Champagne should be served in long-stemmed flutes or tulip shaped glasses. These are designed to enhance the flow of bubbles to the crown and to concentrate the aromas of the wine. Never chill or ice the glass; the glass should be room temperature.  Incidentally, since the surface texture of crystal is rougher than ordinary glass, more bubbles form on these glasses.

  The champagne glass you choose is often determined by fashion. The champagne coupe (cup) or saucer-shaped glass, while very popular, was never designed for drinking champagne. It’s popularity was made by the legend that it was modeled from the bosom of Marie-Antoinette. Hugh Johnson states that this is not entirely without some truth. "The Sèvres porcelain factory did take a cast from this august model and produced four detailed white bowels that were mounted on elaborate bases of three goat's heads to adorn the Queen's Dairy Temple at the Château de Rambouillet near Versailles. The dairy still exists; as does one of the four coupes."

  Champagne should be served cold at about 43 to 48°F (7°C). In this range the smell and taste of the wine can be fully appreciated. This temperature can be achieved by placing the unopened bottle in an ice bucket — one-half ice and one-half water — for 20 to 30 minutes. Or, you may refrigerate it for 3 to 4 hours. The refrigerator temperature is too cold for the bottle to be left in there for extended periods and champagne should never be placed in the freezer.

   When opening your bottle of champagne, only remove enough of the foil to be able to loosen or remove the twisted wire hood. Keep a finger or thumb over the cork at this point as it could pop out of its own accord. If the cork is loose, remove it carefully with the wire hood. Most often though, the cork has to be eased out. To do this, hold the bottle away from you and anyone else, at a 45 degree angle.  Be sure to keep a glass nearby.  If the cork isn’t removed properly and the wine begins to flow out of the bottle, you won’t spill it. Hold the cork and gently turn the bottle in one direction. Turn the bottle and not the cork.

   The cork should not pop. You waste bubbles when you pop the cork. When the cork is properly removed it should come off with a quiet sigh and not a loud pop! There is about 70 pounds-per-square-inch of pressure behind the cork.  This makes it a dangerous missile. It helps if the champagne is properly chilled at 45°F - and if you avoid shaking it as much as possible before opening it.

   Before pouring, the neck should be wiped with a clean cloth. Begin by pouring a little champagne into each glass, just an inch or so, and allow the foam to settle.  Then begin again and pour until the glass is about two thirds full.  The froth or foam should never be allowed to spill over the glass.

  One of the most famous and esteemed types of champagne,  Dom Perignon, is named after the individual who is often credited with the invention of the bubbles in champagne. The good Benedictine monk presided over the wine cellars at the Abby of Hautvillers in 1688. He wasn't so much the inventor of champagne as one of its chief promoters and perfecters. In fact, the bubbles that appeared in champagne were originally thought to be an imperfection, since the goal of the vineyard was to create an excellent still white wine. Because the grapes in this cold region of France had to be harvested before the winter frost -- and fermentation occurs only when it is sufficiently warm -- champagne underwent one fermentation before the winter, then another in the spring. This dual process of fermentation allowed carbon dioxide to build up in the bottles, creating the bubbles we love so much today. Dom Perignon excelled at combining various wines to create the ultimate blend released by each house.

Champagne was originally a still wine

Long before champagne had bubbles, it was a still wine and was considered one of the best in France.

Even red grapes can make white champagne

One of the primary grapes used in the making of champagne is Pinot Noir, which is a red (or black) variety of grape. The interior of a Pinot Noir grape, however, looks very similar to a green grape. When its juice is extracted, therefore, it will look the same as a white wine; i.e., a slightly amber hue. Only when the juice is allowed to sit with the skins and stems of the grapes, during a stage known as maceration, does the finished wine become red. Thus, a counterintuitive factoid is that much of the finest clear champagne in the world comes from red grapes.

Marque

  The first thing you will need to determine is which brand and year you intend to order. Unlike wines in general, the best champagnes hail from only a few sources. By definition, true "champagne" comes only from that region of France that bears the same name. Specifically, the Champagne region is 90 miles northeast of Paris, close to the border of Belgium. Champagnes themselves typically come from one of three areas within that region: Reims, Marne, or Cote de Blancs.

  Unlike most wines that are named after vineyards, champagnes are named for the houses that produce them. These houses, in turn, produce various brands of champagne, which are known as marques. When you ultimately are forced to select a bottle of champagne, it will be these marques from which you must choose. The list of most famous champagne marques is relatively short, so if you can remember it -- or even just a few items on it -- you will never fail to find something familiar in a liquor store or on a restaurant menu:

While each of the marques is a great champagne, you will need to taste many different marques before you can determine your own preference. But since there is the handy half-bottle size available, it won't break your budget while you decide.

Vintage

  As with any wine, quality varies across the years, in harmony with the quality of the grapes harvested that year and the weather of the harvesting season. Unlike many wines however, one needn't sample decades worth of champagnes to identify a good year. Champagne is typically held for up to five years by the manufacturing house, but when it is eventually released for purchase, it should be consumed within two years. Choosing a relatively young champagne, therefore, is not considered poor taste or decision making.

  Also, champagne is often blended across years. For a champagne to be considered of a particular year's vintage, at least 80% of the grapes used in producing it must have been harvested in that year. The remaining 20% of the grapes, therefore, can be from other years. Vintners will often blend their champagnes with the "greatest hits" from across the years, which leads to a more uniform quality of beverage. This is yet another reason why choosing any particular vintage of champagne is not that important -- all those of a given marque are quite similar.

Size of Bottle

  One thing that is a little trickier about champagne is the size of the bottle. Champagne comes in a whole array of sizes, and basic economics tells us that we should buy only as much as we need and no more. Anyway, knowing some of these terms is sure to impress your date or friends!  Here are some of them:

Quarter-Bottle 6.3 fluid ounces

Half-Bottle 12.7 fluid ounces

Bottle 25.4 fluid ounces

Magnum 50.8 fluid ounces

2 bottles Jeroboam 101.6 fluid ounces

4 bottles Rehoboam 147 fluid ounces

6 bottles Methuselah 196 fluid ounces

8 bottles Salmanazar 304.8 fluid ounces

12 bottles Balthazar 406.4 fluid ounces

16 bottles Nebuchadnezzar 508 fluid ounces 

   You probably are not going to have many occasions to purchase the Nebuchadnezzar, but at least you now know that those oversized bottles in vintners' windows are available if you do!

 You will, however, need to know Half-Bottle, Bottle, and Magnum. If you are dining alone, or simply want to order champagne to accompany dessert, it is much more affordable and less wasteful to order a half-bottle, which will pour out to slightly more than two full glasses.  Of course, a Bottle is the standard order if you are having your champagne over dinner. The Magnum comes in handy if you are at dinner with a party of 3 or more. 

Knowing some of these terms is sure to impress your friends and companions!

Dryness

  Once you have identified the size, brand, and year of your champagne, go ahead and drink it. If, however, you are really trying to impress, then you can take your particularity one more step. The last variable in choosing a champagne is its level of dryness. Champagne is not alone among wines in occurring in various levels of dryness, but it is unique in that the dryness is largely determined by the winemaker. To understand the process of making a champagne dryer or sweeter than usual, you will need to have a grasp on how the stuff is made.

  Usually grapes are chosen at the height of their ripeness, when they contain a good deal of natural sugar. Yeast is added to the juice of those grapes, which converts their ample sugar into ample alcohol. The Champagne region, however, is an atypically cool region of France, in which grapes must be harvested before they are fully ripe. Their sugar content, therefore, is too low to make an alcohol of comparable fortitude. Champagne thus has sugar artificially added to it so that the yeast has more fuel to convert into alcohol. Obviously a winemaker can add greater or lesser amounts of sugar to alter the strength of the finished product -- and, of course, adding more sugar is going to make the champagne taste sweeter too. As you enjoy more and more glasses of champagne, you will develop a taste for whether you prefer it dry or sweet.

  As a quick guide, here is a list of the levels of dryness that you can choose in your champagne:

  Level of Dryness Amount of residual sugar per liter Extra Brut, Brut Sauvage, Ultra Brut, Brut Integral, Brut Zero .6% Brut 1.5% Extra Dry, Extra Sec 1.2 to 2.0% Sec 1.7 to 3.5% Demi-Sec 3.3 to 5.0% Doux (sweetest) 5% and up

  Be warned, even if you have a sweet tooth, champagnes rated as Doux should be used only as a dessert wine. The most popular style will be Brut, and champagne makers save their best grapes for this category.