Champagne Mumm at Longroom

"Do I want to practice the ancient art of sabrage and open a bottle of Champagne Mumm at the Longroom using only a wine glass?" read the invitation…

"Do I want to practice the ancient art of sabrage and open a bottle of Champagne Mumm at the Longroom using only a wine glass?" read the invitation. Without hesitation, I answered "yes!"

So on Wednesday 17th September we found ourselves ay the Ponsonby bar about to do the seemingly impossible – open a sealed glass bottle with just an ordinary wine glass. Episodes of Japanese reality talkshows flashed in front of my eyes but this was no crazy stunt. Sabrage dates back to Napoleonic times when soldiers would open bottles with just their swords.

Having already tried sabrage with a sword at Sofitel Auckland earlier this year on my birthday, I decided to try it with a wine glass.

How is this possible, you ask…the trick is to find the seam down the glass bottle and lossen the wire around the cork, moving it up one notch to the rim above, then hold the bottle at 45 degrees and run the wine glass base flat up the bottle and whack! Shazam! The cork goes flying off in one piece at speed. We got to keep our corks in little red velvet bags as a momento and receive a signed certificate which was a nice touch (as was drinking the open bottles of Champagne.)

Now, the public can do this for themselves. If you buy a bottle of GHMumm Champagne at the Longroom the sabrage sword activity is included in the price.

Below: G.H.Mumm chief winemaker, Didier Mariotti over on a three-day visit from France, showing us how it’s done. Note the cork flying off to the left of the photo.