If you've ever tried to toast with one of those wide-mouthed coupe-style Champagne glasses, you know how woefully inefficient they are for actually drinking bubbly. Legend has it that that particular shape of glass was modeled after Marie Antoinette's breasts, and now Karl Lagerfeld has designed an updated version for Dom Perignon based on Claudia Schiffer's decolletage. Why is this ironic? First, the shape is terrible for Champagne because, as already mentioned, it's too wide and sloshy, and the Champagne goes flat fast because the surface area is so big. That's why those tall, thin glasses work better--they keep the bubbles in the wine. Second, Dom Perignon? The Champagne brand named after a monk? Releasing breast-shaped paraphernalia?
1-09-2009 @3:52PM gretchen said... Is that really what the glass looks like? Ewwww
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1-09-2009 @6:10PM Alex said... Decolletage is the neck line and the glass is ... um ... decidedly NOT modelled after that!
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1-09-2009 @8:53PM Gretchen Roberts said... Sorry Alex, you busted me. I was just trying to come up with another word instead of saying "breast" over and over. Didn't think "boob" would really cut the mustard, you know!
And Gretchen, yes--that is the real thing, only it's a bowl, not a glass. The coupe-style Champagne glass was a smaller model of the original Marie Antoinette breast-shaped bowl.
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1-11-2009 @5:14PM Karen Lawrence said... http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/champagne.asp
The rumor about Champagne glasses is actually untrue. Champagne was "invented" in the 17th century, and the glass was invented in 1663. Marie Antoinette wasn't even born until 1755.
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