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glassware basics
Champagne, naturally, should be served well chilled. An hour or two in the fridge should do the trick; alternatively, you can chill in an ice bucket (filled with half ice, half water) for 30 minutes. Too cold and you won't be able to taste the wine at all; too warm and you get too much foam (on top of which, warm champagne just tastes gross).

There are two types of glasses commonly used for serving champagne: flutes and saucers. While the latter might look quite pretty, the former are strongly recommended. The tall narrow flutes expose less surface to the air - which means that the bubbles won't escape quite as quickly. Furthermore, the low, wide design of the saucers has a tendency to result in more spills.

opening the bottle
Those lovely little bubbles that give champagne its festive quality slowly release from the liquid as they sit in the bottle - and with nowhere to go in a tightly-corked bottle, this means that the bottle is under high pressure. As with any carbonated beverage, you want to avoid jostling the bottle as much as possible, unless you'd rather have your champagne end up in a puddle on your carpet than in your glasses. Because champagne is so bubbly, there's a certain amount of technique involved in opening it.

Yes, I know there's something satisfying about the pop of a cork. But let's face it, you end up with an awful lot of champagne spillage that way. If this is a-ok by you, ignore these instructions and let the cork fly (well, except for the part about pointing the bottle away from you and others, as that's important). For those who want to avoid waste, however, here's the proper way to do it…

If your bottle's been sitting in ice, make sure to dry it off with a towel first. Hold the bottle aimed away from you (as well as anyone or anything else you don't want to maim with an exploding cork) at a 45 degree angle. Remove the foil, and keeping a thumb on the cork, untwist the wires that hold the cap in place. Place a towel over the top of the cork. Hold the cork with one hand and the base of the bottle with the other. Turn the bottle, rather than the cork, gently and smoothly until you hear the cork ease off -- you want a soft, sighing poof rather than a dramatic pop bang. Voila! You're ready to pour.

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