Substituting for White Burgundy - Bottle Aged Champagne

It is a rare occasion indeed that one is asked “Is this Champagne ready to drink ?” In fact I do not recall the question ever being asked of me. Consumers just assume that Champagne, which may spend several years on its lees before disgorgement - and probably thereafter an additional six to twelve months in bottle after dosage - will not be released onto the market until it is ready to drink. As it is, the wide range of lengths of time any particular wine is allowed to rest on its lees - and the various deferred release dates - means that at any one time several different vintages of newly released Champagne are available for purchase. This does, I think, reinforce the notion that any wine newly presented to the market for sale will be ready to drink and has received all the aging it needs. In fact, there is the perception perhaps that it should now be drunk.

The assumption of immediate drinkability is true of course - and certainly so in the case of non vintage Champagnes. But it is also the case that some Champagnes from certain growers or Champagnes from particularly austere vintages may benefit from additional time in bottle. The structural architecture of Champagne and the time it spends on its lees means that the wine is well protected from the gentle oxidation process that time brings. Certain Champagnes can age a very long time indeed if desired. Most Tete de Cuvees or prestige vintage Champagnes absolutely can be aged. So further aging is an option with most higher end Champagnes. And yet bottles of age worthy Champagne are surely among the wines least often given the opportunity to see what change further age can bring.

Whether you wish to age the wine further is a question of preferred style. With time, the bubbles get less effervescent and the wine itself develops in complexity, at the expense of some freshness and vigor. If you drink Champagne precisely for that initial burst of energy and vibrancy, you will want to drink the wine young. That would be consistent with Champagne as a celebratory drink or an aperitif. But if you think of Champagne as a wine - to be drunk at the table with food - aging Champagne can make for a more compelling experience. Aged Champagne can be a wine of astonishing beauty and if you have the space and capacity to age the bottle gracefully the reward can be as great as aging any other age worthy wine. The growing trend to treat Champagne as a wine is apparent - evidenced by consumers increasingly drinking Champagne in regular wine glasses. With that I expect more Champagne to be cellared by knowledgable consumers.

And this trend to consider Champagne as a wine will, I submit, accelerate. But the aging process itself takes time, so it will be a while before people routinely drink aged champagne at table. Nor do I suggest aging of Champagne will ever exceed the incidence of aging of white burgundy today - itself quite infrequent. But more will be written on the subject of what types of Champagne are best to store. Do Chardonnay based wines age longer than Pinot based wines or is the reverse true ?  How much does whether the wine went through malolactic matter ? Does the level of dosage matter ? Does aging in wood make a difference ? How important are the climatic conditions of a particular vintage to its capacity to age ? Does it age consistently over time ? It is not as if the great Champagne houses do not know the answers to all these questions and fully recognize the benefits that time in bottle can deliver. Some occasionally release older wines. And they are much cherished. But to today’s wine collector the whole issue of bottle aged champagne is quite new. 

I actually would go so far as to say that as I cellar more champagne in bottle I will store less white burgundy, and so reduce my exposure to the risks that cellaring white burgundy brings.  Champagne is rather better protected so one can hope for fewer problems.

So start putting a few bottles away. You will surely not regret it. In a decade doing so will surely be the new norm.

I recommend a brief article by Michael Edwards of Decanter in June 2015