Champagne - Champagne Etiquette

Champagne Etiquette

Champagne is usually served in a Champagne flute, whose characteristics include a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl, thin sides and an etched bottom. The Victorian coupe (according to legend, designed using a mould of the left breast (signifying a giving from the heart) of Marie Antoinette as a birthday present to her husband, Louis XVI) is not recommended as it disperses the nose and over-oxygenates the wine. Champagne is always served cold, its ideal drinking temperature at 7 to 9 °C (45 to 48 °F). Often the bottle is chilled in a bucket of ice and water before opening, which also ensures the champagne is less gassy and can be opened without spillage. Champagne buckets are made specifically for this purpose, and often have a larger volume than standard wine-cooling buckets (to accommodate the larger bottle, and more water and ice).