A way to guarantee the beverage will both lose its
bubbles too rapidly and be of a suboptimal temperature.

A small price to pay I would have thought ....

Never managed the 'off' but have done the 'in between'. The short distance traveled by the champagne allowed for minimal warming

Of course a nice glass of champers in these circumstances is always complimented by a finger buffet.

Really hope that's a euphemism.... Love it!

That's all I'm going to say.

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Jesting aside.... bottle to mouth Champagne can be messy if you dont have experience doing it or if you dont have the right bottle mouth gadget....

I was actually being serious haha. Back in my wilder days (anytime from 2006-March 2010) I was in clubs buying champagne 3 or 4 times a week. Usually I'd get 2 to start off with, one for a few friends and 1 for me. Now the logistics of carrying around a glass and a bottle in a club are pretty bad so ditch the glass and apply directly to mouth as needed. This works up to magnum for me. Double magnum and above tend to stay in the bucket with everybody using glasses. For my friends birthday at the Ritz Grand Cayman I bought him a 15 litre bottle of Veuve, it was hilarious watching the staff try and pour from it. They didn't have a cradle so it became a 2 or 3 man operation. Was a great night, my girlfriend told me not to get too crazy yet I polished off 17 glasses of champagne in the first hour... She was not amused

A trend that started in London is putting sparklers on top of the bottle so everyone can see that you bought one. Great for increasing sales, I'm ok without the sparklers but I do appreciate the girls they employ to carry these bottles above their heads through the club

I have a new suggestion... The best way to drink champagne is with free shots! At a bar in London where the bartenders worked on commissions (big on bottles) I negotiated 20 free shots of Grey Goose with a purchase of 3 bottles of Dom. Got absolutely lashed since there were only 4 of us drinking

I think showbiz has it correct - or other places if you are a noble wench!

I also have heard that a wider glass lets you enjoy the bubbles

Mumm's Napa Cuvee is our sub-$20 choice for bubbles.

After that, we go non-stop to Champagne and stay there.

I think it's time to bump this. I'm looking to buy some reasonably priced, but tasty stuff. Several people have mentioned cava as being outstanding. Cava tastes good to me only after going through a couple bottles of the French stuff. Seriously, can someone recommend a cava that is anything close to being as good as some of the non-vintage champagnes in the $30 - $50 range mentioned earlier, such as Veuve Clicquot, Piper-Heidseick or Taittinger? For an American, has anyone tried Roederer Estate Sparkling Wine?

I have searched for cava that is competitive with Veuve Cliquot but have never found any -- only ones that are good value under $10. But that is an unreasonable expectation, Veuve is an excellent champagne setting a high bar. The US branches of the champagne houses are quite good (Roederer is one of the better ones, but I have a soft spot for Chandon which I think was the first champagne house to make sparkling wine in the US). The Aussie sparklers are even better than the US ones, generally for a lower price, and are competitive with Veuve on the high end though a different style and half the price or less.

I've never had a really good Cava. But I have had some decent ones at good restaurants in Spain, and even a few in the Netherlands, where they love Cava. I think the NL must import more Cava than any other country. That said, I rather doubt you will find a good Cava in America.

One of the posts above mentioned small artisan Champagne producers. Here in France I get really good NV Champagne for around 5 bucks a bottle from a producer you have never heard of. And that is only from a friend of a friend.

The Poor Man's version of Cristal. ^