How To Open A Bottle Of Champagne - You're Doing It Wrong All Wrong

Whenever there is a reason to celebrate, a bottle of bubbly is often involved. Champagne is a type of sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region, a place in northern France, and uses a blend of three specific grapes: pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay. All other bubbly wines, whether from a different place or a different grape — you might have heard of Italy's Spumante sparkling wine variety — are referred to as sparkling wines. But ultimately, they all do the same thing: pop when unsealed.

Opening a bottle of Champagne can be intimidating because you've likely heard horror stories of the cork flying through the air and potentially causing injury. The "pop" of a Champagne bottle is due to pressure within the bottle forcing the cork out, so you always have to be careful when opening this drink. Craft bartender Kamaron Lockwood has shared his expert tips and tricks for safely opening a bottle of Champagne in this "You're Doing It All Wrong" video, including never holding it near your own face or anyone else's. Through the process, he maintains one major rule: "No matter the occasion, you always want to proceed with caution."

There are a handful of steps to take before you even get to the point of uncorking the bottle. Each bottle of sparkling wine or Champagne comes with a foil wrapping, which is meant to protect the cork from light and moisture, and also offers an additional seal. Lockwood advises finding the foil tab first, which makes it easy to disconnect the foil from the bottle and expose the wire cage.

Up until this point, the cork has been guarded by a wire cage, but when it's time to pop the bottle, that cage has to come apart. Find the twisted metal on the side of the cage, and turn it counter-clockwise to help loosen it from the cork. "We want to make sure to keep our thumb always on the top of the bottle," Lockwood says while opening the cage. This offers additional protection and ensures the cork won't unexpectedly pop once the cage is loosened.

As you open the cage, the cage and cork will separate, but you'll have to get an idea for how loose the cork is before removing the cage entirely. "We want to kind of feel out the cork," Lockwood says, adding that the cork's looseness can vary, with some popping easily and others not so much. "I kind of lightly release [my thumb] to see what the cork does," Lockwood says, with the cage still over it. Once you've confirmed the cork isn't ready to pop, you can proceed to remove the cage.

Be sure to keep one finger on the cork as much as possible while you open and remove the cage, and even after you've taken the cage off, for safety. "The wine cork will actually just slowly be releasing until it completely pops," Lockwood says. "A lot of movement can also make this happen." He suggests also swapping hands while removing the cage to make sure the cork is almost constantly covered by at least one finger and keeping a firm grip.

Never let the cork fly out of the bottle. "I wouldn't recommend that in almost any scenario," Lockwood says, adding that it's important to hold onto the cork while popping the bottle to make sure that nothing gets damaged and everyone stays safe. Hold the cork and gently twist it; you should be able to feel the pressure starting to loosen the cork. From there, grip the cork with some force while holding it away from your face (and anyone else's), and firmly remove it from the bottle.

You should hear a notable "pop" sound. "If you're gonna shake the bottle, spilling the contents everywhere in a celebratory fashion, just make sure to shake it after you pop the cork, and not before," Lockwood cautions, because that pressure buildup from all of the bubbles could cause the cork to fly. From there, once the bottle has been opened and it's confirmed that nothing has spilled, you can go ahead and pour the Champagne.

The process for removing the foil and cage remains the same for any sparkling bottle, but a high-end, aged Champagne requires a different process for cork removal. "We don't want to alter the integrity of the contents of the wine," Lockwood says. "Opening too fast could potentially bruise the wine."

Instead, keep your thumb on the cork as you would with any bottle, but rather than twisting and gripping, you're going to remove the cork as gently as possible with a light "nudge" to let the pressure release slowly rather than all at once. You shouldn't hear any popping sound. "You want to really gauge hearing that air being released," Lockwood adds, saying that some bottles might take a little while to open, referring to the released pressure as a comically-coined "angel fart." Once the pressure is fully released, the cork should come out without much of a sound, and you can pour the Champagne. Cheers!