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For many people, preparing for the New Year’s countdown is the most exhilarating part of the holiday season. You tune your TV to the Times Square ball drop, hand out party hats, confetti, and noisemakers, and meticulously line up some champagne flutes. What’s left to do? Pop open the champagne! There are many partiers who pop the cork with enthusiastic and careless abandon, while others point the bottle away from their faces and anxiously twist the cork until they hear those bubbles surge to the surface. Turns out, while the latter practice may be slightly less fun, it’s certainly the safer approach. On April 8, 1978, Charles J. Murray was injured when a natural cork stopper spontaneously ejected from a bottle of previously unopened Almaden Blanc de Blancs champagne and struck him in the left eye. He was preparing to serve the bubbly to a party of 40 people, so he placed 12 bottles INSIDE THIS ISSUE From the Desks of Razumich & Delamater PAGE 1 Who Is Sherlock Holmes? PAGE 1 What Happens to Military Service Dogs? PAGE 2 Put MLK Jr.’s Message of Love Into Practice PAGE 3 Take a Break PAGE 3 Chicken Chop Suey PAGE 3 Watch Out for Rogue Champagne Corks This Year PAGE 4
PUTTING THE ‘PAIN’ IN CHAMPAGNE Spontaneously Ejecting Cork Causes Lawsuit
on a rolling cart and removed the foil and wire retainer from three or four bottles — including the one that eventually injured him. Once he started to roll the cart toward the guests, the cork shot out of the bottle all on its own.
bottles: “WARNING: THIS BOTTLE IS UNDER PRESSURE. THE STOPPER WILL EJECT SOON AFTER THE WIRE HOOD REMOVAL. TO PROTECT AGAINST INJURY TO FACE AND EYES, POINT AWAY FROM SELF AND OTHERS WHEN OPENING.” When it comes to bubbly-induced mayhem, the greatest potential trouble lies in the eye of the beholder — literally. With an estimated velocity of 60 miles per hour, uncontrolled corks do in fact fly faster than the blink of an eye. To avoid having to explain a not-so- fashionable eye patch at work on Monday, handle those fizzy drinks with care.
Due to the severity of his injury, Murray sued Almaden Vineyards, Inc.,
National Distillers and Chemical Corporation, and Carbo, Inc., alleging that they were responsible because they failed to include
a proper warning label on the bottle. The defendants, however, argued that the cork stopper did not and could not spontaneously eject unless Murray had handled the bottle improperly. The case was argued by both sides for two years, but eventually, Murray won. Almaden Vineyards now prints the following on its
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