Lesson 2 of 9 · 5 minutes

  1. 1. What makes wine sparkle
  2. 2. The life of a bubble
  3. 3. Five ways to make bubbles
  4. 4. The traditional method step by step
  5. 5. Grapes and the blend
  6. 6. Sugar and dosage
  7. 7. Where it sparkles
  8. 8. Reading the label
  9. 9. Serving

The life of a bubble

After this lesson you will know where bubbles are born in a glass, why they grow on the way up, what happens when they burst, and why the glass and the way you pour matter.

  1. 01

    Born in a tiny fibre

    An open bottle holds far more CO2 than the wine can keep, but a bubble cannot appear out of nothing: it needs a small pocket of gas to start from.1 Most bubbles are born inside hollow cellulose fibres, about 100 µm long, stuck to the glass. They fall from the air or are left by the drying cloth.2,1 Such a starting point is a nucleation site.

  2. 02

    A chain that grows as it rises

    CO2 seeps into the trapped gas until a bubble of about 10 µm breaks free.1 Three minutes after pouring, one site can release up to almost 30 bubbles a second, which is why you see a neat chain.2 On the way up, dissolved CO2 keeps entering each bubble, so it grows. Champagne holds about twice as much dissolved CO2 as beer, and its bubbles end up larger.1

  3. 03

    A burst at the surface

    At the surface the thin film of a bubble breaks in 10 to 100 microseconds, and in the first minutes hundreds of bubbles burst every second.2 Each burst throws up a tiny jet that breaks into droplets. They are thought to carry more surface-active and possibly aromatic material than the wine below.3 A review that is not yet peer reviewed says the droplets evaporate above the glass and release their own aroma.1

  4. 04

    About a million bubbles

    How many bubbles does one glass give? A 2017 review estimates that about a million bubbles form and rise in a flute that is left untouched.4 A single fibre can release several tens of thousands of bubbles before the dissolved CO2 runs too low.5 The bubbles gather on the surface as the mousse and in a ring against the glass, the collerette.6

  5. 05

    The glass sets the stage

    Because most bubbles start on fibres, a glass without them produces fewer bubbles.2,3 The Comité Champagne advises washing glasses in hot water without detergent, then air-drying them or drying them with a cotton cloth.7,8 Some glasses have laser-etched spots at the bottom that act as permanent nucleation sites.1 Shape matters too: in one study, CO2 near the rim of a flute was two to three times higher than above a coupe.9

  6. 06

    Pour gently

    Pouring is the moment when the wine loses the most gas. In a 2010 study at 4 °C, a straight pour into an upright flute lost 3.0 g/L of CO2, while a pour down the side of a tilted glass lost 1.6 g/L.10 Warmer wine lost more with both pours.10 The gas that stays in the wine is the reserve that feeds the bubble chains in your glass. More on pouring and CO2 loss.

Remember

  1. A bubble needs a starting point: most are born in hollow cellulose fibres on the glass.
  2. A bubble grows as it rises, because dissolved CO2 keeps entering it.
  3. Bursting bubbles throw droplets above the glass that may carry aroma.
  4. By one estimate, an untouched flute gives about a million bubbles.
  5. Tilt the glass when pouring: at 4 °C it lost 1.6 g/L of CO2 instead of 3.0 g/L.

Check yourself

1Where are most bubbles in a glass of champagne born?

2Why does a bubble get bigger as it rises?

3Which pour kept more CO2 in the 2010 study?

See also

How a bubble is born, rises and burstsScienceFoam and collarSciencePouring and CO2 lossScienceFlute or coupe: CO2 above the glassScienceGlassesServingnucleation siteGlossary

Sources

  1. Mathijssen A.J.T.M., Lisicki M., Prakash V.N., Mossige E.J.L. Culinary fluid mechanics and other currents in food science. arXiv:2201.12128v2 (review) (2022-10-14)
  2. European Physical Society / EDP Sciences. Liger-Belair G., Jeandet P. Effervescence in a glass of champagne: a bubble story. Europhysics News 33(1): 10-14. DOI 10.1051/epn:2002103 (2002-01)
  3. EDP Sciences. Liger-Belair G. La physique des bulles de champagne. Annales de Physique 27(4): 1-106. DOI 10.1051/anphys:2002004 (abstract page) (2002)
  4. EDP Sciences / Springer (EPJ ST). Effervescence in champagne and sparkling wines: From grape harvest to bubble rise. Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics (2017). DOI 10.1140/epjst/e2017-02678-7 (abstract page; group: Equipe Effervescence Champagne et Applications, GSMA UMR CNRS 7331, Reims) (2017-01-06)
  5. Société Française de Physique / EDP Sciences. Liger-Belair G., Tufaile A., Jeandet P., Sartorelli J.-C. La nucléation des bulles de champagne: une sorte de goutte-à-goutte inversé ? Reflets de la Physique 9. DOI 10.1051/refdp:2008009 (2008)
  6. Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC). The language of the senses
  7. Comité Champagne (champagne.education). Factsheet: Champagne Service (EN) (2024)
  8. Comité Champagne (champagne.education). Store and serve Champagne (web page)
  9. PLOS. Liger-Belair G., Bourget M., Pron H., Polidori G., Cilindre C. Monitoring gaseous CO2 and ethanol above champagne glasses: flute versus coupe, and the role of temperature. PLoS ONE 7(2): e30628. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0030628 (2012-02)
  10. American Chemical Society (article PDF hosted on acs.org). Liger-Belair G., Bourget M., Villaume S., Jeandet P., Pron H., Polidori G. On the losses of dissolved CO2 during champagne serving. J. Agric. Food Chem. 58(15): 8768-8775. DOI 10.1021/jf101239w (2010-07-13)

Facts checked on 2026-10-20