Exploding corks and bubbles have long been the fun of champagne.

Napoleon's cavalrymen added to the excitement by sabering the bottles. They slashed their saber against the bottleneck to open it by breaking the glass.

While traveling in Champagne this weekend, I discovered that a Champagne house in Epernay, that exports heavily to the US and has developed a concept for venting champagne bottles before opening.

The idea is to prevent champagne spurting out and save people from receiving a cork in the eye. The inventor, Pascal Leclerc-Briant, seems to aim for profit from naive and safety obsessed Americans.

Leclerc-Briant's solution is for consumers to pull a the loop at the side of the bottle's neck to release excess carbon-dioxyde.

That sounds like a labor-intensive process to open a bottle. Isn't champagne all about spontaneity, unpredictibility and risk-taking?

Paradoxically, Leclerc-Briant also offers sabering classes (ie. the most dangerous way to open champagne bottle) at his vignoble for the steep price of 28 euros.