Bigger bottles keep champagne bubbly for decades

Date:
June 27, 2023
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Tiny bubbles bursting in a drinker's face and the bite of
carbonation are all part of the experience when sipping champagne
and sparkling wines.

But how long can these drinks be stored in sealed bottles before
they go flat? According to researchers, the answer depends on
the container's size. They estimate a 40-year shelf-life for
750-milliliter (25-ounce) bottles, and 82 and 132 years for
1.5-liter (50-ounce) and 3-liter (101- ounce) bottles, respectively.


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==========================================================================
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Tiny bubbles bursting in a drinker's face and the bite of carbonation
are all part of the experience when sipping champagne and sparkling
wines. But how long can these drinks be stored in sealed bottles before
they go flat? According to researchers reporting in ACS Omega, the answer depends on the container's size.

They estimate a 40-year shelf-life for 750-milliliter (25-ounce) bottles,
and 82 and 132 years for 1.5-liter (50-ounce) and 3-liter (101-ounce)
bottles, respectively.

Champagne and other sparkling wines get their bubbliness and tingly
sensation from carbon dioxide, which is generated during a second round
of fermentation that happens inside their bottles. Combining yeasts,
sugar and wine launches the production of this gas and additional
alcohol. Although the yeast die within a few months, complex aromas
develop as the bottles age undisturbed for 15 months to several
decades. But at the same time, the beverage is losing carbon dioxide,
which is slowly escaping through the sealed metal caps or corks. So,
Ge'rard Liger-Belair and colleagues wanted to answer the question: How
does the size of the bottle influence how long you can age a champagne
before it's flat? The researchers measured the carbon dioxide in
different champagne vintages aged for multiple decades, and estimated
the original amount of yeast-produced carbon dioxide. They found that
the amount of gas inside the vessels, which were sealed with metal caps, decreased the longer the bottles aged. For example, the oldest vintage
from 1974 lost the most carbonation, nearly 80%.

Additionally, the team observed a correlation between the volume of a
bottle and the carbon dioxide level, such that larger bottles retained
gas substantially better than smaller ones.

In the end, the researchers developed a formula to calculate a bottle's
shelf life, or how long aged champagne would still spontaneously produce bubbles when poured in a glass. They predicted a shelf life of 40 years
for standard 750- milliliter bottles, 82 years for 1.5-liter bottles and
132 years for 3-liter bottles, after which point the champagne would be
flat. From their large selection of aged champagne, going back nearly
50 years, the researchers say they've shown how the drink's bubbliness
over time depends on the bottle's size.

The authors acknowledge the contributions of samples from Champagne
Castelnau.

Some authors are employees at Champagne Castelnau and Pe-di, a
manufacturer of stoppers for the wine industry.

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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Chemical_Society. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Ge'rard Liger-Belair, Chloe' Khenniche, Clara Poteau, Carine
Bailleul,
Virginie Thollin, Clara Cilindre. Losses of Yeast-Fermented
Carbon Dioxide during Prolonged Champagne Aging: Yes, the
Bottle Size Does Matter!. ACS Omega, 2023; 8 (25): 22844 DOI:
10.1021/acsomega.3c01812 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230627123120.htm

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