I could just tell you that for champagne to be at its best you serve it chilled to a perfection of 450F, but thats just not giving it the due consideration it deserves. Yes it does need to be a chilled to a cool 450F, but the truth of the matter is that it doesnt need to be an exact science. If you just leave it in the fridge for about three hours to chill you should achieve the right temperature.
And after that you can keep it chilling on ice in a champagne bucket so that when you need to top up your glass you dont need to trot over to the fridge all the time, and neither will it be warm from being kept outside. Letting a champagne warm is probably the very worst thing that you could do it and to your palate, as champagne doesnt taste all that great when its warmed up.
After youve opened a bottle of the bubbly, you might have excess champagne and want to store it for a few more days. This can easily be accomplished by using a proper champagne stopper. The stopper will hold the oxidation process at bay for a little while longer until you can get to it again.
Now, since were on the topic of how best to serve the champagne, you might also be interested to know that you can get the cork off the champagne bottle without popping and a lot of gushing going on. It just takes a little bit of practice, but it can be done.
First of all, carefully remove the foil covering and the wire hood. Then, holding the bottle at an angle of 45 degrees, hold the cork in one hand while turning the bottle. The cork should virtually sigh open with a slight mist flowing from it, and there should be no popping or gushing going on.
After that you should pour the champagne, ideally into champagne flutes, but do it slowly. This will avoid the champagne from frothing too much. Allow the champagne to settle in the flutes before topping up the glass.
On a side note, the reason for using the champagne flutes is so that the champagne bubbles can gather together and rise to the top, giving off a more concentrated aroma to enjoy.
Muna wa Wanjiru
Original source: http://www.articlesbase.com/wines-and-spirits-articles/how-best-to-serve-champagne-302771.html
