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Colorado Avalanche: Joe Sakic Pours Champagne at Charity Event

By Nadia Archuleta|
DENVER, CO - NOVEMBER 24: Former Colorado Avalanche hockey player Joe Sakic pours champagne into glasses during the annual Champagne Cascade inside the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa on November 24, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. This year marked the 32nd annual Champagne Cascade at the Brown Palace Hotel. A portion of the proceeds from this year's event will be donated to Make-A-Wish Colorado, the non-profit creating life-changing wishes for children with critical illness. The elegant Champagne Cascade featured 2 master swordsmen who used Napoleonic sabers to sever the bottlenecks of Moet & Chandon Champagne bottles. The Champagne is then poured into the uppermost glass of a two-story, 6,000+ glass pyramid, overflowing to the glasses below, creating a dazzling display for hundreds of spectators that filled the floors of the hotel to watch. Only the top glasses are filled with 2 magnums of champagne as it would take hundreds of cases of champagne and many hours to fill all of the glasses. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - NOVEMBER 24: Former Colorado Avalanche hockey player Joe Sakic pours champagne into glasses during the annual Champagne Cascade inside the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa on November 24, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. This year marked the 32nd annual Champagne Cascade at the Brown Palace Hotel. A portion of the proceeds from this year's event will be donated to Make-A-Wish Colorado, the non-profit creating life-changing wishes for children with critical illness. The elegant Champagne Cascade featured 2 master swordsmen who used Napoleonic sabers to sever the bottlenecks of Moet & Chandon Champagne bottles. The Champagne is then poured into the uppermost glass of a two-story, 6,000+ glass pyramid, overflowing to the glasses below, creating a dazzling display for hundreds of spectators that filled the floors of the hotel to watch. Only the top glasses are filled with 2 magnums of champagne as it would take hundreds of cases of champagne and many hours to fill all of the glasses. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic participated in an annual tradition at the Brown Palace — the Champagne Cascade — to benefit charity.

Colorado Avalanche GM and legend Joe Sakic is actively involved in charity. He hosts a golf tournament and a dinner every summer to benefit different charities. He’s also quite active in the community to that end.

Well, part of that activity in the community was attending the 32nd annual Champagne Cascade at the Brown Palace. Starting last year, the historic hotel and spa sells tickets to the upper levels of the hotel’s grand atrium to watch as they pour the champagne. The proceeds go to benefit charity — this year the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Before the event, organizers stack a pyramid of 6,000 champagne glasses. Tim Wolfe, the general manager of the hotel, and a local dignitary stand on a platform near the champagne pyramid.

Master swordsman Dennis Dinsmore opens the bottles using the “Napoleonic” method — using a saber to whack the cork out. Move over bottle cap challenge.

And then Tim Wolfe pours the champagne — Moet & Chandon because how are you going to go cheap at that point — into the upper-most glass of the two-story pyramid. The champagne cascades from that glass to the ones below it in a beautiful display.

After Wolfe poured the first bottle, Joe Sakic took his turn.

Here’s some video from this year’s event.

Meanwhile, a band with a piano as the centerpiece plays holiday tunes. They also have a Santa Claus to light the chandelier. In addition to raising money for charity, the Champagne Cascade kicks off the holiday season at the historic Brown Palace.

The Brown Palace is Denver’s second oldest hotel — the Oxford is older by just one year. Built in 1892, the lavish hotel also features a well with artesian water. You can actually go right in and fill up on the healthful water.

The Make-A-Wish foundation is a charity that helps children with critical illnesses find some happiness in their trying times. The foundation grants wishes to these critically ill children to be a “game-changer” in their lives.

Speaking of game changers… Joe Sakic. He’s our general manager. He’s our Hockey Hall of Famer. He was a game-changer in the world of the Colorado Avalanche.

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