One says that when the officers of Napoleon’s army returned home after a victory, cheering townspeople would hand bottles of Champagne as tokens of their appreciation for their victory and gallantry.

Since the soldiers were mounted on horseback it was difficult to hold the reins of the horse and remove both the foil, wire basket (muselet) around the cork and the cork (bouchon) at the same time, so the soldiers simply took out their sabers and struck it against the lip of the bottle with an upward blow and sabered off the cork. Voilà!

Another says Mme. Clicquot (the widow Clicquot), in order to have her land protected, gave Napoleon’s officers Champagne and glasses. Being on their horses, they couldn’t hold the glass while opening the bottle.

Consequently, they tossed the glasses away, and took their sabers out and sabered off the top and cork and drank from the bottle. Voilà!

In more scientific terms, it is the meeting of the glass lip (annulus) at the top of the bottle just below the cork (bouchon) with a firm tap of a sabre’s edge and at the weakest point of the glass seam in the bottle. When performed on a suitably chilled bottle of Champagne, the cork and glass annulus fly away, spilling little of the precious Champagne. The pressure inside a bottle of Champagne (100psi) ensures that no glass falls back into the bottle making it safe to drink the spoils.

There may be no dashing dragoons, happy hussars or lascivious lancers to sabrage the bottle, except for a few of us that have continued this proud tradition. I consider the sabre a good substitute for the sprained wrist and napkin when opening the bottle and, more especially, a very spectacular way of celebrating CHAMPAGNE!

As such, “The Noble Art of Sabrage” was born and the rest, they say, is history.

Not every swordsman in Phoenix can open a bottle of Champagne with a sword…But I can!

Taking a 6-month sabbatical in France changed my life (it actually lasted 18 months, but that’s another story). Not only did I renew myself, but I was also introduced to “The Noble Art of Sabrage”.

“The Noble Art of Sabrage” is the technique of opening a properly chilled Champagne bottle by using a saber to hit the glass ring at the top of the bottle just below the cork and at the weakest point along the glass seam in the bottle. The technique does not specifically involve extracting the cork, but actually removing the whole top of the bottle…glass and cork.

As a result of this introduction, I was inducted into the London Chapter of The Confrerie du Sabre d’Or and was trained to saber all sizes of Champagne bottles. The Confrerie du Sabre d’Or started in France over 25 years ago and currently boasts 30,000 members in 12 different countries. The Confrerie du Sabre d’Or was created with the intention of initiating the greatest number of people into “The Noble Art of Sabrage” throughout the world. As a member of French, London and USA Confrerie du Sabre d’Or, I have successfully sabered more than 400 bottles, and taught more than 200 people to sabrage a champagne bottle.

I would be most honored to assist you in making your event a most memorable one whenever champagne is celebrated by demonstrating “The Noble Art of Sabrage” to you and your guests.