100

The number of California winemakers who recently flew to Cuba to pour their wines for the local population – the first timeCalifornia wine has been served in that country. Besides the wines themselves, spittoons, decanters, and even glasses had to be shipped in.

The wire cage that holds a sparkling wine cork onto the neck of the bottle is called a:

A. Birdcage

B. Stall

C. Helmet

D. Muzzle

Known in French as a muselet or muzzle, the wire cage that holds a Champagne or sparkling wine cork in place is very important in opening a bottle of bubbly safely. The muzzle should not be removed before the cork is eased out. Rather, the muzzle should be loosened (about 6 turns will loosen it), and then the wire removed with the cork at the same time.

“He planned dinners, of enchanting aromatic foods that should be carried under the nose, snuffed and then thrown to the dogs … endless dinners, in which one could alternate flavour with flavour from sunset to dawn without satiety, while one breathed great draughts of the bouquet of old brandy.

— Vile Bodies (1930) by Evelyn Waugh, as quoted by Charles Spence in Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating

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