Thermography shows why champagne should be poured differently

London – All over the world champagne is associated with luxury and celebration, but the science behind the taste of this special drink remained clouded in mystery.

Champagne is produced exclusively within the Champagne region of France, from which it takes its name. Fittingly, it is in that region, at the University of Reims, that most of the champagne research is being done.

The university’s most recent discovery is that the way champagne is currently poured, causes loss of aroma, so that champagne should be served like beer..

The fizz in champagne is produced by fermentation. “After the first fermentation, champagne is basically a white wine”,
explains Guillaume Polidori, director of the thermomechanics department of GRESPI (the Group for Research in Engineering Science).

The GRESPI’s thermomechanics department is one of the world’s leading research institutes studying the effects of heat upon the mechanical properties of materials.

“When they put the champagne in the bottle”, Polidori continues, “They add a mixture of yeast and sugar to start a second fermentation. Fermentation produces CO2 and because the CO2 gas has nowhere to go, it dissolves in the white wine.
When the bottle is opened, the dissolved CO2 disperses, thus creating the bubbles in champagne.”

For a long time it was thought that the bubbles in champagne just added to the fizzy sensation in the mouth, perhaps giving it a little acidic bite, without having any further influence on the champagne taste.

This assumption was proven to be utterly incorrect as an earlier study (published in 2009 in the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences) showed that the CO2 contains most of the champagne’s aroma.

It has proved that there are up to 30 times more flavor-enhancing chemicals in the bubbles than in the rest of the drink.

Chilled is better

This new finding has seriously changed the way experts look at the bubbles in champagne and the researchers of
GRESPI wanted to further research this phenomenon.

The research team set out to test how the way champagne is poured influences the loss of CO2, given the fact that loss of CO2 also means loss of taste.

They tested the CO2 contents of champagne before and after the pouring process, using different pouring techniques at different temperatures. They found that the colder the temperature, the smaller the loss of CO2 during the pouring process, thus presenting the first scientific proof that serving champagne chilled helps to contain the CO2 - and thus the champagne’s flavor.

Even more surprising, however, was the result of the comparison between different pouring techniques. They found that the classic way of serving champagne was not very effective at all.

Just like beer

The researchers compared two different ways of pouring a glass of champagne: the ‘champagne-like’ and the ’beer-like’ pouring
method. The ’champagne-like’ method consists of holding the glass vertically, allowing the champagne to hit the bottom of the flute – the standard way of serving champagne and sparkling wines.

With the ’beer-like’ pouring method, the glass is held aslant; allowing the champagne to flow along the inclined flute wall, and
the flute is then tilted to an upright position during the pouring process. This is the method typically used to serve beer.

The researchers tested the CO2 levels before and after pouring for both pouring methods and at three different temperatures: 4, 12, and 18°C. The results showed that the beer-like pouring method caused significantly less CO2 loss in comparison to the ’traditional’ method.

The beer-like pouring method, where the champagne flowed along the inclined flute wall, was found to be much less turbulent and released less gas than the more traditional pouring method.

The ’champagne-like’ way of serving - pouring the drink vertically so it hit the bottom of the flute - generated a thick head of foam that quickly vertically extends and then progressively collapses during serving.

But the bubbles aren’t the only way in which the CO2 leaves the champagne, the CO2 also escapes by diffusing through the contact surface of the champagne with the air.

Experiments were performed a few years ago on the respective losses of CO2 during the pouring of champagne in a flute (published in 2002 in Annales de Physique) and it was found that for every single CO2 molecule which escapes from the champagne in the form of bubbles, four others directly escape by diffusion through the free contact surface of the champagne with the air.

Diffusion is therefore strongly suspected to be the main pathway through which dissolved CO2 escapes during the pouring of a glass of champagne. When pouring champagne, the sparkling fluid forms a jet - or tongue - as it falls from the bottle into the glass.

This effect partly explains the difference in CO2 loss, according to Polidori. “With the traditional way of serving, this tongue is much longer than with the beer-method.

This means that the contact surface of the champagne with the air is significantly smaller if you pour the champagne like beer.

We think that this also partly explains the difference between the two pouring techniques.”

Making the diffusion process visible

As the diffusion process is invisible to the human eye - measuring it presented the researchers with a challenge. The solution to this challenge proved to be a thermal camera.

“We used the FLIR SC7000 series thermal camera to film the CO2 as it dissipated during the pouring process. This visually confirmed what the test results showed,” explains Polidori.

The FLIR SC7000 Series is a very flexible open system that can be adapted for any situation possible. It provides the highest possible sensitivity, accuracy, spatial resolution and speed.

This series of advanced thermal cameras is specifically designed for academic and industrial R&D applications where you need leading edge sensitivity and performance to produce results. The detector that powersthis example of the SC7000 series is cooled