Napoleon, who carried a sabre, was known to have once said “Champagne! In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it,” which probably encouraged the tradition of sabrage, or sabering a bottle of sparkling wine, among his calvary. Thankfully, the joy of sabering a bottle of sparkling wine is not just for French military anymore. In fact, you don’t even need a sabre; all you need is a butcher’s knife, plus it’s actually much easier to do than you might think.
When you sabre a bottle of wine, you use a blade to break the neck of the bottle from the rest of the wine. The force inside the bottle from the carbonation creates such an intense amount of pressure that the sabering causes a clean break, launching the cork away from the bottle and leaving no shards of glass behind or inside the wine. Trust us, you’ll look super awesome doing this.
Follow our video tutorial below and try the technique out at your upcoming New Year’s Eve celebration!
Filmed by Ethan Segal
