The secret of the champagne bottle
When enjoying a glass of Champagne on festive occasions, it can be easy to be led to believe that the only difference between a bottle of Red Wine and a bottle of Champagne is the contents, but the exclusive bottles contain much more than that.
The Champagne bottle is very different from a regular red wine bottle. It is designed with the specific purpose of holding the pressure from the millions of bubbles that are in a Champagne.
When you look closely at a Champagne bottle, one of the first things you notice is that the Champagne bottle is a little wider than a regular wine bottle. Yet it appears just as elegant as the contents it holds. The bottle has sloping "shoulders", like a Burgundy bottle, and it has a depression at the bottom.
The depression helps to strengthen the bottom of the bottle and makes it easier to handle; during the fermentation process, the Champagne bottle is placed upside down and is turned a little every day to collect the yeast residues in the neck of the bottle so that they can be easily removed later. The prestige Champagne Cristal also comes in a flat-bottomed bottle; Tsar Alexander asked Roederer to make a Champagne in a flat-bottomed bottle - the Tsar was afraid that assassins could place a bomb in the depression on ordinary bottles.
The champagne bottle is made of thicker and heavier glass to withstand the pressure from the carbon dioxide that builds up during the wine's fermentation. The pressure can be as high as 6 bar - almost 3 times as much as in a car tire.
Fermentation usually takes place in 75 cl or 1.5 liter magnum bottles. But as you will also see on our website, Champagne comes in many different bottle sizes. Many of them have biblical names; the next size after magnum is Jeroboam at 3 liters. Then comes Rehoboam at 4.5 liters, Methuselah at 6 liters, Salmanazzar at 9 liters, Balthazar at 12 liters and Nebuchadnezzar at 15 liters.
Finally, as something truly unique, there is a gigantic 30-liter bottle. It is fittingly named Midas , after the king who turned everything he touched into gold. Currently, only the Prestige Champagne Armand de Brignac is offered in this size.
As a fun fact, the large bottles are best for display and do not gain much from further aging. As mentioned, Champagne is traditionally aged in standard 75 cl and 1.5 liter magnum bottles. All bottles above this size are decanted (or poured) with the contents from these two sizes, which means some of the quality is lost. But that does not change the impressive appearance of the bottles.
The final special feature of Champagne is the cork. Like everything else about the golden drops, the cork is also something very special. Champagne corks are made of several types of cork that are glued together. Unlike regular wine corks which are straight, the Champagne cork is almost mushroom-shaped due to the pressure in the bottle.
The bottom part of the stopper is compressed before it is inserted into the bottle, after which it expands to form a completely tight seal in the bottle. When the stopper is removed, it will quickly expand into the familiar mushroom shape - the more it expands, the better the quality of the stopper.
You can also find our guide to properly opening a Champagne bottle here.