MadSci Network: Physics |
Steve, Before answering the question, “How does a spoon help keep sparkling wine fresh after being opened?”, we need to address the question, “Does a spoon help keep sparkling wine fresh?” Like much of the lore surrounding alcoholic beverages, this claim is founded in gut feel rather than hard fact. Once a bottle of sparkling wine is opened, it will begin to lose the carbon dioxide dissolved in it, and even the best stoppers cannot prevent it from losing freshness after the initial unstoppering. The different references I’ve found on the topic indicate that the “spoon technique” is unproven (ref 1), or that it will cause the sparkling wine to keep it’s fizz for a few hours (ref 2). Of course, uncorked and spoonless bubbly will also keep its fizz for a few hours. The only “research” I found on the topic was a joke paper concluding that a spoon makes no difference in either fizz or flavor (ref 3). Your hypothesis seems sound—-the edge-wise surface area of a spoon is insufficient for making it an efficacious stopper. It is also likely that Wine Waiters touting silver spoons are just being superior. Bottoms up, Michael Ref.1 h ttp://www.epicurious.com/d_drinking/d04_champagne/bottlecare.html Ref.2 http://www.intowine.com/cham pagne2.html Ref.3 Does a Metal Spoon Improve the Quality of Left-over Sparkling Wine? Van Oldenborgh, Geert Jan, and Vos, Fernando L.J. http://www.ph.tum.de/~tvo igtm/rec/sci.html
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