pressure inside the bottle begin to push the cork out.

 

As soon as you hear a soft “hiss”, stop turning and let the internal pressure slowly release. If you do this properly, the cork will ease out and you’ll find it in your hand with no unexpected “surprises”.

 

Now you’ve uncorked your sparkling wine or Champagne, all that remains is to taste it to make sure it is perfect, and then pour it