Progress in sparkling wines: bubbles and flow

A progress report from Gérard Liger-Belair, the world authority on wine bubbles, and his quest to define the ideal glass for enjoying the effervescence of champagne. Bubbling really stirs up a glass of wine, and if you're going to etch a glass to generate bubbles, you'll need to adjust the pattern to the glass shape.

When a sparkling wine is poured into a glass, the bubbling delivers aroma and pleasantly irritating carbon dioxide to our nose. At the same time it depletes aroma, gas, and its own activity. If a glass of sparkling wine bubbles vigorously, it loses the advantages of effervescence quickly; if it bubbles too slowly, it has no charm. Liger-Belair has shown that steady, regular, "pleasing" bubbling is caused by plant dust: microscopic cellulose fibers from the dish towel or released into the air from such things as clothes and paper. Intentionally scratching or etching the bottom of the glass creates pits that induce more predictable bubble formation, but the bubbling is faster, coarser, and more chaotic.