Champagne storage

Should last a good amount of time.
A little colder would be better but what can we do.
Also You may want to leave the bottles upright, (i.e champagne corks) but depends who you ask.

Thanks for the reply ethan. I actually finished the case this month and they held up fine over a 3 month period. I may start buying in bulk in future.

i've held mine for over 3 years a few particular bottles have been sitting around for 8-9 years

quote:

Originally posted by sagan1:
Thanks for the reply ethan. I actually finished the case this month and they held up fine over a 3 month period. I may start buying in bulk in future.

Post of the year so far for me!

After 2 bottles suddenly exploded (both in spring, interesting enough, just laying untouched in the shelf for quite a while) I tend to put them in places where it won´t do much harm. (Never had an explosion since.) A constant and rather low temperature may for this reason be even more important than for other wines.

In a cellar with racks or bins- how would you suggest storing several cases of Champagne with bottles in an upright position (other than in boxes where floor space is at a premium)?

I'd ask how critical people feel it is to store champange upright vs racked (horizontal).

if its going to be consumed within 3-5 years?

if you plan on laying it down for 10+ years?

Thanks...the reason for wanting to know how people store or display Champagne bottles upright is that we built our cellar with all bins and didn't count on Champagne bottles being so round that horizontally they don't stack well. Stacked in the bin the bottles tend to rock forward so the neck is down and some even try to slide out. Each bin was designed to fit 12 Bordeaux bottles and we knew that Champagne, pinot, chard, syrah bottles are fatter so they would only fit 8 per bin but the sliding was unexpected. Long neck riesling bottles slide too.

If we can eliminate some of the issue by storing the Champagne upright it's a start. The rounder or longer bottles are still an ongoing issue. We'll be building a second cellar this summer so we're looking for solutions with the most efficient use of space.

My first suggestion is to buy or make a grid insert for a few of your bins. Sure, the bin looks cool when you toss a newly purchased case in there, with all the capsules lined up like little soldiers all in the same uniform. But over time, that case dwindles down to just a bottle or two, and you are moving remnants of other cases into the same bin, and now you've got a mish-mash of mis-matched bottles of varying size, shape, and capsule color. And as you noticed, many common bottle shapes don't stack so well. So consider a grid, or even a minor remodel to include some single bottle racking. That said, there will always be bottles (especially high-end Champagnes) that won't fit into standard racking anyway, so be careful.

Additionally, there are many intelligent posters on this forum and elsewhere who believe that you don't really need to store bottles horizontally. I tend to disagree, at least for long-term ageing, but the theory is supported many thoughtful proponents. So you may decide that standing up a few awkward bottles may be a reasonable solution.

I personally keep all of mine horizontal - I have not had the problem of exploding bottles (knock on wood). I just don't have a place to stand them up, and so I adjust the shelves in my wine cellar units to allow for adequate clearance of these large bottles.

quote:

Originally posted by Redhawk:
Additionally, there are many intelligent posters on this forum and elsewhere who believe that you don't really need to store bottles horizontally. I tend to disagree, at least for long-term ageing, but the theory is supported many thoughtful proponents. So you may decide that standing up a few awkward bottles may be a reasonable solution.

what about the position that champange intended to stored for long periods (10+yrs) should only be stored upright, never horizontal? bunk or good advice?

quote:

Originally posted by finz:

quote:

Originally posted by Redhawk:
Additionally, there are many intelligent posters on this forum and elsewhere who believe that you don't really need to store bottles horizontally. I tend to disagree, at least for long-term ageing, but the theory is supported many thoughtful proponents. So you may decide that standing up a few awkward bottles may be a reasonable solution.

what about the position that champange intended to stored for long periods (10+yrs) should only be stored upright, never horizontal? bunk or good advice?

Honestly, I don't know. To me, it just makes sense to keep the cork in contact with the liquid inside to help maintain the best seal. Like I said, there are others who disagree with me, and they can state their case quite well. I just remember a bottle of Dom Ruinart that my Dad had squirreled away for years in an upright position. By the time I found it, the cork was bone dry and shriveled up to a tiny little peg, and the wine was obviously undrinkable. I can see that if the cork were to blow, you would certainly have more of a mess if the bottle was on it's side, so maybe that's the reason for the suggestion. Also, it seems most luxury cuvee Champagne bottles are shaped so that they really don't sit very well on their sides. Perhaps this was intentional (more than just forcing folks to display the label by sitting it up--which would be a subtle potential marketing ploy I could not put past the big corporate Champagne firms).

Maybe someone who has been to Champagne can chime in and describe how the locals store their long-term bottles?

I have visited many Champagne cellars. Bottles are always, post disgorgement, (as in 100% of the time) stored on their sides. I have plenty of photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Board-O:
I have visited many Champagne cellars. Bottles are always, post disgorgement, (as in 100% of the time) stored on their sides. I have plenty of photos.

There you go.

Thanks for all the input.

Redhawk - Adding grids to the existing bins makes sense but is complicated by the fact that the horizontal shelves of the bins are slightly higher in the front than the back to keep sediment in the reds toward the bottom of the bottles. I've tried in the past and lost more space than it's worth, hence really thinking it through before building the second cellar.

I really didn't want to have to use individual horizontal racking because it takes up so much space but unfortunately it looks like there just isn't an efficient way to store fat, rounded Champagne bottles regardless of whether it's vertical or horizontal. Maybe that's not a bad thing, we tend to buy faster than we drink so now we'll be much more limited...

Always store the bottles on their side !
As described above, corks will start drying if liquid not in contact