Definition: Sabler or sabrer champagne?

In the time of Louis XIV, champagne was sprinkled with sugar to make it fizzy. This was because winegrowers did not know about the fermentation process required to produce bubbles. The sugar reacted with the alcohol, causing CO2 to be released.
Later, drinking champagne in one gulp became known as sabling champagne. The expression should be understood figuratively from the verb sabler, meaning 'to pour into a sand mould'. By analogy with this operation, the technical term is used metaphorically to describe the action of pouring the drink down one's throat in one go. Although the expression seems familiar, based on its etymological origin and image, it is used in a relatively formal way – or is it perceived as such? – to mean drinking champagne in company on a happy occasion.
Saying that one is going to sabler the champagne is no longer understood as meaning to drink it quickly, which would seem rather rude: indeed, in company, one does not drink champagne in large gulps. It should be noted that the meaning of sabler as 'to drink in large gulps' is now only used with this alcohol (one does not sabler tea or Bordeaux) and, since this meaning has now faded in favour of 'drinking in company', is no longer used at all. It is noted as an obsolete meaning in current dictionaries, except in the single expression sabler le champagne, where it has another meaning, this time described as modern.
On the other hand, sabrer le champagne must be understood metonymically: the bottle of champagne is sabred to open it. This operation consists of sliding the flat side of a heavy sabre blade along the side of the bottle towards the neck. The impact of the blunt side of the blade on the bulge of the neck, aided by the internal pressure of the bottle, cleanly decapitates the bottle. This manoeuvre requires a minimum of caution, as the top of the bottle, the cork and the wire cage are violently ejected. Champagne can therefore be sabred and then sabled.