Patrick Cappiello Wants You To Saber Your Champagne, Post It On Delectable
The wine app Delectable allows users to snap a photo of a label, click send, then will catalog the bottle with all relevant details about the vintage and showcase it for your network of friends. A social network devoted to wine? Sounds like a strong idea on its own. Now, the app, which has a devoted following amongst sommeliers, winemakers and devoted wine consumers (like me), has tapped some of its most well-known users for a series of curated hashtags. Here are details about how to download the app.
One of the first hashtags is timed for the upcoming New Year's Eve festivities, with Pearl and Ash wine director/partner calling on Delectable users to #saberit. For the uninitiated, sabering champagne is an extra-celebratory technique — humorously demontrated here in this old-school video from the Food Republic vaults. We caught up with Cappiello to find out how he got involved in Delectable's campaign, who he's challenging to saber a bottle or two, and what to drink on New Year's Eve.
How did you become involved in this project (like, were you an avid Delectable user
I've been using Delectable for over a year and a half. It was recommended by a friend and I was hooked as soon as I downloaded it. When Delectable asked me to be one of their guest curators it was a no brainer. It's the best way to track the wines you are drinking and love, and more importantly to see the wines that other people are drinking. I have been introduced to a lot of amazing wines on the feeds of people I follow. It's the only app that people in the wine industry use, and it's a great way for us to share our knowledge and discoveries with each other and anyone who is interested in wine.
Why'd you choose to highlight sabering over, say, natural wines or something else?
Sabering is something we do a lot here at the restaurant. Just like us at Pearl & Ash, the Delectable folks believe that wine shouldn't be uptight. It should be about enjoyment. With the New Year right around the corner, the timing was right to highlight sparkling wine and we decided this would be a fun way to do it. Also, as much as I love natural wines, they aren't quite as bad ass as chopping of the heads of sparkling wines with a sword!
The pros always say sabering is easy, but would you recommend that just average folks try it?
Yes, but there are some safety precautions that need to be considered. It can be a dangerous activity, especially after several glasses of wine. Delectable was pretty nervous about me being a bad influence, so for safety they are sharing one of my sabering how-to videos on their blog.
Which wine colleagues are you especially prodding to contribute?
Pascaline Lepeltier, Master Sommelier and Wine Director of NYC's Rouge Tomate, is amazing at sabering. Bryan Garcia, aka Corkhoarder, is okay. Never seen Levi Dalton, former sommelier and host of I'll Drink to That! podcast, or Bar Boulud's head sommelier Mike Madrigale do it. I'm sure they can, just need some proof ;).
What's the most exclusive, jealousy-inducing bottle you've seen recently on Delectable and who posted it?
Raj Parr's 1900 Clos Rougeard Les Poyeaux, hands down.
What's a widely available champagne you'd recommend for year-end celebrating, and maybe a hard-to-find-but-worth-it one?
Vilmart "Grand Reserve" is widely available and really delicious. Selosse "Substance" is anything but widely available and truly one of the most amazing wine experiences a human being can have.
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