The Gift Exchange

When giving Champagne gifts do you ever wonder why the Champagne bottles are so thick and heavy? Because of their pressurized, excitable contents, Champagne bottles must be able to withstand at least 6 Gs of force when opened and thus are thicker-walled than normal wine bottles. To put this in perspective, blasting off in a rocket would put about 6 Gs of force on you. The bubbly is powerful stuff indeed.

Recently the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) announced the official launch of a new standard Champagne bottle that will significantly cut the Champagne region’s carbon emissions. The heavy bottles previously used were requiring more glass in manufacture and more fuel for transportation, which was adding up to more carbon released into the atmosphere. The new Champagne bottle, which is more than 2 ounces lighter, will reduce annual CO2 output by 8,000 metric tons, which is approximately equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 4,000 cars. About 300 million bottles of Champagne were produced last year alone.

The new bottle has undergone significant testing and market use to ensure the highest quality and safety standards, and we should be seeing them on the market sometime in the next year. Cheers to going green!

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