I've always told people that storing champagne is a mistake and that you shouldn't keep champagne for too long. I know that many people would disagree with me on this, but I still haven't changed my mind and a meeting last week in London only served to reinforce my view. Here's why....
I know that champagne can be kept for many years and can still be wonderful to drink, but I've heard too many tales of ordinary wine drinkers keeping champagne for years and years, just because they couldn't think of an occasion special enough to open the bottle, then, when they do finally open it, it tastes awful - completely undrinkable.
Anyway, I was down in London last week for a meeting with an MW : a Master of Wine. We had a long chat and one of the things we touched upon was this issue of keeping champagne.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the term Master of Wine, it's the most prestigious and demanding qualification you can get in the world of wine. Anyone who is a Master of Wine obviously knows their subject inside out and then some.
We met in a private club in central London to which this gentleman belongs. He was telling me that one of the advantages of being a member is the excellent wine cellar which contains some outstanding wines at amazingly low prices. In fact the members even get the chance to select the wine that the club purchases.
The way they do this is to ask suppliers to send samples for the club members to taste and then have a special tasting and choose the wines that are particularly impressive.
When it comes to champagne most suppliers send a bottle of their normal non-vintage champagne, but one champagne maker,
Champagne Lenoble,was a bit smarter. They sent a sample of a bottle that had a couple of years extra ageing and so there was an added richness and depth of flavour compared with champagne that has been aged for only the standard 2 or 3 years.The club members immediately spotted the difference and told Lenoble that they'd definitely use their champagne as the club's own champagne if Lenoble would guarantee to always send champagne with this extra year or two of ageing. So the deal was done and everyone is happy.
You're probably saying to yourself " Hang on a minute. Doesn't this story suggest that it's a good thing to keep champagne for a year or two before drinking it? That's exactly the opposite of what you said at the beginning".
Well, there are some important differences between what happens at a prestigious London club and what happens in the homes of 99% of champagne drinkers in the rest of the world. Let me explain....
First, the samples sent by Lenoble had been aged for a extra year or two in France BEFORE being disgorged and sold. This type of ageing with the yeast still in the bottle, is not the same as keeping a bottle after you buy it by which time the yeast has been removed from the bottle. What's more, the champagne you buy in wine shops has not benefitted from the extra ageing on the yeast.
Even so, champagne that you buy at your local wine store can still be kept for a few years and it will still be good to drink - some people would say they prefer champagne that has been kept for a while, BUT and it's a big but.....
Almost no one has a wine cellar that is designed to store wine for years and years. Most of us keep our wine in the kitchen, in the garage, under the stairs or somewhere round the house and this is not the ideal way to keep wine and it will deteriorate much faster than it will in a proper cellar. Before you realise it, a year or two, or maybe five or ten, will have gone by whilst you wait for the special occasion to open your champagne and then when you do, it will be disappointing.
So the moral of this story is, if you are a member of a private club with a purpose built wine cellar, or if you have a great wine cellar in your own home, then by all means keep your champagne for a few years and enjoy the wonderful experience of old champagne, but if you are in the other 99% of the population, seize the moment and enjoy your champagne as soon as you can. Besides, it's more fun than waiting!
To read more about ageing and storing champagne, grab a copy of The Insider's Guide to Champagne at
Stay Bubbly,
Jiles
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