"Come quickly, I am tasting the stars"
"Come quickly, I am tasting the stars", is what Dom. Pérignon is supposed to have uttered when inadvertently but - it must be said - serendipitously inventing champagne.
And who can blame him. There is something about champagne that just lands in a way that most other sparkling wines don't. (Which is absolutely not to diminish the immense pleasure these other fizzes can offer - more on those another time).
Champagne, as you know, must be made in the Champagne region of north-eastern France, just north of Burgundy. Only a handful of grape varieties are permitted, and they must be vinified using a specific method, viz. a secondary fermentation in the bottle. That's what creates the sparkle that so beguiled old Dominic Pérignon.
Our approach to champagne at Drop is to make like a truffle pig and rootle out the real gems. We've nothing against some of the more familiar labels, but for us the fun is in unearthing something a little different - those champagnes made in smaller quantities, more often than not by the same people who've grown the grapes (not always the case in this region in particular), and that make us more or less invent a special occasion purely as an excuse to open them.
Take the Moussé Fils rosé champagne, with its structure and depth but also it’s absolute focus on being fun, or Didier Herbert’s devilishly dry Extra Brut. Huré Frères “Invitation” has been a stalwart on our list since forever, and one gulp will tell you why. Bonnaire’s 2014 vintage is 100% Chardonnay and 100% hot-to-trot. And Dhondt-Grellet’s “Dans Un Premier Temps” is bright, citrus-driven, and has party written all over it.
But, how to open the darn thing?
Obviously, the main consideration on your mind is how to open a bottle. As far as we're concerned you have two options.
The first is what we like to call 'The Classic Method'. Remove the foil. Then carefully untwist and remove the cage - for word nerds out there, its correct name is 'the muselet' - while keeping your thumb over the cork to avoid a Formula 1 moment. Hold the cork firmly in one hand and the bottle in the other, tilting the bottle at 45 degrees. Twist the bottle until the cork releases with a pleasing 'pfffft'. Hold it at this angle a little longer to prevent any overspill. Dive in.
The other method is the one we call the 'Do Not Try This At Home Method', aka 'Sabrage'. Find your nearest sword, or large kitchen knife, and head outside to a safe space. Find the seam that runs up the neck of the bottle. Ensuring you are not aiming the bottle anywhere near any other human or animal, smartly slide the back of the knife - or your sword - up and down the seam a few times, then confidently and decisively strike the lip of the bottle beneath the cork. We of course do not encourage this in reality because it is dangerous. But if you were wondering how it's done, that's how.
"In victory I deserve it, in defeat I need it" Napoleon is supposed to have said of champagne. Whatever your mood, it is guaranteed to improve it.