Raise a glass

摘要

The application of thermal imaging technology has enabled French engineers to pour the perfect glass of champagne For most of us there's only one way to properly enjoy a bottle of champagne: aim the cork skyward and splash the fizzy beverage into your companions' glasses with gay abandon. However, according to a group of researchers from the University of Reims — in the capital of France's Champagne region — to properly enjoy a glass of bubbly we'd be better off pouring it as if it were beer. Following a 2009 study, which revealed that the CO_2 dissolved in champagne during fermentation actually contains most of the wine's aroma, a team from the university's thermomechanics department set out to test how the way the drink is poured influences the loss of CO_2 and with it, the taste of the drink. Led by Guillaume Polidori, the researchers compared two different ways of pouring a glass of champagne: the 'champagne-like' method in which the drink is poured vertically so it hits the bottom of the flute and the 'beer-like' method in which the drink is poured down the inside of an inclined flute that's gradually tilted to an upright position during the pouring process.