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Undersea-Aged Champagne Is Starting to Surface

Undersea-Aged Champagne Is Starting to Surface

If you’ve ever been hit by a flying champagne cork, you will be painfully aware of the pressure in a bottle of fizz. And that pressure inside—and outside—the bottle has caught the imaginations of champagne innovators.

“We conduct many trials every year to fine-tune the pressure to the vintage,” says Louis Roederer’s chef de cave, Jean Baptiste Lécaillon. “We have a lower pressure—so smaller bubbles—[because] we want a seamless and soft mousse.”

The pressure inside a bottle of champagne is typically around 6 bar, or three times the pressure of a car tire. But Louis Roederer champagnes can range from 6 to 4.5 bar. “The more acidity you have in the wine, the more aggressive the feeling of the bubbles … This is also why we are on the low side,” explains Lécaillon, “especially on Cristal, which is often non-malo [referring to malolactic fermentation] and low pH.” The newly released Cristal 2015, he says, “is a great example of this featherlight mousse … It is at the same time delicious, effortlessly intense, and delicate.”

One only needs a basic grasp of physics to realize that storing champagne at higher temperatures will increase the pressure inside. But scientists were astonished to find that when a bottle stored at 20 degrees Celsius (well above cellar temperature) was uncorked, the velocity of gas expelled from the bottleneck momentarily reached almost Mach 2—twice the speed of sound.

The Ballistics of Bubbly

Researcher Gérard Liger-Belair, professor of chemical physics at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, likens this phenomenon “to what happens with rocket plume exhausts.” The pressure causes the CO2 to freeze and turn to dry ice when suddenly released, creating a plume at the bottle opening.

Liger-Belair is a specialist in champagne and effervescence, and the author of Uncorked: The Science of Champagne. But he hopes the findings, published in an academic journal last year, will also have applications in the fields of ballistics and rocketry.

The pressure in a champagne bottle falls over the years, resulting in smaller and scarcer bubbles—and that more composed, rather quieter character can often be part of the charm of a long-aged cuvée.

In the name of research, Dom Pérignon’s cellar master Vincent Chaperon once tried to reinvigorate the bubbles in a bottle of Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2, which is aged on the lees for 15 to 20 years, or around twice as long as a flagship DP. He won’t say how he did it (SodaStream? Aarke?), but he admits the result was “unharmonious—not good.”

25 Work From Home Gift Ideas: Chairs, Desks, Webcams, and Peripherals

25 Work From Home Gift Ideas: Chairs, Desks, Webcams, and Peripherals

If someone in your life needs a home office upgrade (that includes yourself!), you’ve come to the right place. WIRED’s Gear team has been working remotely since well before the Covid-19 pandemic—we’ve been testing headsets, standing desks, office chairs, and peripherals in our own lives for years. Whether you’re tired of your loved one working at the kitchen table, or you just want to treat them, we’ve got several work-from-home gear gift ideas that can make remote work even sweeter. Check out our Ultimate Work From Home Gear guide for more recommendations.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

Updated December 2023: We’ve overhauled this guide with new picks.

Best Cocktail Gear: Shakers, Strainers, Juicers, and More (2023)

Best Cocktail Gear: Shakers, Strainers, Juicers, and More (2023)

Nothing draws the attention of a party like a bartender, swinging open the doors of a bar cabinet and taking their place among the glistening bottles of brown and clear liquors, colorful spirits with foreign names, and sparkling cut glassware. Beer is a fine drink, as is wine, but they don’t match the spectacle of mixing a cocktail.

I’ve had more bad cocktails in my life than I care to remember, and it often comes down to the maker splashing in too much liquor or not straining their solid ingredients. You need a measure of knowledge, a splash of experience, and the right tools, which we’ve collected below. As we head into the holiday gathering season, the right cocktail tools and some basic bartending skills can make you popular with friends and family.

Be sure to check out our other buying guides and gift guides, like our Boozy Gift Ideas and Gifts for Coffee Lovers roundups.

Updated October 2023: We’ve added new books, glassware, a knife, ice crushers, and mixers.

Best Bed Frames (2023): Easy Assembly, Fabric, Wood, and Metal

Best Bed Frames (2023): Easy Assembly, Fabric, Wood, and Metal

I’ve owned Thuma’s The Bed for three years now, and it feels as good as new. You don’t need a single tool to assemble this wooden bed frame. The company uses traditional Japanese joinery techniques, and it took me about 15 minutes to put the whole thing together. That means disassembly and reassembly when I had to move was so easy—there are but two thumb screws at the top and bottom edges of the frame, which you can hand-screw in once everything else is in place.

More surprising is how sturdy it is. I’ve gone through so many bed frames before the Thuma, and after a year or two, there’s usually a broken slat or bent metal rod here and there. Or the slats keep falling down, so you have to do that thing where you pull the mattress over your head as you try to shove them back in place (just me?). It doesn’t creak and never slides around. The foam Pillowboard is an additional expense, but it’s comfy. Thuma has since added a wood headboard, which is pricier, but that’s what I’ll probably upgrade to next, since it completes the look. A part of the problem is how expensive this whole bed frame is (the price has jumped since I first purchased it), but if it helps, the Thuma is made from repurposed wood, and it’s UL GreenGuard Gold Certified, meeting low chemical emissions. —Julian Chokkattu

6 Best Lubes (2023): Water-Based, Silicone, and Dispensers

6 Best Lubes (2023): Water-Based, Silicone, and Dispensers

I’ll scream it from the mountaintops as many times as I have to: Your bedroom should have a bottle of lube! Ideally more than one. Whether you’re flying solo or with a copilot(s), too much friction is a bad time for everyone. Even if it doesn’t seem like you need a lubricant, you’d be better off using a little just to protect yourself from chafing and micro-tears on sensitive tissues.

We’ve tested a handful of different kinds of lube, and below you’ll find our top recommendations. Be sure to check out our Best Sex Toys and Best Vibrators guides for more picks.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.