Sea spray is the main source of aerosols above the ocean. One of the pathways for sea spray production is through bubble bursting, which ejects myriads of droplets. We present a detailed description of the velocity of jets formed by bubble bursting, obtained through extensive comparison between experimental results and numerical simulations for a wide range of physical parameters. We discuss the importance of the shape of the cavity on the jet velocity and the regime of parameters for which drop ejection is observed. We present a phenomenological formula that predicts the jet velocity for the full range of parameters and compare it to a theoretical prediction based on curvature reversal. The results are then discussed in light of their fundamental applications in the understanding of the phenomena.

The so-called effervescence process, which enlivens champagne and sparkling wines tasting, is the result of the fine interplay between CO₂-dissolved gas molecules, tiny air pockets trapped within microscopic particles during the pouring process, and some liquid properties. This critical review summarizes recent advances obtained during the past decade concerning the physicochemical processes behind the nucleation, rise, and burst of bubbles found in glasses poured with champagne and sparkling wines. Those phenomena observed in close-up through high-speed photography are often visually appealing. Let’s hope that your enjoyment of champagne will be enhanced after reading this fully illustrated review dedicated to the deep beauties of nature often hidden behind many everyday phenomena (51 references).

As champagne or sparkling wine is poured into a glass, the myriad of ascending bubbles collapse and radiate a multitude of tiny droplets above the free surface into the form of very characteristic and refreshing aerosols. Ultrahigh-resolution MS was used as a nontargeted approach to discriminate hundreds of surface active compounds that are preferentially partitioning in champagne aerosols; thus, unraveling different chemical fingerprints between the champagne bulk and its aerosols. Based on accurate exact mass analysis and database search, tens of these compounds overconcentrating in champagne aerosols were unambiguously discriminated and assigned to compounds showing organoleptic interest or being aromas precursors. By drawing a parallel between the fizz of the ocean and the fizz in Champagne wines, our results closely link bursting bubbles and flavor release; thus, supporting the idea that rising and collapsing bubbles act as a continuous paternoster lift for aromas in every glass of champagne.

Botrytis cinerea is a fungal plant pathogen of grape berries, leading to economic and quality losses in wine production. The global metabolite changes induced by B. cinerea infection in grape have not been established to date, even though B. cinerea infection is known to cause significant changes in chemicals or metabolites. In order to better understand metabolic mechanisms linked to the infection process and to identify the metabolites associated with B. cinerea infection, ¹H NMR spectroscopy was used in global metabolite profiling and multivariate statistical analysis of berries from healthy and botrytized bunches. Pattern recognition methods, such as principal component analysis, revealed clear metabolic discriminations between healthy and botrytized berries of botrytized bunches and healthy berries of healthy bunches. Significantly high levels of proline, glutamate, arginine, and alanine, which are accumulated upon plant stress, were found in healthy and botrytized berries of botrytized bunches. Moreover, largely degraded phenylpropanoids, flavonoid compounds, and sucrose together with markedly produced glycerol, gluconic acid, and succinate, all being directly associated with B. cinerea growth, were only found in botrytized berries of botrytized bunches. This study reports that B. cinerea infection causes significant metabolic changes in grape berry and highlights that both the metabolic perturbations associated with the plant defence system and those directly derived from fungal pathogen growth should be considered to better understand the interaction between metabolic variation and biotic pathogen stress in plants.