1955 The U K B G Guide to Drinks (2nd edition revised)

WINES OF FRANCE

Temperature The recommended temperature at which champagne should be served is approximately 43° F. It is interesting to note in order to bring this wine down from ordinary room temperature of about 60° F. to the serving tempera ture it would take 70 minutes by using dry broken ice. If water is added to the ice the time taken to reduce to the serving temperature is cut by two-thirds—about 22 minutes. This is very deceiving but very true. Serving The removal of the cork can very often ^ve trouble, but if the precaution of covering the cork \vith a napkin or service cloth is taken there should be little trouble unless of course the cork breaks; to avoid this one should use the champagne cork extractor, a scissor-shaped instru ment with claws. It is considered improper to allow the removal of the cork to be the occasion for the resounding of a loud"pop". One further point about the service of any wine; the wine should always be presented. Presentation is half the job of bartending. The label of the bottle should never be covered with a cloth. If worth selling the wine is worth showing off to the best advantage. The Champagne bottle is best controlled by holding the bottle close to the neck, by doing this one is able to manoeuvre the bottle to the best advantage. This appUes to any wine bottle, and in particular to wines that have thrown a sediment. Less tilting is occasioned this way. Any sparkling wine not produced in the Champagne area is either sold under its own area name or is known as Vin Mousseux (sparkling wine). Wine made after the method of Champagne Wine, that is by allowing the natural secondary fermentation in the bottle to develop, and then disposing of the sediment, is known as Methode Champenoise.

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