Abstract A misconception lingers in the minds of some wine consumers that Champagne wines should not age much after the minimum period of 15 months in contact with dead yeasts, known as maturation on lees. It is certainly a myth, as far as the best cuvees are concerned. Dissolved CO2 being responsible for bubble formation in sparkling wines, keeping it as efficiently as possible in the sealed bottles during aging is therefore a challenge of importance for old vintages likely to mature on lees for several decades. Measurements of dissolved CO2 were done on an outstanding vertical collection of successive vintages from a prestige cuvee, showing maturation on lees ranging from several months up to 35 years at a constant temperature of 12 °C. Progressive losses of dissolved CO2 during aging on lees were evidenced and discussed on the basis of a previously developed exponential-decay type model taking into account the main geometrical parameters of both the cork and bottle. The prestige cuvee (with a narrow bottleneck, and sealed with premium natural cork stoppers) was found to hold much more efficiently dissolved CO2 during aging than a batch of standard Champagne and sparkling wines bottles showing 3 mm wider bottlenecks. By fitting our data with the exponential-decay model, the diffusion coefficient of gas-phase CO2 through the cork stoppers used to seal this prestige cuvee was found to range between about 5 × 10 − 11 and 9 × 10 − 11 m 2 s − 1 . Moreover, by extrapolating the data well beyond the measurement range, it was suggested that very long maturation on lees of the order of 76 ± 19 years should be needed to decrease the level of dissolved CO2 in the prestige cuvee below the critical concentration required for bubbling.

中文翻译：

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陈酿过程中溶解 CO 2 适度损失的证据

摘要 一些葡萄酒消费者心中存在一种误解，即香槟酒在与死酵母接触至少 15 个月后不应陈酿太多，这被称为酒糟成熟。就最好的特酿而言，这当然是一个神话。溶解的二氧化碳是起泡酒中气泡形成的原因，因此在陈酿过程中将其尽可能有效地保存在密封瓶中，对于可能在酒糟上陈酿数十年的陈年葡萄酒来说是一个重要的挑战。溶解 CO2 的测量是对来自声望的 cuvee 的连续年份的杰出垂直收集进行的，显示在 12 °C 的恒定温度下，酒糟的成熟时间从几个月到 35 年不等。在先前开发的指数衰减型模型的基础上，考虑到软木塞和瓶子的主要几何参数，证明和讨论了酒糟陈化过程中溶解的 CO2 的逐渐损失。研究发现，与一批标准香槟和起泡酒瓶相比，瓶颈较窄，并用优质天然软木塞密封的威望特酒在陈酿过程中能更有效地容纳溶解的二氧化碳，瓶颈宽 3 毫米。通过将我们的数据与指数衰减模型拟合，发现气相 CO2 通过用于密封此威望特酿的软木塞的扩散系数介于约 5 × 10 − 11 和 9 × 10 − 11 m 2 s − 之间。 1 . 此外，通过推断远远超出测量范围的数据，