Champagne Alcohol Levels - WineIntro

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How Much Alcohol Is In Champagne?

Champagne would seem to be a light, bubbly drink. That means the Champagne alcohol levels are low, right? Strangely, this is wrong for two separate reasons which work together to get you drunk. To summarize, first, Champagne has higher alcohol levels than many other still wines. Despite its carefree bubbly appearance, it can pack a whallop. And secondly, there's a mystery of physics happening here. Somehow the bubbles in the liquid cause the alcohol to get into your bloodstream more quickly. Clearly it's time for some experimenting, to learn more about this! Let's start with the traditional glass for Champagne - the tall, thin flute. The reason people use the flute for drinking Champagne is that its tall, narrow shape keeps the bubbles from dissipating too quickly. So you've got the drunk-causing impact being protected there. In addition, the Champagne flute - deceptively - seems smaller than a wine glass and therefore one imagines it should hold less liquid. Here's a typical Champagne flute, filled with blue-dyed water for visual clarity. Alcohol in Champagne Now let's take that same liquid and pour it into the measuring glass. Alcohol in Champagne As you can see, the liquid is exactly 2/3rds of a cup - or 5.33 ounces. When doctors recommend one glass of wine a day for women - or two glasses a day for men maximum, they traditionally designate a wine glass to hold between 4 ounces and 5 ounces depending on which source you look at. In either case, 5.33 ounces is higher than those values. How about the alcohol level? Alcohol levels of course vary from wine to wine. One of the most popular wines in the US, Sutter Home White Zinfandel, clocks in at 10% alcohol. A lovely Dr Loosen Riesling is 7.5% alcohol. Looking through the Champagnes and sparkling wines in my house, they seem to range between 11.5% and 12.5%. So perhaps a bit high for a white wine. Certainly in the overall gamut of wine you can find hearty red zinfandels that are higher. In any case, the alcohol in Champagne is well within a normal wine alcohol range - it is not "light". So again in terms of doctors recommending 1 glass for women a day, and 2 glasses for men a day, a glass of Champagne roundly counts as a glass (if not a slightly larger-than-proper glass). Alcohol in Champagne However, a glass of Champagne is actually WORSE for you in terms of alcohol impact because of those pesky bubbles. Strange but true! Scientists love doing studies on this topic every December, probably because it means they get to justify the cost of buying lots of bottles of bubbly for themselves. One of those studies was done at the University of Surrey in Guildford. After 40 minutes of same-volume drinking, the bubble-drinking crew had a blood alcohol level of 0.7mg/ml. The non-bubble drinking crew (i.e. flat Champagne) had 0.58mg/ml - a substantial difference. So the human body gets walloped quickly by Champagne. The study author reported that, of the bubbly-Champagne drinking group, "some could hardly write" after those 40 minutes, it got to their brain so strongly and quickly. Normally the body parses alcohol over time. With the bubbles - for whatever reason - it creates a powerful brain-affecting impact. Here's the math on converting that finding. In the US, values are calculated in weight of alcohol per liquid volume of blood. * 1% of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) would be 1/100 g/ml * 1% BAC = 10 mg/ml * 0.1% BAC = 1 mg/ml * 0.07% BAC = 0.7 mg/ml Note that 0.5% BAC is death, so small numbers are important. At the 0.07% level, body effects include impaired reasoning, concentration, and vision. That's why most of the world does not allow driving past 0.05%, including Australia, Italy, Ireland, France, and Germany. In Colorado it's a criminal penalty to drive over 0.05%. However, for most of the US, UK, Canada, and Mexico, the legal limit is 0.08%. Efforts are being made in these countries to bring their figures in line with the rest of the world. So to summarize, Champagne is most definitely not only "counted" as a glass of wine in all of the 1 beer = 1 glass wine = 1 shot calculations that medical tomes present, but if anything it is a overly powerful glass of wine. Yes, it has the same overall impact of a glass of wine in terms of total alcohol, but the impact of that alcohol is compressed so that it all hits within a smaller amount of time. For that reason, Champagne should be treated with caution. Make sure you sip it slowly, savoring its flavors, and pace it out over a period of time so that it's overall body impact is more similar to a glass of wine. That will help your body properly process the alcohol and offset the impact of those bubbles! Now that you know that you should savor Champagne, it's time to try out a Champagne recipe or two. Here are some of my favorites! Kir Royale Recipe Mimosa Recipe Tangerine Dream Recipe 100+ Champagne Cocktail Recipes The Basics of Champagne Methode Champenoise - How Champagne is Made

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Champagne Cocktail Recipes

Champagne Cocktail Recipes Ebook

You'll have instant access to over 90 delicious Champagne cocktail recipes from your Kindle, your laptop, your PDA, or any other PDF-viewing system! Perfect for any Champagne cocktail lover! Champagne Cocktail Recipes Ebook Our Sangria Recipes include a section on sparkling sangria recipes. These are Champagne Cocktails as well! All content on the WineIntro website is personally written by author and wine enthusiast Lisa Shea. WineIntro explores the delicious variety and beautiful history which makes up our world of wine! Lisa loves supporting local wineries and encouraging people to drink whatever they like. We all have different taste buds, and that makes our world wonderful. Always drink responsibly.

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