Wine Accessory - Champagne Stirrer

A now-rare device, the champagne stirrer or champagne swizzle stick is a stick, often ornamental and made of silver, ivory, or crystal, and often with a flayed end (like a branch), which is placed or stirred in champagne to reduce or remove the bubbles. Its use is heavily frowned upon as it destroys the most valued and distinctive aspect of champagne, namely its carbonation (compare the now-rare champagne coupe), and accordingly it is rarely found or used.

Champagne stirrers originally developed centuries ago, when carbonation was seen as a defect, a result of an unintended secondary fermentation; they later fell out of vogue in the mid-18th century as sparkling champagne became desired. Champagne stirrers are today particularly associated with the ostentation of the Roaring 20s, and stirrers from this period especially may be admired or collected as antiques.

Champagne stirrers operate by two mechanisms: agitation and nucleation. Stirring sparkling wine, or otherwise agitating it (such as by swirling) speeds the release of bubbles. Alternatively, a stirrer with high surface area and sharp corners provides many nucleation sites at which bubbles may form, and does not require stirring, hence the pointed and flayed design of many stirrers.