{"id":1956,"date":"2015-04-17T19:53:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T02:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2015-04-17T19:53:49","modified_gmt":"2015-04-18T02:53:49","slug":"make-a-point-for-champagne-sabrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/lifestyle\/1956\/make-a-point-for-champagne-sabrage","title":{"rendered":"Make a Point for Champagne Sabrage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"sabering\"<\/a>

Jared Hamm uses a saber to open champagne nightly at Four Seasons Lana’i at Manele Bay in Hawaii<\/p><\/div>\n

Celebrating? Or drowning your sorrows? Napoleon made no distinction between the two occasions when it came to champagne. \u201cIn victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it,\u201d the battle-tested French Emperor declared.<\/p>\n

Romantic visions of Napoleon\u2019s soldiers opening bottles of bubbly with the swipe of a saber from atop galloping horses are conjured up during a sunset \u201cSabrage Ceremony\u201d under the Hawaiian sky each night at Four Seasons Resort Lana\u2019i at Manele Bay.<\/p>\n

\"IMG-20150331-01792\"<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s a 200-year old tradition,\u201d the resort\u2019s Mohzani Mokhtar told a group of thirsty vacationers as his colleague, Jared Hamm, grabbed a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and drew the special saber. \u201cThe Napoleon story makes it more dramatic,\u201d Mokhtar told me in an aside. With that, Hamm, while holding the bottle in one hand, clipped the neck off by swinging the sword with the other, sending the collar and cork flying 15 feet. The gathered gasped and the champagne flowed. Soon they toasted each other in victory for a Four Seasons day well-lived poolside, on the expansive beach, snorkeling over the reef or challenging the scenic Manele golf course.<\/p>\n

Mokhtar swears the dazzling, champagne sabrage is simpler than it looks and anyone could do it, even with a butter knife. That\u2019s secret number one: it\u2019s the dull side of the saber – not the sharp blade \u2013 which collides with the bottle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been estimated there are 500,000 bubbles in a bottle. That\u2019s a lot of pressure on its\u2019 two glass halves,\u201d said Mokhtar pointing to a barely visible vertical, sealed seem, as Hamm held the next bottle pointed slightly downward. Hamm slid the back side of the saber blade up and down along the seem, as if to warm it up and develop his rhythm, and then swiftly swiped the blade up the side, where it hit the protruding lip of the glass ring at the top of the neck and launched it, with the cork still encircled, off of the bottle and into the air. \u201cThe secret is the saber doesn\u2019t actually cut through the bottle. The blade stays on the bottle with a glancing blow. It\u2019s the pressure that pushes the top up and off. Any possible glass chips are blown clear by the pressure and very little champagne is spilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps to put the bottle in the freezer for about 20 minutes to make it more brittle before the sabrage,\u201d Mokhtar revealed.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t try this at home? Sure, why not? With the Four Seasons as its\u2019 only resort, Lana\u2019i, the \u201cPineapple Island,\u201d is easily the quietest of Hawaii\u2019s tourism islands, but guests will be long talking about their stay and maybe even showing off their sabering skills. Visit FourSeasons.com\/ManeleBay\/ for more information.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0or via TravelTattler.com\u00a0His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM and Fox 47 TV.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrating? Or drowning your sorrows? Napoleon made no distinction between the two occasions when it came to champagne. \u201cIn victory… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2015\/04\/sabering.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1959,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions\/1959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}