Champagne fun facts in case your New Year’s Eve is less than sparkling

• “You’ll shoot your eye out!”  The pressure in a Champagne bottle is usually 70-90 pounds per square inch.  That is greater than the pressure in a bus tire.  Seriously, be careful.                                                                                                              
• 40 MPH – this is the speed the cork can exit the bottle if you just let it fly.  OK, this is the second warning.  Checkout the link below for the proper way to open a bottle of Champagne or Sparkling Wine.
• 49 Million – this is approximately the number of bubbles in a bottle of Champagne.  I have to come clean, I have not counted them.
• Is it really Champagne?  A sparkling wine should really only be called Champagne if it is produced from the Champagne region of France.  Champagne kind of has the Q-tip and Kleenex thing going on where the brand has become the generic term.
• How do the bubbles get in there?  Sparking wine and Champagne start as regular still wine. Still wine is put in a strong bottle along with a small amount of sugar and yeast, then a temporary cap is applied.  The yeast eats the sugar, creating carbon dioxide gas (the bubbles) and some additional alcohol.  Other unique steps take place to remove the dead yeast and replace the temporary cap with a cork and cage.
• 200+ miles – the miles of caves holding full bottles of Champagne in the Champagne Region of France.                                                                                                              
• 1 Billion – approximate number of bottles in the caves of Champagne.
• Where is the year on this bottle?  Champagne usually doesn’t include the harvest year on the bottle.  This is because the Champagne you are drinking is usually a blend of wine from several different years.   When the wine from one harvest is extraordinary the Champagne House will make a “Vintage” Champagne from that year only and place the year on the bottle.
• 360 million – approximate glasses of Sparking Wine or Champagne consumed in the United States on New Year’s Eve.
• Champagne  is primarily made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.  Interestingly, pinot noir and pinot meunier are red grapes, yet they produce the traditional champagne color we are familiar with instead of the red and garnet you see in your glass of pinot noir.  This is because the white juice from pinot noir is not allowed to rest of the red grape skins like it is with the regular pinot noir you enjoy from Oregon, Sonoma or Burgundy.

Bonus: Now for the public safety portion of the blog, check out this You Tube video on how to open a bottle of Champagne or Sparkling Wine.

Happy New Year from VinoOutLOUD!