Storing Champagne

[Arno Tronche]

I keep hearing and reading that it is totally fine to store Champagne vertical (standing). I've always stored mine horizontal just like other bottles of wine.
I wonder is there any truth to that? just curious....

 

[Tom Glasgow]

The only source I can refer you to is Herve This' book "Molecular Gastronomy." In Chapter 79 he recounts studies by Centre Interprofessonnel des Vins de Champagne (CIVC) on Champagne aging. Herve This reports that the study showed that vertical or horozontal storage only influenced the mechanical properties of the cork. The cork was better preserved with vertical storage and reassumed it's mushroom shape on removal.
The effect on taste is presumably left to you to decide, but if you want more effervesence it might be best to store vertically.
BTW the same group did a study on the ability of the moon to increase sugar in grapes before harvest and found no effect.

 

[Arno Tronche]

Very interesting Tom, thanks a lot. Wonder if I can find the whole CVIC report somewhere...

 

[Tom Glasgow]

Valade, M., Tribaut-Sohier, I., and Panaiotis, F. (1994). Le Myth de la petite cuillere. Le Vigneron Champenois 12:28-34.

 

[Sharon Bowman]

Thank you for the Hervé This reference—I could not for the life of me remember where I had read the info.

 

[Mike Klein]

Seems sort of counterintuitive to me. I would have thought that keeping the cork moist (horizonatal storage) would help prevent the cork from drying out and losing its shape. Strange.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Mike Klein:
Seems sort of counterintuitive to me. I would have thought that keeping the cork moist (horizonatal storage) would help prevent the cork from drying out and losing its shape. Strange.

The corks are so compressed in the necks that I'm not sure that moisture content greatly affects them, in contrast to the behavior of relatively uncompressed corks in still wine.

Mark Lipton

 

[robert ames]

the base of a vertical cork that is stuck in a bottle nearly full of h2o (and alcohol and friends) won't dry out. to dry out the moisture in the cork would have to evaporate in to the bottle, and the amount of h2o that will vapourise into little bit of gas at the neck of the bottle (argon or nitrogen) is infinitesimal. otoh, having the base of the cork in constant contact with h2o et. al. will allow the possibility that the cork will waterlog. waterlogged cork loses its 'springiness', thusly reducing the pressure between the cork and the inside of the bottle neck, potentially compromising the seal of the cork.

matt kramer discusses this in his book 'making sense of wine'.

on a similar note, i was just recently told by someone in the trade that new studies have shown that corks don't let wine 'breathe', but that the only oxygen that a cork will expose a wine to is the oxygen found in the pores of the cork.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by robert ames:

on a similar note, i was just recently told by someone in the trade that new studies have shown that corks don't let wine 'breathe', but that the only oxygen that a cork will expose a wine to is the oxygen found in the pores of the cork.

This has been hashed and rehashed on the Internet. What you say may be true for a cork in perfect condition, but many corks are far from that. The now famous AWRI closure trials demonstrate that fact: the cork finished wines aged at radically different rates, but all of them aged faster than the ones under screwcap. Moreover, if you think about what you just stated, how is a cork porous enough to "waterlog" but not porous enough to permit any transit of the comparably sized oxygen molecule?

Mark Lipton

 

[SFJoe]

I've been "taught the controversy" on this one so much that it has destroyed all possibility of confidence.

 

[robert ames]

mark, yes, not all corks are created equal, but back to the original question re: champagne storage, upright is a viable option.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by robert ames:
mark, yes, not all corks are created equal, but back to the original question re: champagne storage, upright is a viable option.

Yes, I think so. As always, one question is whether you're talking long-term storage as in a decade or more.

Mark Lipton

 

[nigel groundwater]

originally posted by MLipton:

originally posted by robert ames:
mark, yes, not all corks are created equal, but back to the original question re: champagne storage, upright is a viable option.

Yes, I think so. As always, one question is whether you're talking long-term storage as in a decade or more.

Mark Lipton

That's a good point since as I recall from a dialogue with the CIVC concerning their 1996 report on this issue that the first of two studies with 5 Champagne Houses was over 5/6 years between 1986-92 followed by a 3 year study of NV Champagne.