"Sabrage...the gentle art of Sabering"

The technique of Sabrage is known to have been popular in France during Napoleons era.  The saber was the weapon of choice for Napolean's light cavalry, the Hussars.  In one of the more spirited tales about sabering, Madame Clicquot used to entertain Napoleon's officers in her vineyard and they would open the champagne bottle with their saber to impress her.

The physics behind the sabrage...a Champagne bottle holds between 70-90 psi or as we are taught as sommeliers "a pressure of 5 to 6 atmospheres".  At the opening of the bottle, there is a lip that creates a stress concentration.  On the vertical seem of the bottle there is a thin, faintly visible seam, which creates a second stress concentration.  At the intersection of the seam and the lip, both stress concentrations combine and the strength of the glass is reduced by more than fifty percent.  The impact of the saber on this weak point creates a crack that rapidly propagates through the glass, fueled by the momentum of the saber and the pressure in the bottle.  Once the crack has severed the top from the bottle, the pressure inside the bottle and transferred momentum from the saber will send the top flying, typically 15-30 feet.

"Champagne! In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it."- Napoleon Bonaparte