And Just Like That… Carrie Bradshaw Uncorks a Persistent Myth About Preserving Champagne
It seems the Cosmopolitan cocktail has lost its main character energy in the Sex and the City revival series And Just Like That... But other cocktails and wine have stepped up to play supporting roles, helping to define the decidedly sophisticated world that Carrie Bradshaw and company inhabit.
In the latest season, for example, unapologetically high-maintenance Seema is judgy about Cabernet, because that seems normal. While we’re not privy to the exact wine in question, she rejects a blind date because she “doesn’t like the Cab” he chose. (And that he did the choosing, frankly.) And when Carrie spends time with her Gen Z neighbor Lisette, their beverage of choice is a classic Gimlet, a trendy upgrade from the Cosmos favored in the original series.
But our favorite drink cameo might be one of the most recent, in season three’s episode seven: A bottle of vintage Louis Roederer 2015 Brut Champagne. (Hey, no one ever said Carrie didn’t have good taste.)
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The bottle’s appearance comes as Carrie attempts to cheer up her realtor-turned-friend Seema, offering her a choice of “rosé or Champagne.” The character also brings to light of a longstanding wine storage myth, placing a silver teaspoon in the neck of the bottle as a makeshift stopper.
Of course, few details on AJLT are without a deeper meaning. Indeed, this particular bottle and this old-school preservation trick say a lot about the characters and this specific moment in the show.
Champagne on Set
Anastasia Tarasova, founder of product-placement agency Bottles on Set, worked with the AJLT team to find the right traditional method sparkler to best reflect Carrie’s tastes and the nature of the scene. “[The production] wanted a brand that looks elegant, and has this sense of sophisticated luxury that fits Carrie,” she says.
In the episode, the wine was on hand because of a party Carrie was throwing for Charlotte in the days ahead, so the bottle also needed to reflect that relationship. “It’s a classic that she would love for Charlotte,” says Tarasova, noting that, “Cristal would have been too posh,” and had previously been used for a moment with Seema and her boss in an earlier episode.
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Even the fact that the bottle was already open says something about Carrie and her current life circumstances. First of all, she’s just moved in and is mostly living out of boxes—who has the energy to excavate a packed-away sparkling wine stopper? Also, in recent years, the show has made a point of highlighting that Carrie uses her kitchen for more than just clothing storage, a hallmark of the original series. (That’s growth!) It’s much more believable in AJLT that she’d previously cracked open a bottle during an at-home dinner, rather than going out to somewhere vibe-y like Pastis or Red Rooster.
Plus, after Big’s passing, “she lives alone now,” adds Tarasova. “I don’t think Carrie is a person who would finish a bottle of Champagne by herself.”
But, What About the Spoon?
The spoon detail is an interesting detail, and one that entirely suits Carrie, an old-school romantic with superstitious tendencies. The thinking is that sticking a silver spoon in the neck of an open bottle preserves its fizz. But does it actually work?
I queried a number of beverage professionals on the practice, which elicited a range of responses from “absolute bullshit” to “it DEFINITELY works.”
“I’ve seen it used when the bar or restaurant doesn’t have the proper size Champagne stoppers for the width of the mouth, or when the bottle doesn’t fit in the lowboy with the stopper on,” says Melissa Brooke, beverage consultant and founder of Divine Spirits. “I would never deign to use it in a fine dining environment, but it does work, though I’ve never done a true side-by-side comparison.”
Christopher Bidmead, founder and CEO of Bar Methods, a technique-driven bar consultation service, is on the other side of the fence, claiming that the spoon trick doesn’t make sense from a scientific perspective.
He points to Henry’s Law, which states that the amount of gas that will dissolve in a liquid is proportional to the pressure of the gas trapped above the liquid. In other words, when a Champagne bottle is sealed, the high pressure inside keeps its fizz intact. Once the cork is popped, the pressure drops and the carbon dioxide starts to escape.
“Henry’s Law is what the silver spoon is trying to overcome,” says Bidmead. “Henry doesn’t care about spoons. He’s not nearly that posh. It’s lovely lore, but just a story.”
Turns out the science backs up Bidmead. In 1994, Stanford University chemistry professor Richard Zare conducted an experiment by uncorking several bottles of sparklers and refrigerating them for 26 hours using different methods of preservation, including some with spoons, some without and some with stoppers.
He found spoons made no difference—and neither did stoppers. “There’s enough carbon dioxide in the Champagne to keep it going on for many days…[but] the best way to keep gas dissolved in liquid is to keep it cold,” he said on an episode of NPR’s Science Friday. However, he also allowed for a generous asterisk on his findings as it relates to the spoon: “The only effect that I can tell is if it helps cool the bottle down when you put it back in the refrigerator.”
While I doubt Carrie cares about the science of effervescence, I can absolutely relate to the improvisation required during the move-in period. I once uncorked a bottle using a screw and an electric screwdriver when I had yet to unpack.
“Respect to the prop masters and show creators,” says Tarasova. “These details matter and tell the story about where we are right now.”
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