By Trip Styler, on June 30, 2016

How to saber a bottle of bubbly

A few years ago, I had an epiphany: Life is meant to be celebrated (at e-v-e-r-y opportunity). This is not to say that I live like a rock star who throws lavish parties or trashes hotel rooms, but it does mean I sip Champagne on a Tuesday night. 

Adding a splash of spectacular to the everyday, I upped the ante of my Tuesday night tradition in Whistler, Canada—a ski resort town 90 minutes from Vancouver, BC. Knowing it would be an epic evening, I selected a hotel, The Westin Resort & Spa, Whistler, just a few doors down from the Bearfoot Bistro, the destination’s it address for haute cuisine and celebration. Here, instead of ordering a flute of bubbly, I opted for a bottle and sabered it in the restaurant’s 20,000-bottle cellar! 

“The tradition started with the officers of Napoleon before they went to battle, when cleanly sabering the top off a bottle of Champagne meant good luck in the battle to come,” said André Saint-Jacques, founder of the Bearfoot Bistro, bon vivant, and the world record holder for most bottles of Champagne sabered.

Because André is “the go-to guy” for lopping the top off a bottle of bubbly, I enlisted his help to do it right. Turns out, the art of celebration is less complicated than you’d think. See for yourself in this video about how to take a Champagne-soaked celebration to the next level. Cheers.

How do you like to celebrate in style?