At any dinner with friends there comes a moment when someone raises their glass and asks «and why is it that…?». These are my favourite answers, all with their source at the end.
1. Champagne bubbles are born inside the bottle
In the traditional method, the one used for Champagne and cava, the base wine undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle itself. The carbon dioxide from that fermentation has nowhere to go and dissolves into the wine. When you pop the cork, it’s released.
2. … and in the glass, they rise from imperfections
Bubbles form on tiny imperfections in the glass and, to a lesser extent, on the cellulose fibres left by the cloth when you dry the glass. This has been confirmed with high-speed cameras.
3. Dom Pérignon didn’t invent Champagne
Contrary to legend, the monk of Hautvillers didn’t invent sparkling wine, although he did greatly improve how Champagne wines were made. The curious thing is that the English scientist Christopher Merret described in 1662 how to add sugar to a finished wine to trigger a second fermentation, years before Dom Pérignon arrived at the abbey. At first the gas was a problem: bottles exploded and people called it «the devil’s wine».
4. What is a vintage?
It’s the year of the harvest, not the year of bottling. In the European Union, to put the year on the label, at least 85 % of the grapes must come from that harvest (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33). That’s why two bottles of the same wine from different vintages can be very different: every year has its own weather.
5. Cork is the bark of a tree that’s still alive
Cork comes from the bark of the cork oak. It’s stripped by hand and the tree isn’t felled: the bark grows back. Between the first stripping and the second, nine to fourteen years go by, depending on the area, and the cork from the first strippings isn’t yet good enough for stoppers. Portugal produces around 61 % of the world’s cork and Spain about 30 %.
6. Why 75 cl?
The only certain thing is that European regulations set the nominal volumes of containers in the 1970s, and 75 cl became the standard for wine (Directive 75/106/EEC). There are popular explanations: the lung capacity of glassblowers, or the fact that six 75 cl bottles add up to 4.5 litres, almost an imperial gallon (4.546 l), very handy for English merchants. They’re lovely stories, but I haven’t found any solid source to prove them, so I tell them as legends.
7. A magnum is two bottles
A magnum holds 1.5 litres, twice a standard bottle. Many people believe wine ages more slowly and better in magnum, because there’s less air in proportion to the wine. I love opening one with friends: a big bottle is always a party.
8. «Tears» don’t tell you whether a wine is good
Those drops running down the side of the glass are the Marangoni effect: alcohol evaporates faster than water, the surface tension changes and the liquid climbs and falls. They tell you about the alcohol (and a bit about the sugar), not about the quality.
9. Almost every vine in Europe has American roots
In the 19th century, phylloxera, an insect that arrived from America, destroyed much of Europe’s vineyards. The solution still used today is grafting European varieties onto American rootstocks, which are naturally resistant to the insect. That’s why ungrafted vines are so special.
10. «Contains sulphites» isn’t an alarm
During fermentation yeasts produce sulphites naturally, and small doses are usually added as well to protect the wine. European regulations require it to be stated on the label from 10 mg/l, because it’s an allergen that has to be declared. So practically every wine has it written on it.
Something to listen to
Sparkling wines go with opera, and for a list of curiosities there’s nothing better than an operetta: the Champagne song from Die Fledermaus, by Johann Strauss II. In the finale of the second act, Prince Orlofsky raises a toast to «King Champagne».
My favourite sparkling wines are in sparkling.
♪ Enjoy it with «Im Feuerstrom der Reben», canción del champán (Die Fledermaus) · Johann Strauss II
The finale of Act II of Die Fledermaus is a toast to «King Champagne»: there's no better soundtrack for some bubbles.
