Winter Games 2010: Snow, Sabrage and Salmanazars
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On top of the immensity of the Olympic Winter Games, it appears the Canadians are planning an after party of equally biblical proportions. Thanks to Andre Saint-Jacques, owner of the Bearfoot Bistro and its extravagant underground wine cellar of more than 20,000 bottles (a perennial winner of the Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence), the Champagne will flow freely for gold medal winners. And to make things even more thrilling, the Champagne bottles will be ceremoniously decapitated by Saint-Jacques himself – the Guinness World Record holder for most Champagne bottles sabred in a single minute (21).
Opening a Champagne bottle with a sword or saber by hitting the lip of the bottle (its weak point) with the blade, thereby severing the collar from the neck is called “Sabrage” and dates back to the Napoleonic Era. Napoleon was quite the lover of Champagne and is credited with saying, “Champagne! In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it.” Saint-Jacques, also an effusive lover of the bubbly is Canada’s No. 1 importer of Moet & Chandon.
To celebrate the Games, Moet showed their love for their favorite Canadian with a gift: 100 jeroboams (3 liters) and 30 salmanazars (9 liters) of Brut Imperial (these big bottles are appropriately named for biblical kings). The salmanazars are for Canadian gold medalists and their guests, and the jeroboams will be given to the first Olympic medalists of each country. Saint-Jacques will also offer magnums (1.5 liters) of Champagne to the rest of Canada’s medal winners.
Much like the advice Saint-Jacques gives about beheading Champagne bottles – when drinking multiple glasses of Champagne “Its all in the wrist.” That also goes for swallowing the aspirin after.
