As part of its opening celebrations, St Regis Bangkok is reviving the traditional art of sabring champagne. Showcasing the age-old ritual will be the hotel’s head butler, who will sabre several bottles of champagne at the hotel’s bar each night at 6:30pm. Guests can experience the thrill of the skill and then partake in the overflow of bubbly champagne.
Popularised during the Napoleonic era, champagne sabring is the art of separating the collar from the neck of a champagne bottle with a sabre. The sabre is slid along the body of the bottle towards the neck; the force of the blade hitting the lip breaks the glass, while the cork and collar remain together after separating from the neck. Whilst enjoying champagne celebrations after Napoleon’s spectacular victories, the difficulty of removing the cork from the bottle on horseback proved to be quite a challenge. As sabres were the army’s weapon of choice during that era, the problem was quickly remedied with a flick of the wrist. It was through this technique that the art of champagne sabring was born.