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 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.
After accumulating impressive data, the research came up with information shedding light on the shelf life of aged champagne:
40 years for standard 750-milliliter bottles.
82 years for 1.5-liter bottles.
132 years for three-liter bottles.
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.