Except if you don’t drink alcohol, it’s hard to miss the classic glass of champagne during a festive evening! In addition, we often want to mark the occasion for the end of year celebrations. But how best to choose, serve and store it? We give you all the answers for a successful tasting on D-Day.
How to choose your champagne?
In fact, it will depend on your taste in wines. If you prefer them sweet, favor demi-sec champagne. Otherwise, there are of course the sweet champagnes, but note that they are really high in sugar (around 50 g or more). Otherwise, choose a brut champagne, even extra crude. Also, if you want to accompany dinner, know that rosé champagne is perfect to go with lobster and shellfish. The Blanc de Blancs is ideal with foie gras or oysters. And if you’ve fallen for a champagne that has been aged for a long time in a cellar, it will go wonderfully with your truffles or your caviar. On the other hand, the most powerful ones will be reserved for strong game-type meats.
How to store your champagne until the tasting?
Once we have chosen, we do not keep it just anywhere! In effect, air, light and temperature differences affect its freshness and its bubbles. As a result, its quality can very quickly suffer… If you don’t have a cellar to reserve a corner for it between 10 and 15°C, keep it protected from light in a cardboard box. And as far as the position is concerned, contact between the wine and the cork is avoided as much as possible.
How to refresh it to be able to serve it quickly?
In general, we advise to put it lying at the bottom of the fridge 3 to 4 hours before tasting. But if you forgot to do it or you finished the bottles you had planned, there are techniques! As a result, you can prepare a large salad bowl of ice sprinkled with coarse salt and immerse the bottle in it. for express cooling (20 to 30 minutes). If you don’t have enough ice, you will have no choice but to go through the “freezing” box. Normally, we strongly advise against freezing which suppresses its aromas and completely dulls it. But if you have no other choice, wrap the bottle in a damp paper towel and head for the freezer!
What glass do you serve it in?
Sommeliers and producers often have a sharp opinion on the matter! To simplify, avoid cups with wide edges which remove the effervescence and aromas more quickly. On the contrary, favor glasses that have a slightly wider body and a narrow opening to better taste the flavors. And especially, we forget the plastic which is too hydrophobic! Indeed, it makes the champagne lose all its finesse and gives it too big bubbles. Finally, once served, it is completely no need to spin it. This makes it lose its bubbles and aromas more quickly.
Why shouldn’t you pop your cork?
When the bottle opening “pop” sounds, everyone is delighted (except the one who gets it in the eye). However, this removes a large part of the CO2 from the champagne… Say goodbye to your bubbles! Thus, it is better favor a less aggressive openingfor example by holding the cap securely with your hand or a cloth.
After opening, how to store an opened bottle?
Here, there are a whole bunch of techniques you can adopt:
- First of all, you can predict the blow with a cork bought especially for the occasion. This will help you keep your bottle for about 48 hours.
- Otherwise, there is system solution D: cling film held securely by a rubber band.
- As for the bubbles, the legend says that it would be possible to keep them in the bottle by sliding the handle of a spoon inside.
- However, for having tested, we prefer the technique which consists in slip a raisin into the bottle ! The carbon dioxide bubbles clump around and then return to the champagne. It gives it all its shine! On the other hand, it only works on a bottle that has only been open for a few hours…
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