Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Find a Better Way To Pour Champagne
BuzzSkyline writes "It's better to pour Champagne the way a good bartender draws a beer, by running it down the inside surface of the glass. The revelation, which appears in July 2010 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, flies in the face of age-old French traditions, which require the bubbly to be poured in a stream that free-falls straight down the center of a champagne flute. By using infrared thermography to image the carbon dioxide that escapes over the rim of a Champagne glass for various style pours, the researchers proved that the gentler, beer-like technique allows the wine to retain more of the dissolved gas that is critical to the whole Champagne experience."
As a french chemist, I have to disagree. The best Champagne experience doesn't mean having as much gas as possible ! I completely agree serving it "freefalling" lets a lot of gas out, but that's precisely the point. Plus it is served in two times, the first draw gets really bubbly, and during the second, the liquid hits the bubbles from the already poured liquid instead of the glass, and releases a lot less gas. By waiting more or less between the two, you can influence how much gas will be left in the first pour, and, with training, get to the real Champagne experience.
Not being aware of the Fancy French technique, I've always poured Champagne like this (ok, "sparkling wine" since "real champagne" is too spendy). Precisely because it doesn't froth up like mad, just like pouring beer.
This just in .. poncy table-side service is more about flash than substance. Who knew?
Of course, this brings up the debate of which is the correct champagne glass -- the flute, or the wide/shallow one? It seems to have changed over the last several decades -- at least, in movies and the like.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Beer is often purposely poured straight down into the glass to draw the head out, allowing the aroma to add to the experience. I suspect that many bartenders pour along the side of the glass to reduce the head, allowing the glass to be filled higher without making a mess. Customers at a bar will likely see the glass filled up to the top as a good thing, and thus they will label the bartender as good.
I'm not sure if the same comparison can be made to Champagne, but I'll bet that the French are laughing at scientists believing that they can understand and optimize a subjective experience through physics. Probably almost as hard as they are laughing at Americans calling Miller High Life the "Champagne of Beers".
Almost no one who drinks champagne does it in away that allows it to be appreciated like any other fine wine. It is always a case of 'pop the cork, pour the glass' - even in very good restaurants with good sommelier that should know better. The ONLY way to get the full benefit of the drink is to open the bottle at least 45 minutes before it is to be drunk, then let it bottle breath on ice or in a 'clean' refrigerator (that is, one where the champagne wont pick up the aromas of anything else that is in the fridge). One technique to shortcut this process is to pour a little into each flute ant let it stand (about 15 minutes) and then top up the flutes just prior to serving. Personally, I have found this to be inferior to the bottle breathing method, but still better than 'pop and serve' Try this out yourself, and you will find even with a standard NV Verve the flavour is vastly better than anything you have tried before. And if you are drinking something like a vintage Krug, then it is mandatory that you let it breath, unless you want to end up with a mouth full of something that tastes like liquid vegimite.
I love disolved gas! It's fascinating stuff, though - traditions being inspected by modern science.