Sabrage is the theatrical way to open a bottle of sparkling wine! It is where the bottle is opened using a sabre, which is essentially a sword or a large knife.
You slide the blade of the sabre down the neck of the bottle toward the cork and hit the collar of the bottle with a bit of force, and it will snap the glass cleanly, causing the cork to shoot across the room with an exciting pop and a froth of fizz.Â
It's theatrical, but can also obviously be quite dangerous, which our owner and senior winemaker, Damien disovered a few years ago.
Damien recalls, "Some of our Canberra members may recall a dinner I was hosting at the Boat House. I was preceding the dinner with a journalist tasting, and stupidly decided to sabre sparkling that was still on yeast lees from bottle fermentation, and therefore much higher in pressure than normal sparkling wines. The end result was a big explosion, a deep jagged cut to my hand, a night or two in hospital for surgery and a lot of embarrassment. Luckily my dad Max was there to finish the journalist tasting and host the dinner.
Damien shied away from Sabreage for many years after this incident, but recently picked up the sward once again to give it another go. You can watch this videohere.
