The Basics of Bubbly

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41339-2003Dec30.html" title="The Basics of Bubbly (washingtonpost.com)">The Basics of Bubbly</a>: If you are a once-a-year bubbly consumer, here are five crucial points to consider: 

1. Get the temperature right: Champagne should be just a little colder than still white wines, but a prolonged ice bath will get it too cold and obscure its complexity. From room temperature, a full hour in the refrigerator or about 25 minutes in the freezer will be about right.
2. As Hippocrates said: First, do not poke your eye out. Keep constant downward pressure on the cork, even when unwinding the wire cage. Ease the cork from the bottle by grasping it firmly as you twist the base of the bottle from side to side. A very faint release of air pressure (phonetically, ‘pfffft’) is all you should hear.
3. Spring for a few decent glasses. The broad, shallow coupe-style should be pitched into the fireplace in favor of tall, slim, flute- or tulip-style glasses, in clear (i.e., uncut) crystal.
4. No soap, ever! A flat beer is a drag, but a flat Cuvee de Prestige is a catastrophe. You can remove fingerprints and lipstick from the outside of glasses when perfectly inverted with a lightly soapy sponge, but never let any soap into the interior, which should only be rinsed with very hot water. Dishtowels can retain soap residues, so air-dry the glasses or use paper towels.
5. If tonight’s festivities will be crowded and noisy, Cuvee de Prestige Champagnes would obviously be prohibitively expensive, and though ‘pearls before swine’ would be too harsh, it makes no sense to serve wines deserving contemplation under raucous circumstances.