Champagne served on a plane at cruising altitude will lose its sparkle more quickly than it would on the ground. Pexels
This holiday season I’ll be taking a bottle of one of my favourite Champagnes to visit wine-loving friends interstate. I’ll be flying, and as usual I plan to carry my bottle onboard in my hand luggage.
I’ve often wondered why airlines allow us to carry bottles of wine in our hand luggage on domestic flights, but not on international trips. It’s certainly convenient for wine geeks like me, but the reason for this anomaly isn’t clear.
The pressure inside the bottle is the same but because the pressure outside the bottle is lower, the cork will pop with slightly more vigour when you’re in flight.
I could understand if all bottles were banned from all flights. A broken bottle makes a pretty dangerous weapon, needless to say.
And an accidentally broken bottle could be seriously disruptive on a fully-loaded plane, especially a broken sparkling wine as the pressure in the bottle can turn shards of glass into projectiles.
Which leads me to the question: does the pressure in a bottle of sparkling wine become more dangerous in the air than on the ground?
The answer is no, but it’s a good question as the airlines do insist we don’t bring anything onboard that could explode. In fact, the relative pressure in a bottle of Champagne is slightly higher in a plane at cruising altitude than on the ground.
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This Article was originally published on The Real Review
