"Méthode Champenoise"

Gevonovich

Gevonovich

Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
15,193
What knife do you prefer to use to open your Champagne?

My humble Champagne knife ....und Ihr Messer bitte? (and your knife please)


W. H Morley & Sons
Germany



 
When opening champagne it's best to do it with some panache.

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I don't drink champagne though. If I ever decide to do so, I'm going shopping for one of these.

champagnesaber.png


- Christian
 
I like your method, Christian:D I'll need some stylin safety glasses now and of course one of those Sonoma Sabres
 
Beautiful picture and knife Gevonovich but I am confused. I must not have a prestigious enough upbringing because I always just pop it open with my hand and let it fly :D
 
richstag said:
Beautiful picture and knife Gevonovich but I am confused. I must not have a prestigious enough upbringing because I always just pop it open with my hand and let it fly :D
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It would be dangerous to use the knife to open Champagne as we know it. I was playing on words. I believe the knife got its name from the Champagne Valley of France and is designed to open a regular bottle of wine. There is quite the controversy using the name Champagne. In Europe the name is used for wines grown in that region.
 
It is a 'champagne knife ' because of the serrated blade used to cut the wire tied around the cork and the bottle.

The wire had to be cut then , there was no way to untie it - no 'latch' as you can find nowadays -

ELDE
 
What ELDE wrote.

Mind you, some wine still have foil caps/plastic/wax which need slicing off before you can get at the cork. Yet corks are getting rarer, screwtop is rapidly taking over in Europe, and even plastic bottles :barf::eek: I draw the line on these.

What I use is a Spanish made Pulltaps, a combo of foil cutter,lever corkscrew and bottle top opener. Not pretty, but effective. Soon I fear the corkscrew will be a tool relegated to the mysteries of "What WAS that? What was it for?":D
 
Gevonovich said:
It would be dangerous to use the knife to open Champagne as we know it. I was playing on words. I believe the knife got its name from the Champagne Valley of France and is designed to open a regular bottle of wine. There is quite the controversy using the name Champagne. In Europe the name is used for wines grown in that region.
Click to expand...

The Champagne region produces some very good still wines, both red and white. While other quality sparkling wines are produced elsewhere in Europe, using similiar, though not identical methods, European Union law forbids them even to be labelled Méthode Champenoise as in the past. The term 'Traditional Method' (and linguistic variations on that) may be used.

Great-looking knife Gevonovich :)
 
Gevonovich said:
It would be dangerous to use the knife to open Champagne as we know it. I was playing on words. I believe the knife got its name from the Champagne Valley of France and is designed to open a regular bottle of wine. There is quite the controversy using the name Champagne. In Europe the name is used for wines grown in that region.
Click to expand...

This is happening with cheeses as well.Particularly the stinky blues. Where will it all end? Probably with China having to use proper Chinese names instead of American knockoffs like RR-at the end of the day if its any good who cares what its called? Sorry for the rant -just had a couple of glasses of Aussie Cab Sav. Gee it was nice tho. Und mein billig und schlecte Wein Messer.
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ELDE gave the answer about the origin of the name.
Yes, in Europe (and actually in the rest of the world), the name Champagne should be reserved to the wines made in the Champagne region of France, no matter the fact that there are other wines, made exactly the same way, made in other regions.
As for wine bottles, at least here we don't see screwcaps nor anything like that; good cork is getting more difficult to find (and more expensive), so lately some winemakers use a sort of synthetic corks, which is not too bad (although good natural cork is another thing. Yet, although judging a book by the cover isn't usually the right thing to do, I avoid any wine bottle which doesn't have a plastic/wax cap that I have to cut and a cork I have to pull off.
I will search around: many wine makers here used to give away such knives, with a corkscrew and a small blade (sometimes two) to open wine bottles (like the one posted by Meako).

Fausto
:cool:
 
Nice one's Duane and Gev. I don't own one but if I did, Here is an interframe wine knife from Dietmar Kressler.

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Kris
 
Thanks for all the interesting info, everyone. This is taking some pleasurable unexpected turns.

Now that is a fine piece, Duane!! Just gorgeous. Thank you for sharing.

Meako, very similar to what I used as a waiter for years in the old days.

Kris, that is a marvelous example. I know there are so many beautiful examples out there and I can't wait to see some more.
 
This is an old champagne tool circa 1850. I have quite a few different champagne openers etc if you'd like to see them.

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Think this one cost me a quid in Barnsley Market! :D

 
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