Is Champagne a wine to keep ?

We are often mistaken about the keeping capacity of a champagne ! Can we let it age ? Discover more with Beaux-Vins !

When we discover the world of wine, some questions arise naturally : how to store your wine ? How many years ? What are the good vintages ?

On the contrary, some questions are more discreet, even though they are very interesting. You understood it with the title, this is about the conservation of champagne. Is Champagne made to age ? What interest is there in waiting ? Which Champagnes are made to be kept ? It's surprising to know that very few people keep their champagne to age it, while the question arises almost systematically for still wines.

Of course, it is impossible for me to give you a magic figure valid for all Champagnes and tell you "it all depends" will not help you either. So here are some explanations.

A notable difference is the cork used. Champagnes are better protected from oxidation, because the cork must be very airtight to withstand the pressure inside the bottle. Moreover, the CO2 in the bottle is not an oxidizing gas.

To know if a Champagne is intended to be kept or not, it is essential to distinguish non-vintage from vintage champagnes. Legislatively, non-vintage champagne must be aged 1 year in bottle before being sold and 3 years for a vintage champagne.

Most non-vintage champagnes are not meant to age, because these wines are a blend of "reserve" wines from different years. The cellar master has already made them age and found the perfect balance to get the desired taste. Keeping a non-vintage champagne too long will not make it undrinkable, but he won't get better than in his youth.

On the contrary, vintage champagnes are often good wines to keep if the conditions are respected. As explained above, the cork plays an important role, but that's not counting on the stable temperature, the absence of light and vibration or even humidity.

To make it short, I advise you to drink your non-vintage champagne in the 3 to 5 years. For vintage champagnes, it is essential to check with your wine merchant - or internet, winemaker, and so on. —, because some can be kept more than 10 to 20 years.

Like any wine, champagne can evolve over time and improve : its aromas become more complex. Undergrowth aromas, of truffle and toast will appear and replace the fresh floral aromas of its youth. Not everyone likes this style of champagne and it is not uncommon to be surprised the first time by the taste of mature champagne.

In the midst of World War I, Maison Heidsieck and CO Monopole ships in 1916 an order of 3’000 bottles of champagne for the Russian Imperial Army in St. Petersburg. After being loaded onto the boat "The Jönköping", the cargo left for the Baltic Sea before the ship was sunk by a submarine on 3 November 1916.

In July 1998, at the eastern tip of the Baltic Sea, a Swedish underwater expedition discovers the wreck of the ship 64 meters deep. The team collects 2,400 bottles of Heidsieck and CO Monopole champagne from the vintage 1907. If the bottles of Cognac and Burgundy did not survive these 82 years spent in the ocean, the 2,400 bottles of Heidsieck and CO Monopole champagne were perfectly preserved.

After 82 years spent underwater, the wooden boat was brought to the surface. The champagne was tasted to find out if it was still good or not. Surprise, he had kept all his qualities of harmony, of freshness and effervescence. Several factors explain such conservation.

The first factor, and certainly the most important, is that of the cork. They survived submerged in seawater, without any small bacteria or other living things being interested in it. Then, we can assume that the water pressure at this depth opposed the pressure inside the bottle, which allowed the champagne to retain all its effervescence. Finally, the darkness of the depths and the constant temperature of the water at 0 ° C have preserved all the qualities of Champagne.