“Champagne: in victory, a merit; in defeat, a necessity.”
- Napoleon
New Year’s Eve celebrations, so the stories are told, date back more than 2,000 years to Mesopotamia when the Babylonians celebrated with a festival called “Akitu.’’ The celebrants likely drank some sort of beer, which was more common than water in the ancient world.
Chances are good that millions of people around the world – including those who still celebrate Akitu – will toast the New Year of 2024 with beer or some other libation. For many people, however, the libation of choice will be champagne, specifically Dom Perignon. After all, if Dom was good enough for Napoleon Bonaparte, it’s good enough for 21st palates.
In fact, Dom Perignon – created in 1936 (although champagne was created by monks in the middle 16fh Century), is consistently the champagne of choice at high-end restaurants worldwide, including Diplomat Prime at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, FL. One of the Southeast’s top steakhouses, Diplomat Prime recently hosted a champagne dinner featuring Moet & Chandon champagne paired Executive Chef Jorge Negron’s exquisite dishes.
The highlight? A 2013 Dom Perignon (paired with Crispy Poussin), but not before Will Hays, Moët Hennessy’s Prestige Manager for Resorts, Leisure & Bars in Florida, showed off how to properly “saber’’ a bottle of champaign. Napoleon, who had a close relationship with Jean-Rémy Moët, grandson of Claude Moët, who founded the Moët business. and his men rode into battle sabering bottles of Dom. You can do the same (sort of) to ring in the New Year thanks to this primer from Hays.
Will Hays
“When a champagne bottle is made, there are two seams,’’ he said. “Find the seam and trace to where the neck is made into the cap. That’s the weakest part of a champagne bottle. The pressure inside a bottle is up to 90 pounds per square inch. That’s a huge amount of pressure. If you ever get into sabering, flip the bottle upside down and have it on ice for as a long as you can. That will make it easier to break off the neck.’’
Happy New Year from the Emperor and Moët.
Feature Photo: The History Channel