Champagne in Popular Culture - Ritual and Symbolic Uses

Ritual and Symbolic Uses

The iconic nature of Champagne has long been used as a means of effusive ritual celebration, in which the wine is not consumed so much as "sacrificed". The Champagne bottle traditionally smashed off the bow of a ship or aeroplane at its launch is believed to originate in the rather more reserved celebrations surrounding the christening of a baby. The contents of a bottle agitated and sprayed over onlookers from the winners' podium of Formula 1 motor racing and other sports has origins in the earlier patronage of prestige sporting events by the social elite; the extravagant "waste" of the highly valued wine being an expression of the spirit of the Belle Époque. Rock band U2 famously end their concerts in similar fashion, spraying the audience with Champagne before leaving the stage. The act of pouring out champagne in the sink (so called sinking) has arisen in Sweden due to a ban on spraying champagne in bars.

In a similarly extravagant vein, Marilyn Monroe was reputed to have taken a bath in 350 bottles of Champagne.

The "saucer" shaped glass is another Champagne icon associated with a celebrity sex symbol. The Champagne coupe is often claimed to have been modeled on the shape of the breast of a French aristocrat, often cited as Marie Antoinette or Madame de Pompadour. This is almost certainly apocryphal, as the glass was designed especially for sparkling wine in England in 1663, preceding those aristocrats by almost a century, and sparkling Champagne itself by several decades.