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Hosanna Houser takes the cap and wire cage that comes on a champagne bottle and makes cute little chairs out of them! Since each is from a special occasion, she marks the date underneath the “seat.” What’s more, she posted a picture gallery that shows you how you can make your own. Link -via Nag on the Lake
What are you going to do with the leftover champagne from last night? BraveTart suggests making champagne marshmallows. They can taste toasty or tart, depending on the type of champagne you use and how much vanilla you add. Find the recipe at the link.
Link -via Tasteologie
Have you ever seen someone open a champagne bottle with a saber? The act is called sabrage, used for ceremonial occasions. The cork and the glass collar of the bottle are removed in one smooth move, leaving the neck of the bottle intact. You can learn to do it, if you have a proper saber. Do you?
When performed correctly, as noted above on a suitably chilled bottle of Champagne, the cork and glass ring will fly away, spilling little of the precious wine and leaves a neat cut on the neck of the bottle. Now, the Champagne is ready to be enjoyed. Not to worry, the internal pressure (100 psi) of the Champagne bottle always ensures that no glass falls back into the bottle making it safe for consumption.
If you do try this, let us know how it turns out! Link -via the Presurfer
French physicists at the Université de Reims have studied the best way to pour champagne; their surprising discovery is that it should be poured into a tilted long-stemmed glass rather than into an upright one. The goal is to retain as much dissolved carbon dioxide as possible in the decanted liquid:
In champagne and sparkling wine tasting, the concentration of dissolved CO2 is a parameter of great importance since it directly impacts the four following sensory properties: (i) the frequency of bubble formation in the glass, (ii) the growth rate of rising bubbles, (iii) the mouth feel, i.e., the mechanical action of collapsing bubbles as well as the chemosensory excitation of nociceptors in the oral cavity (via the conversion of dissolved CO2 to carbonic acid), (iv) and the nose of champagne, i.e., its so-called bouquet…
They used infrared thermography (left illustration) to document the escape of carbon dioxide from the glass, and measured the dissolved carbon dioxide in the champagne (right illustration) over time and at different temperatures. The results are discussed in their publication in the ACS Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, where there are detailed photographs of bubble formation and a mathematical analysis of the degassing process.
Link, via Physics Buzz.
Divers exploring a shipwreck near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea found bottles of what is thought to be the world’s oldest drinkable champagne. They probably date back to the 1780s and have an estimated value of $65,000 each:
They tasted the one bottle they’ve brought up so far before they even got back to shore.
Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia. The nationality of the sunken ship has not yet been determined.
“We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was,” he said. “We didn’t know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something.”
Ekstrom said the divers were overjoyed when they popped the cork on their boat after hauling the bubbly from a depth of 60 metres.
“It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak,” Ekstrom said.
The oldest known champagne currently on record is from 1825.
Link | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user Waldo Jaquith used under Creative Commons license | Previously: World’s Largest Champagne Flute
I know next to nothing about champagne or sparkling wine, but I do know I’d like to have a bottle that costs more than $3.99 for my little gathering. But not much more than that. Luckily, Slashfood has my back. They have rated eight brands of bubbly of varying tastes and low price points, so if you are as clueless as I am, you should find this helpful. They even have a bottle of champagne sparkling wine that tastes decent and costs, yes, $4.
