How do you store your champagne ?
0 voters
I have had a few discussions with wine buddies about storing champagne. Some have felt it was best to stand it, while some store it on their side. I am wondering about opinions. Also included a poll.
I was under the impression that it didn’t matter whether one stored champagne on the side or upright. The reason to store most wine on the side is to keep the cork moist, but this concern isn’t present with champagne (thanks, CO2).
However, champagne is more light sensitive than other wines, so it should be in the dark, if possible. That is my one major criteria.
The answer missing on your poll is “either of the above.” Absence of light is the only criteria that matters IMO. I store mine whever I have room. 
How does CO2 keep then cork moist?
+1
It doesn’t. But it won’t crumble because the pressure expels it and if there’s no pressure, like with really old bubbles, no corkscrew to damage the cork. Not sure if the moisture from side-storage causes enough, if any, cork expansion.
Hmmm . . . I can sort of see the point, but isn’t one reason to keep the cork moist to ensure it stays expanded and tightly sealing the bottle? If the cork gets dry, it shrinks a bit and may allow the CO2 to escape and air to penetrate, even with the cage still holding the cork in.
I think the reason given for not needing to keep the champagne cork moist and therefore expanded is that the champagne cork is put in the bottle under extreme pressure. An original champagne cork, prior to use, is much wider than a regular wine cork. I don’t think it could dry out enough to lose its seal, so the bottles can be stored upright. I’ve not done any long term testing of this theory however.
Earlier threads:
I recently opened a magnum of Champagne I bought at auction. Of course I have no idea which way it was stored, but the cork was dry and shriveled and the wine was flat and oxidized. So loss of seal is definitely possible.
I think it comes down to how long you are storing your Champagne. I really prefer aged Champagne and have some going back almost 40 years ('75 vintage). I regularly age NV Champagnes 5-10 years. When you open a bottle from 1990 or prior, the cork most of the time comes out with very little to no effort at all; because the end is so small from being compressed for so long. For the older wines, I think it is important to keep the corks moist to try to maintain some of the elasticity. If you are only keeping Champagne bottles for 5 years or so, then I don’t think it makes any bit of difference to store it upright or not. Just my two cents.
Cheers,
I wanted to pull this thread from the archives for an update. I had a jeroboam of Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut that I had first stored for a while on its side in one of my wine units in the house. To clear space, I moved that bottle to my offsite storage (55 degrees, 70% humidity) about a year ago and stored it standing upright, due to the prevalence of opinion that champagne could be stored standing up.
This weekend I needed to pull that bottle for use in a couple of weeks, so picked it up and put it in a box on its side for transportation. However, I hung out at the offsite place to relax a little with TV and a little wine (Domaine in Chicago). When I went to leave, I saw leakage from the box! I opened it up and heard hissing from the bottle and leakage. When I opened the bottle the next day out of necessity, it was flat and advanced, but actually pretty good as a still wine. But you get where I’m going.
Bottom line, I would never recommend storing champagne upright except for a very short period of time.
I store them both ways. some upright and more of them horizontal.
Sorry for the condition of your jeraboam John.
Crap. I changed all my champagne to upright.
Curious, why is Champagne more light sensitive than other Chardonnay based wines ?
Thanks
Pat
I’m sorry for your loss . . . however, can you be sure that had you stored it on its side for a year that you wouldn’t have come back to a sticky off-site puddle this past weekend?
Good question. I had stored it on it’s side for quite a while, probably at least a year. So the leakage should have come out.
I was really suprised at the shape of the cork when I took the foil off. It was the equivalent of if I had stuck the bottle in the mud, there was that much black stuff encrusting the cork and cage. The cork was a touch elevated as well. What does that all mean?
That’s my reaction. Based on the earlier discussions Jay refers to I now store some Champagne on their side, some standing up, because it suits the shape of my storage. Particularly infuential was Brad Baker’s post:
The Wiki article doesn’t have the entire story, but it’s point is correct. The only twist is that the advantage of storing upgright vs. sideways is almost insignificant and the space advantage 99% of folks probably have with traditional sideways storage outweighs any vertical advantages in my eyes. To me, the simple answer is that it is safe to store either way and I store 99% of my Champagne sideways (as do most in Champagne - even the people who did the study). In Champagne, the only upright storage you normally see is for old vintages in an oenotheque where space permits it.
I do want to age some of my Champagne long term. Is upright still regarded as at least as good as lying down?
Cheers, Howard
Based on this one instance Howard, I don’t think it’s good for long term storage.
As you know, the corks are under tremendous pressure when put in the bottle and significantly constricted. That’s possible due to the elasticity of the cork when it goes in, and we always see the cork spring back to some extent when the bottle is finally opened. However, I think that elasticity is lost if the cork dries out to an extent, which would set the end of the cork permanently into the smaller diameter. This makes the cork less capable of reacting to higher pressures, say when the bottle is jostled around and the carbonation activates. The cork then starts to elevate and fails.
At least that’s what happened in my example. Given that the bottle was in great storage conditions after it was put upright in the storage facility, and wasn’t leaking beforehand, the upright storage caused the problem.
seems weird that the theory of storing it upright even started