Science Asks of Champagne: Are the Bubbles Merely Fun? Why, No!

A scientific inquiry into the biochemical nature of champagne bubbles has uncorked some fresh insights into the characteristics of the effervescent libation. But just as quickly, a froth of debate has spilled over.

Gerard Liger-Belair of Reims University in France, whose findings are currently published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), collected bubble samples from champagne and submitted them to chemical analysis by mass spectrometry (a procedure that breaks a sample of gas into its ionic components and then quantifies the various chemical constituents).

Liger-Belair's results indicate that the magic of the bubbles as a tongue-tactile component of champagne is not the beginning and end of the allure. The chemical composition of the bubble gas -- and there's a lot of it, about five liters of mostly carbon dioxide per 0.75 liter bottle -- includes hundreds of different compounds. Many of these deliver flavor, others aroma, still others work on both senses simultaneously. Liger-Belair concludes that the gas that identifies champagne is responsible for making major contributions to the flavor profile.

But as reported by ABC (Australia), not everyone is prepared to celebrate.

The Australian Wine Research Institute's Leigh Francis reportedly is unable to palate the methodology employed in this study, expressing criticism in particular for the lack of control for those flavor compounds that are released into the air space immediately over the surface of non-sparkling wines. An analysis of this phenomenon in flat champagne would have gone quite a ways to address this, according to Francis.

Still, he deemed the findings interesting and of great value as a foundation for further inquiry that could be of great interest and benefit to the wine industry.

Photo courtesy of Dan Kamminga, via Flickr