Making The Most Of Champagne’s CO₂

Champagne’s serving temperature and the way in which it’s poured make all the difference in preserving its delightful properties, report Gérard Liger-Belair of the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, in France, and colleagues (J. Agric. Food Chem., DOI: 10.1021/jf101239w). Pouring champagne into an upright glass in the classic manner creates more turbulence and foam than pouring the sparkling beverage in a beerlike manner down the side of an inclined glass, the researchers note. As a result, the traditional serving method excessively reduces effervescence by releasing far more dissolved carbon dioxide than the beerlike method. Warmer champagne also surrenders more of its CO₂. The findings represent “the first analytical proof” that low temperatures help the drink retain its effervescence during the pouring process, Liger-Belair’s team notes. The researchers believe that champagne viscosity and the diffusion coefficient of CO₂ molecules—two factors that are strongly temperature-dependent—are primarily responsible for the differences in champagne’s degassing behavior.