20 million C0₂ bubbles in a hydroalcoholic solution of proteins, lipids and amino acids. Champagne! Cheers!
During centuries of artisanal trial and error, winemakers had learned surprisingly little about how a sparkling wine's most active ingredient affected its chemistry of aroma and flavor. To understand the essence of its effervescence, researchers analyzed champagne bubbles with mass spectrometry, laser tomography and high-speed microphotography, and then tested its carbonation on genetically engineered mice.
Experiments, described in Science, the American Scientist and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal the unexpected ways in which the microscopic and molecular behavior of carbonation make champagne tingle in the nose and tap-dance on the tongue. Champagne owes much of its magic -- its savor, scent and glow -- to the micro-mechanics of CO₂ bubbles.
An average bottle of champagne contains about five or six times its volume in carbon dioxide, so compressed that when the champagne cork pops, it typically kicks out of the bottle's neck at about 30 miles per hour.
Champagne makers ensure their bubbly is sufficiently saturated with CO₂ by subjecting a base wine to a second round of fermentation inside tightly sealed bottles. After that, the CO₂ pressure in the bottle is about six times the normal atmospheric pressure. When the bottle is uncorked, most of that gas quickly dissipates in a distinctive mist around the open bottle neck.
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