I’d like to take a bottle of my favourite Champagne to a friend who lives interstate. Am I allowed to fly with a bottle of sparkling wine in my hand luggage?
−G.M., Noosa Heads, QLD
It’s a good question since airlines do insist we don’t bring anything on board that could potentially explode. In fact, the pressure inside a bottle of Champagne is slightly greater inside a plane at cruising altitude than on the ground.
Although the cabin is pressurised to compensate for a lack of air pressure at altitude, it’s still slightly lower than at sea level. The cabin pressure is equivalent to what you’d experience standing on a 2000- to 2500-metre mountain.
For this reason, a cork will pop with slightly more vigour when you’re in flight, but there’s nowhere near enough pressure to cause a spontaneous explosion. Unless the bottle is damaged, of course.
Drop the bottle on something hard or smack two bottles together and you could have a problem. But the same applies when you’re on the ground: sparkling wines should always be handled with great care because even an apparently gentle knock in the wrong place can cause the glass to crack, and then you can have a really bad situation, complete with flying shards of glass.
It’s a good idea to wrap your bottle when transporting it; bubble-wrap is ideal. It will protect against knocks and, in the unlikely event of an explosion, will contain all the pieces. It will also be fine to travel in the hold, which is also pressurised.
It’s curious that airlines allow us to carry bottles of wine in our hand luggage on domestic flights, but not on international trips. It’s certainly convenient for wine geeks like you and me, but the reason for this anomaly isn’t clear. Perhaps they’re worried that on longer flights, we’ll get thirsty and turn the cabin into a BYO restaurant.
Got a drinks question for Huon Hooke? Email: thefullbottle@goodweekend.com.au
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