"bubbly" news and stories

When you're having a celebration and pop open a bottle of champagne, there are few things more disappointing than finding out you bubbly isn't all that bubbly. The Wall Street Journal's Science Journal considered the science behind champagne this week, starting with ways to maximize bubbles. To do this, all you need to do is wipe off the inside of your champagne flutes with a paper towel. The tiny fibers from the towel will cling to the inside of the crystal (or glass) and act as "bubble formation" sites. Alternatively, you can also set your champagne flutes right-side up around your guests. The glasses will collect a few tiny fibers from clothing, stirred up into the air by the movement of party guests, and will have the same effect on the champagne as the toweled glasses.

If you have very expensive champagne flutes, it is worth noting that neither of these steps might be necessary. It is a common practice for glassmakers to put tiny "microetches" inside high-end flutes to achieve the bubbling effects without towels or partygoers.

Champagne is a celebratory drink and, as such, it is likely to be a bit more popular around the holidays than it is at other times of the year. In Britain, champagne is more popular than it is anywhere else in the world, with the exception of France, and the number of supermarket-brand champagnes has been climbing steadily. Ordinarily, the phrase "supermarket-brand champagnes" wouldn't exactly inspire confidence if you want to buy a high-quality drink, but it turns out that some of the store brand champagnes rated much higher in a taste test than expensive brands that cost two or three times as much. UK food critic Egon Ronay took part in a blind taste test of 30 bottles at the request of the Press Association, which arranged the trial. He concluded that many different store bubblies stand up very well to the known brands, with the top four being "as good or better than some of the best." Those four include Marks & Spencer Champagne de St Gall Premier Cru Brut (£19.99); Sainsbury's Vintage 1999 Blanc de Blancs Brut, (£17.99); Sainsbury's Blanc de Noirs Brut (£13.99); and Sainsbury's Champagne Rose (£16.29).

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Moet & Chandon, Lanson, Veuve Clicquot, Laurent-Perrier and Bollinger - the top five Champagne brands in the UK have seen sales rise substantially over the last five years. These brands account for two-thirds of all UK sales while the rise in consumption, across the sector, has soared by 30 per cent in five years, with consumers drinking £890 million (over a billion and a half US$) worth of bubbly last year.

While a great deal of the rise can be attributed to the ever growing prosperity - I don't know the actual figures but Britain has enjoyed a long, long run in industrial growth and low inflation - some of the rise can be accounted for by a fall in prices; the average price of champagne has fallen by about 4 per cent since 2000, while sparkling wine has seen a 10 per cent average drop.

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