Does Size Matter

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Ian Fitzsimmons

Ian Fitzsimmons
Once a year or so, Kermit Lynch writes his "Everyone Loves Magnums" page. I love magnums, personally, in despite of all rationality and common sense. We seldom entertain and never drink the same wine two nights in a row; halves would be much more practical, in fact.

Anyway, a couple of years ago I read a piece in the French Review Wines magazine in which the then-'best sommelier in the world' commented that he buys in magnums whenever possible, because the wine often better than that in 750s. There is no official policy in this respect, of course, but the idea was that winemakers tended, in many cases, to pick out better batches of wine to bottle in the larger format. (This is apart from Champagne, where, I gather, the chemistry of ulage air oxidation somehow favors aging in magnums).

It makes sense to me that a winemaker might want to put his/her best stuff into bottles that will likely be kept longer and poured for more people, but I don't get to visit many vineyards. I wonder if other folks have actual data to bring to this topic.
 
I've only seen the effect demonstrated to my satisfaction with sparkling wine. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist of course.
 
The couple of times I've had magnums and 750s of the same wine within a reasonably short period of time, I can't say I saw much difference one way or the other. The mag of 2004 Pinon ptillant last night, however, was very, very convincing. Haven't had it from 750.
 
OK, I'll bite.

This is so true in general that it doesn't require proof, but we'll proceed anyway.

As with fizz, but also with still wines, big bottles have larger thermal mass and so change temperature more slowly. They also have the same size seal averaged over a larger volume of wine. So, OTBE, the wine suffers less from the slings and arrows.

As for the wine in the bottle, there are two situations.

1. You are Moet & etc. and you bottle a million cases a year of DP. Do you:
a), pick among individual barrels to find the best stuff for your 25,000 or 50,000 mags a year, and put the rest into the blend; _or_maybe you assemble in your tank farm and bottle as you have the opportunity?

or,
2. You are a small producer in the Rhone, and you are premodern and bottle as you get your orders. Otherwise you don't shell out capital for bottles of any size. As you sit in your chair with the stack of bottles to one side and the stopcock in the barrel in front of you, you think of the people who will one day drink your wine. You may perceive a difference between the half bottles, destined for early restaurant lunch consumption, and the mags, reserved for birth years, weddings, & etc. You may choose accordingly.

My view is that if you have a producer that doesn't assemble all of the wine, and maybe bottles from individual barrels, they will tend to put the good stuff in the mags, OTBE. More true in the past. If you were at Domaine Ancestrale SFJoe in 1921, bottling your 3 barrels one at a time, which one would you put into the mags? If you were at Sebastiani last week, and you had heard the rumor that the shop had been sold, which cut of the stream would you put into mags?

It's not that hard, really. Exercise the grey matter.
 
Ian,
Much like you, I am fascinated with their size and perceived "betterness." But from a practical perspective, I seldom open magnums and when I do, it is seldom in situations you would anticipate - occasions, groups, etc.
Maybe the wine is better; I know some guys in CA that always bottle their best in mag. But in my cellar, they will always be more decorative than functional.
Best, Jim
 
Of course they're impractical; that is the true winegeek's cross to bear.

Though true winegeeks, n.b., have poor sense for the decorative vis--vis the functional.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
DuhOK, I'll bite.

This is so true in general that it doesn't require proof, but we'll proceed anyway.

It's not that hard, really. Exercise the grey matter.
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It's less strenuous (well, just a bit) to watch you exercise yours. But this is still theory, which is great, but I was also hoping some winemakers or winemakers' friends would also chime in.

originally posted by Florida Jim:
Ian,
Much like you, I am fascinated with their size and perceived "betterness." But from a practical perspective, I seldom open magnums and when I do, it is seldom in situations you would anticipate - occasions, groups, etc.
Maybe the wine is better; I know some guys in CA that always bottle their best in mag. But in my cellar, they will always be more decorative than functional.
Best, Jim
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Thanks, Jim, decorative is good. For me, I think they function as magical totems of plenty. Perhaps, when I hear my deathbed slyly beckoning, I will pop all of mine and bathe in the contents.

originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Of course they're impractical; that is the true winegeek's cross to bear.
Click to expand...

Profound.

Though true winegeeks, n.b., have poor sense for the decorative vis--vis the functional.
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Merely true.
 
Some Champagne producers, for example, definitely bottle a different wine in magnum than they do in 750, though sometimes for slightly more complex reasons than SFJoe indicates. So I don't see why that wouldn't be true for still wine producers, without getting specific enough to guess who they might be. But I agree that it would be nice to hear from a winemaker in person.
 
I would think though that no winemaker would admit to bottling their best stuff in magnums, for fear of dramatically undercutting sales of their smaller bottlings.
 
I think larger formats are, at least with red wines that need to age, generally better than 750s. For example, the best bottles of Chave and Verset that I have had have been magnums. Also, now that I think about it, some of the best Bordeaux wines I've had have been from really large format bottlings at charity events and the best bottlings of some Italian wines have sometimes been at restuarants that open a really large format wine and sell it by the glass.

I would guess that it's a combination of "chemistry issues" and maybe some choice of best lots, but I'd lean more towards chemistry as what is often distinctive is the "freshness" of wines from larger formats. (I also wonder if people exercise a bit more care in selecting corks for a magnum, 3L, or 6L bottle versus something in a 750?)

The two best bottles of Chave I have ever tasted were magnums of the 1990 Hermitage.
 
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
I would think though that no winemaker would admit to bottling their best stuff in magnums, for fear of dramatically undercutting sales of their smaller bottlings.
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Excellent point. Thank you.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
The couple of times I've had magnums and 750s of the same wine within a reasonably short period of time, I can't say I saw much difference one way or the other. The mag of 2004 Pinon ptillant last night, however, was very, very convincing. Haven't had it from 750.
Click to expand...

Isn't that great wine? We opened one at Thanksgiving and it was gone almost immediately, with a pretty small crowd.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
DuhOK, I'll bite...

As with fizz, but also with still wines, big bottles have larger thermal mass and so change temperature more slowly. They also have the same size seal averaged over a larger volume of wine. So, OTBE, the wine suffers less from the slings and arrows.
Click to expand...
There's another variable, however. Most wineries' 750ml lines are their "best-tuned" lines in terms of hygiene, efficiency, minimalization of oxygen, etc. The situation for bottling magnums is often different and probably varies quite a lot from winery to winery in terms of QC.
 
I always considered the "chemistry" aspect that John alludes to. I never imagined that any producer (however small) would reserve the better selection of the same cuvee for large format bottles. It makes sense, I suppose, though it seems like a lot of work for someone whose number one priority is avoiding disaster.

For me, magnums help keep my hands out of the cookie jar.
 
originally posted by Joe_Perry:

For me, magnums help keep my hands out of the cookie jar.
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This is what I thought for a while, but I see now that the magnums are being used at holiday parties, since I don't know enough wine geeks to finish off a magnum. The result is that the non-wine geeks end up drinking my magnums (plus myself of course).

I find it hard to believe that many winemakers would put different juice in the magnums--seems like a lot of trouble. I think the main difference is the larger liquid volume to surface area (the cork) ratio, which means that this format is less subject to oxidation. Also, there is some additional resistance to heat, but this would be only an issue with shipping or an imperfect passive cellar.
 
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