Popular beliefs

When opening a champagne bottle, the fumes that escape is CO2 gas

Wrong: when the bottle is opened the pressure drops from 6.0 bars to 1.0 bar and as a result, the temperature of the liquid is lowered, in accordance with the Gay-Lussac law (the pressure P is proportional to the temperature T for a given volume). The fumes are composed of water and ethanol that condense due to the temperature drop and then escape.

 

The delicacy and size of the champagne bubbles are a guarantee of quality

Wrong again!: the size of a bubble does not depend on the quality of the champagne, but on the concentration of CO2 in the bottle. This concentration is partly due to fermentation, and it is true that older champagnes have less CO2 than younger champagnes because the cork is not perfectly airtight and therefore some gas escapes. The older champagnes thus form finer bubbles. The delicacy and size of the bubbles do not indicate the quality of a champagne, but indicates its age. One can also note that there is currently no known way of influencing the size of a champagne bubble during the manufacture of champagne.

 

A woman's champagne glass foams less than a man's

This is partly true, although the gender of the individual does not influence this fact. Foam is closely related to the effect of surfactants. However, the latter lose their effectiveness in contact with a fatty substance such as lipstick, that causes the foam to be eliminated quickly. Olives or sebum have the same effect.

 

Drinking champagne on the moon changes the properties of the bubbles

True: the moon's gravity is 6 times lower than that of the Earth. The observed bubbles were therefore 6 times slower (depending on Archimedes buoyant force) but would have a 50% larger volume as they would have time to absorb 6 times more CO₂, and would be expected to be 6 times fewer in number.

However, this obviously remains purely theoretical …