"Champagne and orange juice is a
great drink. The orange improves the champagne. The champagne definitely
improves the orange." Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Champagne is a good accompaniment for every meal, including breakfast. A
mimosa, or cocktail of orange juice and champagne, can spiff up any morning
meal. Of course, champagne doesn’t need to be mixed with anything to be an
outstanding accompaniment to breakfast, brunch, appetizers, lunch, dinner and
dessert.
The question is not what to serve champagne with, but what to serve it in.
Remember that Dom Perignon remarked he was "drinking stars." The idea is to
capture and preserve the stars, or fine bubbles, throughout the drinking
experience. The actual wine component of champagne is important, of course, but
the bubbles are what cap the experience. Legend has it that the bubbles bring
more oxygen to the brain and either get you more pleasantly inebriated more
quickly or make you better able to form scintillating thoughts. You choose your
legend.
If you’ve seen the wide, shallow glasses used for champagne toasts in old
movies, you’ve seen an interesting type of sculpture. They are said to have been
modeled after a plaster casting of Marie Antoinette’s breast. That may be
glamorous, but the shape lets the bubbles and the aroma escape. If you sip from
this type of glass, you’ll have flat, tasteless champagne about halfway through.
If you gulp, then you’ve missed the experience. To remedy this issue, use a
champagne flute. Flutes are tall and narrow, allowing you to watch the bubbles
and sip slowly and appreciatively without losing any flavor or fizz. The flute’s
stem keeps the heat of fingers away from the champagne. This guarantees a cool
quaff.
Sweet or Tart
Champagne can be purchased brut (not sweet), extra-dry, dry (medium sweet)
and sec (very sweet). You’ll base your champagne purchase on the application. If
you’re serving champagne with a very sweet dessert, you’ll want a BRUT
champagne. A SEC champagne would add too much sweetness to the cake or candy. If
you’re serving a neutral dish, such as pasta with a light cream sauce, you’d
select a SEC champagne. And so on. We suggest lots of tastings to ascertain
pairing the correct champagne with the correct food.