Don't Pop the Cork Just Yet! Fizz in a Glass of Bubbly Can 'Last Decades'

Among the oldest vintages of champagne tasted in modern times was an 1825 vintage of Perrier-Jouet. The cork on it was popped for wine experts and the press in 2010, and apparently bore notes of "truffles and caramel."

We occasionally hear reports of some old bottle of champagne boasting decades being found unopened. But have you ever stopped to wonder if that coveted bottle of bubbly has lost any of its fizz?

Well, a team of researchers decided to delve into the science of it all. They emerged with good news! Yes, it turns out that the fizz can last for decades. But if you want to get more specific, and learn how many decades exactly – that apparently hinges on… the size of the bottle.

The researchers, led by Gerard Liger-Belair, a physics professor at the University of Reims, France, measured the carbon dioxide levels in various vintages of bubbly aged for multiple decades.

The fizz of a bottle of sparkly is derived from carbon dioxide generated during a second fermentation within the bottle, where a combination of sugar, yeasts, and wine produces gas and additional alcohol.

The study learned that yeast-produced carbon dioxide inside decreased over the years. For example, a vintage from 1974 was found to have lost close to 80 percent of its carbonation. But, the heartening news was that the bigger the bottle’s volume was, the more gas was retained inside it despite passage of time.

Incidentally, in 2010, when exploring a shipwreck, divers found 168 champagne bottles on the Baltic Seabed, off the coast of the Aland Islands, an autonomous region of Finland. The bottles belonged to Clicquot & Juglar, and were deemed to predate the French Revolution, possibly originating in around 1782-1788. What did they taste like? Records state it was “fantastic,” with prominent "oak and tobacco" notes.