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WINES OF FRANCE
Temperature
The recommended temperature at which champa^e
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 give trouble, but
if the precaution of covering the cork with a napkin or
service cloth is taken there should be little trouble unless
of course the cork breaks ; to avoid this one shoidd 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 applies
to any wine bottle, and in particular to wines that have
thrown a sediment. Less titling is occasioned this way.
Any sparkhng wine not produced in the Champagne
area is either sold under its own area name or is known as
Vin Moussec (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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