Champagne cork popping revisited through high-speed infrared imaging: The role of temperature

► Champagne cork popping was examined through high-speed infrared imaging. ► Dynamics of gaseous CO2 gushing out of the bottleneck were found to depend on champagne temperature. ► A thermodynamic model is proposed, assuming adiabatic expansion while cork popping. ► Only 5% of the total energy released while cork popping was found to be converted into cork's kinetic energy.