The first question you need to ask yourself is whether your champagne is vintage or not, as this can affect how long you can store it unopened.
The difference between the two lies in the harvest of grapes: vintage champagne is made with those from a single year, whereas non-vintage champagne uses those harvested over several years. Additionally, non-vintage champagne has to be bottle-aged for 18 months at the winery, while vintage champagne has to be aged for three years.
On the whole, vintage bottles are considered to be higher quality than non-vintage, which is why they make great gifts for extra special occasions.
You can easily find out what type you have by checking the label to see if it has a year listed — if it does, this indicates the year that the grapes used in the making of the champagne were grown and picked.
If there is no date listed, you've almost certainly got a non-vintage bottle. In general, vintage champagnes will last longer than non-vintage when stored, and we'll look at precisely how long over the next few sections.
Champagne will last longer if it remains unopened. If you're planning on saving a nice bottle of bubbly for a special occasion, your best bet is to leave it as it is and make sure that you store it in the right way. Unopened champagne will last:. Note: As we've mentioned, some vintages are designed to be aged in the bottle for years before being opened, so they may last much longer than the times stated above.
Vintage champagnes tend not to have any advice on their labels about how many years they can be aged for, so it's best to check with the merchant you are buying from beforehand. If you're looking for a vintage champagne gift that ages well, get in touch and we will be happy to help you find one. It's important to store your unopened champagne in the correct way to prolong its lifespan. Your bottle of bubbly is a living beverage that can lose quality if it is exposed to the wrong conditions for too long.
Here are our five rules for storing your unopened champagne:. If stored correctly, both vintage and non-vintage bubbly can be enjoyed for three to five days after you've popped the cork. If you have a bottle of vintage champagne that you want to store for a prolonged period, lay it on its side. Transfer the champagne to the fridge a few hours before opening the bottle, as this kind of alcohol is best served chilled. Once you open the bottle, you should store the leftovers in the fridge.
Before we can discuss shelf life, we need to discuss two kinds of champagne available on the market. Champagnes can be divided into vintage and non-vintage ones. Vintage champagnes are considered higher quality, are usually aged longer, and last longer in good quality.
And they cost much more, as you might imagine. Unopened sparkling wine, like other types of wine, lasts at least a few years after bottling.
Their capacity to age is very erratic and the wine ages too fast. While standard 75cl Bottles 75cl age well and at a moderate rate if properly stored, magnums 1. In most cases, the magnum beats the bottle for added complexity, structure and nuances in the wine for 20 to 30 years. How will you know if your champagne is bad? It will be flat and the fine fruit aromas will have faded, replaced by the smell of vinegar. It will taste sour and altogether unpleasant.
Though unopened wine has a longer shelf life than opened wine, it can go bad.
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