Champagne – the Bubbles, the Fizz, the Science

Bubbles: bane of plumbers and confuser of dogs. Where there’s liquid, you’re bound to find bubbles, making them a common sight on our planet that’s 71% water. They’re an important part of the allure of drinking Champagne and sparkling wine, and a great deal of science goes into creating and understanding them.

In November 2018, Physics Today delved into the fluid dynamics of “bubbly” drinks, while the Smithsonian Magazine has covered the use of ultra-high-speed cameras in France to find out what makes the perfect Champagne bubble. Truly, it’s a field in and of itself.

Let’s start with a simple question – are Champagne bubbles random?

Randomness and Surfactants

Randomness is a complex topic. A vital concern for online betting experiences, for instance, is that they legally must produce results of a certain level of randomness as defined by their respective regulating body. Take the Plinko casino game: this title has an RTP of 94.00%, which provides a rough estimate to players of how much they can expect to win over time. But while, the game being random, the player should never completely rely on these estimations, true randomness is actually a tricky thing for computers to achieve. The simple gameplay here mirrors its real-life counterpart, the Plinko segment from The Price is Right, where that version uses the pure physics of gravity to achieve its random outcomes.

There are different ways to achieve randomness, therefore. Some programs use Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs) to produce sufficiently random results from algorithms, whereas others use True Random Number Generators (TRNGs), which pull the data for from external sources, like a device’s heat signatures or, indeed, the rising of bubbles.

While Champagne bubbles themselves are random, creating turbulence as they rise which disturbs other bubbles’ movements, drinks manufacturers have used concepts in chemistry to produce bubbles which appear more streamlined. A New Scientist article published in 2023 revealed that Champagne bubbles rise vertically in columns because they’re coated with surfactants.

Surfactants, chemicals that reduce tension between two liquids (and can be simultaneously water-phobic and water-phillic), ensure that bubbles in Champagne aren’t battling for space. They achieve this by reducing each bubble’s trail or “wake”, so that it can’t disrupt its neighbours.

The concentration of surfactants can also change inside the bottle as the movement of bubbles spreads them around. Hence, some experts are actually able to estimate the alcoholic content of flat drinks by shaking the bottles and observing the bubbles that form. So, while no two bottles are ever the same, thanks to randomness, that’s not to say that some pretty involved science hasn’t gone into making each one a quality product.

Fizz and Carbon Dioxide

So, bubbles aren’t all created equal, smaller bubbles mean fewer impurities and a cooler cellar. Also, it’s better to appreciate Champagne in the bottle because the temperature and texture of a glass can change the bubbles.

On that note, there’s a discussion about whether the traditional flute glass is still the best way to drink Champagne. A less fancy alternative, the white wine glass, seems to be much more effective at showcasing Champagne’s aroma and appearance; crucially, its fizz.

What’s the best way to maintain that fizz? Carbon dioxide loss is one of the great bugbears of Champagne production, influencing each bottle’s shelf life. A study published by the American Chemical Society discovered that one vintage from 1974 had lost 80% of its carbon dioxide, rendering it almost flat.

It wasn’t poorly sealed. Fizziness over time correlates with bottle size, with larger bottles retaining more carbon dioxide as the years pass. The authors estimated that a 25-oz bottle would have a shelf life of 40 years, but a 101-oz Champagne could last up to 132 years before all its fizz was gone.

From concepts of randomness to the size of bubbles, Champagne is a deeper thing than any flute glass could represent.