This is more of a public service announcement than anything – it is a valuable lesson I learned relearned last night and I figured it was best to alert others in the event someone out there was soon planning to make the same mistake.
Last night, I opened a bottle of sparkling wine for my roommate and I to share. It being a Monday night – a night when both of us were working until we went to bed – we decided one glass each was enough. Normally, I dig out the Champagne stoppers – after all that’s why I have three – but to my dismay the only stopper available was actually a Chamboard stopper. While the tops may look similar, (and there is no foreseeable reason why Chamboard would have a separate stopper that looks shocking like a Champagne stopper) they are not.
Try to use this stopper resulted in my five-minute long scuffle that the stopper, ultimately won. I won’t get into the gory details, but it was not pretty. Frustrated and ready for bed, I reached for a normal stopper. After all, if you don’t have a Champagne stopper, I was always told you could slice the sides of the cork and put it back in the bottle without error.
I chose a heavy duty stopper so it wouldn’t pop out, – pictured here you will see my kangaroo stopper – popper it in, and left the room. Not even two minutes later I heard a loud POP! Ready to be impressed with the brut strength (no pun intended) Â of the CO2, (I thought it popped the kangaroo out of the bottle) I rushed back to the kitchen. Instead, what I found was what you see here, a bottle that was broken at the lip – a phenomena which I still cannot completely explain.
This presents a few issues :
#1 – I am still searching for those missing pieces of glass and am more than slightly concerned one will end up in my foot.
#2 – I’m not 100% comfortable reaching for a glass of that wine tonight – which is a shame because I happen to think Roederer Estate NV Brut is delicious and it’s been a heck of a Tuesday.
In short, don’t try this experiment at home.
The good news is that I found a working Champagne stopper in the bag I took out with me for New Years. I’m not entirely sure why I took a Champagne stopper out on New Years, but I’m happy to report I was at least trying to be responsible.
Anyway the moral of this tale is simple – either finish all the sparkling wine or use a Champagne stopper because CO2 does not mess around.