When opening champagne, make sure the bottle is not pointed at anything breakable or at any person. Tilt the bottle away from you so if the cork does pop out, it won’t hit you in the face. Inside that bottle are some 49 million bubbles generating enough atmospheres of pressure to inflate a school bus tire. Now you know why the bottle is so heavy and why the glass is so thick.

Champagne needs to be chilled. It is best when served at between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit and chilled quickly rather than by serving time in the refrigerator. Fifteen minutes in an ice bucket or half-an-hour in the fridge should do. (In a pinch, stick it in the freezer for ten or fifteen minutes.)

Opening a bottle of champagne is something of a theatrical event, almost like a Japanese tea service. Cut away the foil to expose the ficelle, that narrow wire muzzle twisted to hold the cork in. Unwind the wire ties—seven twists (seven being a good luck number)—keeping a thumb on top of the cork just in case. I like to drape a dishtowel over the cork to protect from a foamy bath if the cork should blow.

Under the towel, hold the cork firmly and with the bottle tilted away from you, slowly turn the bottle. If all goes well, the cork should ease out with a thud. A loud “pop” attracts attention, but it also probably means some wine will froth over board. “Popping the cork” may sound good, but it should be said rather than practiced.

To serve champagne, use a flute rather than a coupe. A flute is a pyramid-shaped glass, not dissimilar from a traditional Pilsner glass; a coupe is a flat, stemmed glass molded after Marie Antoinette’s breast. Appealing as her breast may have been, the coupe allows bubbles to escape quickly and the wine to warm almost as quickly.

Pour the champagne into the flute slowly, to reduce upward frothing. Stop the pour about halfway, proceed to the next glass and repeat the process, returning to the first glass to continue filling. The flute should be held at the base as viewing the bubbles adds to the ceremonial joy of this most festive of wines.

Nearly every other champagne-style wine is bottled the same way, and the opening procedures are identical. However, sparkling wines from places other than that ancient province of Champagne just east of Paris cannot be called champagne, even those made in California by the same French crews who come from Champagne to oversee the harvest and fermentation here in the United States.

Now for some shocking good news: should you not finish your whole bottle of champagne or sparkling wine, don’t invest in an expensive or decorative bottle stopper; just put the open bottle in the refrigerator without a stopper and let nature’s bubbles seal the surface of the wine. Next day – even next evening – it will still sparkle.