May 2026

Sparkling Wine

Ritual, chemistry, and the shape of celebration

Sparkling wine is one of the few substances in the world whose defining quality is its own disappearance. The ritual built around it, the sound, the shape of the glass, the price of patience, has outlasted every practical argument against it. This month, four angles on what we are actually drinking when we raise a glass.

Company of the Month

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Kattus

Founded in 1857 by a man trained under Madame Clicquot herself, Kattus has been producing sparkling wine in Vienna for nearly 170 years. A family business, an imperial court supplier, an enduring institution.

Object of the Month

A bottle of sparkling wine by the Austrian Kattus family company

The Bottle of Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wine is opened at weddings and at wakes, at promotions and at farewells, at the stroke of midnight and at the quiet table after a funeral. Its alcohol-free versions perform the same role without loss. On a drink that became inseparable from the significant moment itself, and what that actually says about the drink.

Feature

A cork poppint out of a bottle of sparkling wine against, with bright bubbles against a golden background

The Sound We Insist On

From church bells to air raid sirens, functional sounds have always carried information that silence cannot. The pop of a cork carries none. A reflection on why we kept it anyway.

Feature

Bubbles of sparkling wine against a pink background

The Secret?

Zero-alcohol sparkling wine sells well, and the toast still lands. Which suggests the alcohol was never really the point. A reflection on what fizz actually does to a room that stillness cannot.

Feature

The upper part with stem of a coupe glass with simple cut against white background

Three Centuries and a Rumour

The coupe glass is older than the 1920s it is associated with, more versatile than its reputation for Champagne suggests, and in possession of a myth it never asked for. On a shape that has held celebration and cold soup with equal composure for three centuries.

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You Are Paying for the Wait

From a few euros at a supermarket shelf to hundreds of thousands at auction, the price range of sparkling wine is among the widest in food and drink. The determining factor is not the grape. It is time.