I was spending an afternoon with friends today and was getting by opening up some champagne.
Before everyone arrived though I decided to conduct a little experiment with Champagne that’s been on my mind lately: does the manner in which you open up champagne affect the bubbles in the glass.
Since I had two bottles of the same Champagne from a single case, I decided to open them both and conduct a little experiment. One I opened by pulling the cork out aggressively. The other softly with barely a hiss. I then had a friend pour me a blind triangle test. Three glasses of Champagne, two the same and one different. All in Grassl Libertes.
Visually wine #2 clearly had more aggressive petillance.
Aromatically wine #1 and #3 focused more on the wine’s bready, automatic characters while #2 more on its chalky notes.
On the palate #1 felt softer and the effervescence of #2 and #3 felt a bit brighter.
I guessed wine #2 was the odd one out, with it being the one opened more softly as the petillance seemed more aggressive.
Result:
Wine #1 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Brut Reserve (laid in cellar in 2009, disgorged 2014) - soft open
Wine #2 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Brut Reserve (laid in cellar in 2009, disgorged 2014) - hard open
Wine #3 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Brut Reserve (laid in cellar in 2009, disgorged 2014) - soft open
Other observations:
I went back to pour a small amount of both non-blind and the wine opened harshly had a way more aggressive and frothy mousse upon pouring.
Interesting results from a quick trial. I didn’t expect the champagne opened harshly to have a more aggressive petillance.
I’d be curious to try this with more people to have some type larger trend.