Shereen Dindar warns us that even though common sense has been vindicated on this issue, we shouldn’t get too cocky:
We now have a scientific study to confirm the widely accepted ritual of pouring bubbly down the side of a flute before drinking it actually makes sense.
Scientists in France found that pouring bubbly in an angled way and chilling the beverage in advance is best for preserving its taste, fizz and aroma.
Gérard Liger-Belair and colleagues — who published their findings in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry — studied carbon dioxide loss in champagne that was poured straight down the middle of a glass, as well as, down the side of an angled glass. They found that pouring champagne down the side preserved up to twice as much carbon dioxide.
I’m not a big Champagne fan — I don’t mind sparkling wines, but generally there are better values in Spanish Cava than in French Champagne — but no matter what your preference in bubbly, do yourself a big favour and serve your sparkling wine in the right kind of glass. Don’t use the caterer’s special — what they laughingly call a Champagne glass is almost ideally suited to producing the worst the wine has to offer. Use a proper Champagne “flute”, a tall narrow glass that concentrates the aromas (and the bubbles), not a wide, flat glass that dissipates ’em quickly.
