Two years ago I graduated from a Eurocave in my NYC apartment to a real temp-controlled cellar in my basement, so now I have some real space. As a result, in part to celebrate the sale of that apartment, I went a bit nuts on some large format (3 and 6L) bottles that were very well priced and now am able to properly store. Primarily bdx, but other stuff too, and a range of vintages.
The question is this: When to open them? We all know that large formats age better, which has been my anecdotal experience from many mags over the years, but does anyone have a rule of thumb for large formats? As an example, I have a 3L 1995 Montrose. Montrose is of course a particularly long-lived wine, and in fact last year I drank a delicious bottle of this from a 750 ml, at 22 years of age. I would describe that bottle as near the beginning of its optimal drinking window, for my palate. In how many years would my 3L be, all else being equal, from a maturity standpoint, where that 750 was? Is there a formula that anyone uses? Unfortunately I just don’t have much experience with what my 9-year-old son calls “the big boys”.
Ive always found that the larger sizes-6L,5L,3L have an initial accelerated maturation curve- which then levels off after 10-15 yrs. Probably attributed to the hand made corks and/or air to wine ratio. This allows them to be drunk sooner than we’d expect and has been my experience opening 50-100 bottles 3L and larger. Magnums are a totally different curve ( much slower ) assuming a good cork and good storage/provenance. I find magnums of bordeaux to start hitting their stride after 35-50 yrs for great years,and somewhat less for lesser vintages. On the question of 95 Montrose, I’d think another 5-10 yrs would be perfect. Enjoy
The old adage used to be magnums = +50% of the lifespan of 75cls. So extending that rule - twice as long for a 3L?
I believe an utterly anecdotal (aka made up) rule, but I’m not aware of anything scientific.
Possibly the bigger challenge, is how few opportunities we have to open such wines. It’s rare we’d want 3L of a single wine, let alone 6L. Most of the time wine geeks would prefer variety, so these large format bottles can be destined for a large gathering, where the wine should not be as much of the focus as the event itself (e.g. birthdays and anniversaries).
Exactly! The few 3L and 6L bottles that I bought because they were “deals” have ended up being contributed at charity auctions. Just not much call for this much of one wine at a single sitting unless you entertain large groups.
Magnums share same cork size with 750 so Magnums are going to age much slower because of the ratio cork volume/surface to wine volume. If one wants to keep a bottle really long, magnums are ideal.
3L and above have larger corks, so there are 2 conflicted factors:
larger cork → accelerated development
more wine → slower development
Edward, when you mention initial accelerated maturation, do you compare it to magnums or regular 750s ? Does it mature faster than 750s?
9 liter bottles (Burgundy shape anyway) have a cork that is much closer to a 750 ML bottle than those used for 3 and 5 liter bottles. The neck is also very long and narrow and the glass is super thick. These are essentially time capsules.
I’m at the lower end of Edward’s experience (50+ bottles 3L and bigger, large majority 3L). I always have at least two at my national sales meetings… they are convenient and convivial for dinners of 20+. Everybody gets more than a glass and gets to taste as the wine evolves.
I’ve not found the accelerated development up to 15 years, but that’s probably because I never open them that young . I find a big difference between 3L and larger, with larger sizes evolving glacially (… just realized that metaphor will sadly need to be retired). I had an 18L Melchior of a 1982 Cotes de Bourg about 3 years ago, not just still young but almost rude.
My rule of thumb would be ~30 - 50% longer for magnums than 750’s, an additional 10 - 20% for 3L, and let your grandkids worry about the larger formats.
this picture is not very precise but for my 60th anniversary I decided to open bottles of 6 liters as it is written 6.0. We were 60 people and there were other bottles including 3 liters of 1967 Meyney which were delicious.
I opened (in the order on the photo) 1985 Lafite, 1985 Margaux, 1995 Mouton (5L), 1983 Yquem, 1990 Lafite, 1988 Pommery.
The most impressive effect of the volume of the bottle was on the Pommery and on the Yquem which became extremely large. The reds appeared more balanced, wider, larger than what they would provide in bottles.
And for my impression they were larger than what they would have been in magnums.
I see no limit to the life of these big formats, but it would be good to wait 20 years to take advantage of the formats.
Dan- my original assumption was that bottles of Bordeaux that size ( 3L-6L ) would not be ready for 35-50 yrs like magnums. Bad assumption. I found opening 5 and 6 L bottles 82 Pichon Lalande and lots of others , that they were ready in 20-25, mostly fully mature and drinking beautifully. Now its true that 82 Pichon has always been drinking well. I think one of the real benefits to these sizes is the length of the plateau - which depending on the wine , can last 40-75 yrs,but you don’t need to wait that long.
My experience includes some Bordeaux, mostly a step or two below the 1st Growth level. But it also includes a lot of California Cabs, California Pinots and especially Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and my comments are based on an amalgam of all of those. Oddly it’s been the California Cabs that have shown the slowest evolution. Some 1990s and especially 1991s in January tasted like <10 year wines.
Only ever had one and it was not that old. Last weekend at Ridge Montebello tasting, Eric served a 6L '96 Montebello from cellar. To me it tasted softer than the '96 I brought to an offline less than a year ago. Both were good but the 6L last week seemed a rounder. Both were still mostly primary but darn good. Now, We did not watch them open it so for all I know it was opened ahead of time and decanted? I honestly expected it to be a bit tighter and was pleasantly surprised.
Yowza is an understatement. Im not sure what word surpasses it, but that would be the word. Maybe its yowl times two. Francois is THE MAN.
Re the large format longevity issue, it seems to me there are many variables and even bottle to bottle ones. The seal, the ullage, the varietal and structure of the wine and how it was made and preserved, storage, handling, etc. I`ve had 2 3L bottles of the same champagne which were entirely different although bought and stored together purchased from supposedly impeccable provenance.
It’s tough to have a rule of thumb because the larger bottles seem to act differently in great vintages versus fair-to-middling vintages.
Assuming a very good to great vintage, I find that the magnums run about 10-15 years behind the .750s.
As to 3L bottles, Bordeaux 3Ls are fine. They don’t have hand made corks with weak seals as previously noted. Those corks are manufactured in normal methods that provide the same level of seal as normal bottles. I popped some 1978 3L of Brane Cantenac at their 30th anniversary and the corks were perfect.
However, 3L bottles of old port and champagne are a different story. I had three 3L bottles of 1977 Taylor that clearly had specially made corks for the bottles. I sold two at a good profit and opened the third, which had started to leak. The cork was very short and unbranded. But these bottles were aberrations and technically illegal to ship off the island back then. I was told they bottled less than 100 of them for use as special occasion wines. Apparently the three I had escaped somehow.
I had several fails of 3L champagne bottles that I had stored for a while. It was because I didn’t know at the time that any champagne bottle above a magnum size doesn’t contain wine that’s gone through secondary fermentation in the bottle. The 3L and above bottles are filled from 750s, corked and shipped. This kind of handling necessitates buying them fresh and opening them within a few months.
One piece of advice I’d offer on larger formats over 1.5 L, would be to store them at a slight angle to relieve the cork from pressure. There are a lot of large formats where I’ve seen the cork start to protrude. I think even a minor incline in storage would minimize the risk of this. Good luck and congrats.
As to the Original question…I’d suggest that you give the wines a minimum of 20 years in bottle if they’re meant to age like the Bordeaux.
Don’t know about wax. Probably would extend the maturation curve. Should’ve figured they’d start machine making the corks bigger than magnum recently. Anyone know when that started ? All the Bordeaux 3-6L I’ve opened were 00-95, and only 1 '95- so that would make a difference. Never opened a Cali large format, and most Burgundies have been whites( and perfect ) except a 3L of 85 Chevalier Leflaive ( bought at auction 25 yrs ago that was shot )YMMV
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