What do you get when you merge the experience of African Hospitality and luxury with the resort feel of the Mauritian Islands and French influence – a trademark trait of Zabulan Hospitality that is taking African hotels by storm. The team recently added their signature touch to the recently re-opened Mount Meru Hotel, making it East Africa’s first hotel who offer guests the incredible opportunity to be taught how to open a bottle of champagne with the blade of a definitively African sabre.

Sabrage at Mount Meru The technique of Sabrage became popular in France when the army of Napoleon visited many of the aristocratic domains. To Napoleon’s fearsome cavalry, the Hussars, the sabre was their weapon of choice, and their legendary victories across all of Europe gave them plenty of reasons to celebrate. As if paying homage to their triumphant weaponry, they opened the champagne with their sabres whilst chanting, “Champagne! In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it.”

There are many tales about this tradition; one of the more spirited is that of Madame Clicquot who had inherited her husband’s small champagne house (known all over the world today for Veuve Clicquot Champagne) when she was 27 who regularly hosted Napoleon’s officers in her vineyard. When morning came, and the officers rode off with their complementary bottle of bubbly, they’d boastingly open it with their sabres to impress the rich young widow.

Being inducted into La Confrérie du Sabre d’Or or ‘Order of the Golden Sabre’ may sound like an ominous proposition, but in truth it is an international society for the enjoyment of champagne with the added pleasure of being able to open a bottle like a musketeer.

Arm yourself as a Sabrage Grand Commandeur at the Mount Meru Hotel

In 1998, Rowald Kresfelder, now CEO of Zabulan Hospitality, crossed paths with Sanjeev Halooman, current Resident Manager at the Mount Meru Hotel, when they met at Touesrok hotel and worked at Le Beau Rivage Hotel in Mauritius. The two creative minds bonded instantly and their ideas birthed the concept now implemented at all new hotels managed by Zabulan Hospitality – the combination of Africa, rich, culturally diverse, and known for its warm and giving nature, with all of the suave, sophistication and sumptuousness of French resort style living that includes their mouth-watering cuisine.

In keeping with this Afro-French trend, the thought of sabering a bottle of champagne with an African sabre was to them a match made in Heaven, and Sanjeev, master of over 3000 sabrages himself jumped at the opportunity to put the hotel on the International Sabering map by becoming the first hotel in Africa to offer guests the unique experience of being able to learn how first-hand. With a signed certificate (and numerous of photographs) as proof of your conquest, guests will be hard-pressed to find a more exhilarating experience elsewhere.

Sanjeev has been sabering since 2002 when he was officially awarded “Chevalier Sabreur” by the “Confrerie du Sabre D’or”. In 2004 he was awarded Assistant Maitre Sabreur at the Legends Hotel in Mauritius, an accolade received for practicing and showing other the art of sabering. “Whenever there is a chance to practice my craft of sabrage at work or with friends, I relish the opportunity”, Sanjeev comments.

He has shown many celebrities the ropes and still gets a thrill of excitement when they sabrage their first bottle of bubbly and accounts that the elation at their accomplishment is an incredibly rewarding experience to participants as well as to him as ‘teacher’. His aim is to bring the “Confrerie du Sabre D’or”, Grand Master Jean-Claude Jalloux and the protocol team from France to the Hotel for the sacrament ceremony. “To be the first hotel in East Africa to host the champagne swording vaults would be an amazing accomplishment and an immense honour and privilege”, he says.

Since the onset of the French Revolution in 1788, the firm yet gentle, elegant sliding of a sabre along the champagne bottle to pop the cork has evolved into a fine art. Now, guests at the Mount Meru Hotel can experience this age old tradition of Sabrage firsthand and become a member of the international society of champagne lovers, but with a uniquely African sword. En garde!

More Information: Mount Meru Hotel; Zabulan Hospitality

Media Enquiries: Mariki Theron c/o Interface by Goji Cell: 0027(0)83 375 3973 / pr [@] mountmeruhotel [dot] com

Mimi Finestone c/o Interface by Goji Cell: 0027(0)84 583 3144 / mimi [@] gojipr [dot] net