Alan Johnson, from Tooting, asks how to open a bottle of champagne correctly.

Stand the bottle securely on a firm surface. Remove the foil from around the cork. Grip the cork in your left hand, with a downward pressure on the cork. With your right hand, bend the small wire ring that is folded up against the bottle downwards, and unscrew it to loosen the wire cage around the bottle. With right thumb gently ease up the cork. Left thumb prevents it shooting out with a pop and spillage. It is bad form to uncork champagne with a bang, and a wicked waste to spill the expensive juice. It is Chav, Charley and childish to spray champagne around, as racing drivers seem bound to do. What wasters. PH

Mike Fry, Lymm: “By very gently twisting out the cork. I was taught that the cork should leave the bottle with the force of a dowager’s fart.”

Andrew Turek, the Cellarage: “Aim at your enemy and hope for the worst.”

Brett Turner, Cambridge Wine Merchants Ltd: “Rather than trying to worry the cork off, revolve the bottle as you gently pull bottle and cork apart.”

Readers are invited to send their responses to this week’s question by November 22. A selection will be printed in a fortnight.

I have been invited to a wedding. The invitation gives no steer on clothes. What should I wear?

Frank Lock, Ipswich

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