You may consider yourself adept at opening champagne, but just how handy are you at popping the cork with a sharp implement, before filling up a flute with those gorgeous, effervescent bubbles?

If you don’t yet know how to sabre a bottle of champagne – a technique known as ‘sabrage’ – then this video is for you.

Sabrage is used for ceremonial occasions, whereby the wielder slides the sabre along the body seam of the bottle to the lip, to break the top of the neck away, leaving the neck of the bottle open and ready to pour.

The force of the blunt side of the blade hitting the lip breaks the glass to separate the collar from the neck of the bottle. The aim is to keep cork and collar together after separating from the neck.

The technique became popular in France in the early 19th century when, just after the French Revolution, Napoleon’s light cavalry, the sabre-wielding Hussars, would pay visits to aristocratic domains. Given Napoleon’s spectacular victories across Europe, the cavalrymen would toast victory by opening champagne with their sabres.

View the original video here.