Post people agree that Bottles (750) age better than halves (375) and that mags (1500ml) age better than 750, etc…
Using 2005 Lafite (and RMP) as an example. Drink date/range is 2020 - 2050
What would the “optimal range” be for the range of bottles? Is this “formula” applicable for all wines (i.e. .5 the amount for a half, double for a mag etc…)
375ml -
750ml - 2020-2050
1.5L -
3L -
5L -
6L -
9L -
In all cases…SWAG.
The Lafite was used as an example…any wine with a drinking window…ya get the idea.
IMHO, drinking windows are nothing more than guesstimates, based on one’s own previous experience with the label, or with drinking wine in general. That said, I’m sure there’s probably some scientific way to determine this based on volume. But, in the absence of that, my WAG is to add 5 yrs to the front end of the window of each increasing bottle size. Back end? Hell, I’m so dead by then.
I would say there really is no formula you can apply to Mags or other large formats. My GUESS would be for better wines that are meant for long term aging, say like a first growth, I would add 5-10 years to the beginning of the optimum drinking window…so for example, if a 2005 Haut Brion, from 750, starts to hit its stride in 2020, then I would say the magnum would start to hit somewhere between 2025 and 2030…
NOW HERE IS THE HUGE EQUALIZER…
and I hate to say this but it DEPENDS. I would say there are enough mags that the first growths and even wines like Insignia are bottled on the bottling line which would mean they get the same treatment as the 750’s in terms of sparging, vacuum, etc. However, many smaller wineries HAND BOTTLE mags and larger. So there is much more variability in terms of how long they will age. If they are hand bottled, I would put the drinking window on par with the smaller 750.
For 375’s…again it depends. If done on a bottling line, slightly less than the 750 but many of these are done by hand as well since many wineries don’t produce a lot. Most go to their tasting rooms or some restaurants and are meant for earlier consumption.
Good point, Tony. With the hand filling, hand gassing, and hand corking…who knows what you have there. Plus, they usually pull from separate tank/barrel, no?
Not from what I have seen in Napa/Sonoma. All the barrels that are earmarked for that particular bottling, go into tank about 3-7 days prior to bottling to allow them time to knit together. Any final “adjustments” may be made at this point–a little more tartaric, a little back blending, etc. They then will bottle large and smaller formats by hand the day before the big run of 750 by hooking up a hose with a filler wand to one of the racking valves. The bottles will be sparged with nitrogen or argon then filled then hand corked. Some of the hand corkers can pull a vacuum, some older ones don’t pull any vacuum - just a straight mechanical device that punches the cork down…Sometimes, if there are a lot of Mags or 375’s they’ll hire a smaller bottler to come in just to do those bottles.
Larger formats also supposedly used hand-carved corks which are not as air tight as the machine-made corks used in 750s and magnums.
Please see 1997 Harlan Estate
Large format corks are machine punched just like regular corks. The standard diameter for 750mL bottle corks is 24mm. Large formats go up to 42mm (we’ve even done a 45mm).