Often associated with occasions of celebration, there’s nothing quite like popping that champagne cork and filling up your champagne flute!
Champagne is a luxurious beverage that is used to toast a special occasion.
But if you’ve saved up for a particularly nice vintage, perhaps you don’t want to drink it just yet. Some wines are often left in wine collections for years, so surely champagne can be treated the same, right?
Does champagne get better with age? Or are you better off cracking open that bottle and enjoying it while it’s still fresh?
These are the questions that we aim to answer for you today! We’re going to cover everything you need to know about those delicious bubbles so that you can get the very best from your bottle of champagne.
So why not put your champagne on ice in the meantime before we find out whether champagne gets better with age!
Does Champagne Get Better With Age?
Sadly, champagne doesn’t get better with age. Unlike red wines, you will be much better off cracking open that bottle sooner rather than later.
That’s because over time your champagne will start to degrade in quality, even if it’s been unopened and stored correctly in the meantime.
The bottle of champagne will start to lose its precious bubbles, and will taste really sour and unappealing if you were to pour yourself a glass.
It’s always best to enjoy your champagne as quickly as you can so that the bottle doesn’t lose its magic!
There’s nothing worse than having spent years and years looking forward to that tasty bottle of champagne only to find it’s soured and corked during that time.
So just how long can you wait before you open your bottle of champagne? Let’s take a closer look so that you can get the very best out of that bottle that you’ve been saving!
How Long Can You Keep An Unopened Bottle Of Champagne?
Knowing how long you can keep an unopened bottle of champagne will depend on several factors.
The most important of these is whether you have been saving a bottle of vintage champagne or a bottle of non-vintage champagne.
A vintage bottle of champagne will last you the longer portion of between 5 to 10 years.
This is because a vintage bottle of champagne makes use of grapes that have all been harvested from the same vintage.
This can often make the bottle more expensive, and you can tell whether it is vintage by the fact a date is clearly displayed on the bottle.
Non-vintage champagne makes use of grapes from several different vintages. As a result, it doesn’t tend to last as long, and is generally a cheaper bottle because of this.
A non-vintage bottle of champagne will only last you for between 3 – 4 years.
It will also be important to store your bottle of champagne correctly.
You will need to avoid storing it in direct sunlight, and try to keep it in an area where there is a constant temperature, such as a cellar or wine fridge.
Is Champagne Still Good After 10 Years?
If you have an unopened bottle of vintage champagne and you have stored it correctly in the past 10 years, then there’s a good chance that it will still be good to drink.
Anything beyond the 10 year mark and you could risk your champagne becoming corked.
You will need to have kept your champagne stored at a constant temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit, ensure that the humidity levels were good, and that there is no exposure to any excessive vibration, noise, or sunlight.
If these factors aren’t met, it can cause the quality of your champagne to degrade much quicker.
The best way to store your unopened bottle of champagne is to store it in a wine fridge or refrigerator.
You can also store it in a wine cellar if you have one, or another area of your home where it is cool and dry.
How Long Can You Keep A Bottle Of Moët And Chandon?
It will all come down to whether you have opted for a bottle of vintage Moët and Chandon or whether you have opted for a non-vintage bottle of Moët and Chandon!
If you have opted for a vintage bottle, then you can keep the Moët and Chandon champagne for between 5 to 10 years.
If you have opted for a non-vintage bottle of Moët and Chandon, then it will last you around 3 to 4 years.
Should Champagne Be Stored On Its Side Or Upright?
The debate between the correct way to store your champagne is lengthy and historical.
However, studies have shown that it doesn’t actually make much of a difference to your bottle of champagne as to whether it is stored upright or whether it is stored on its side.
It is often thought that storing the bottle of champagne on its side helps to keep the cork moist.
However, there is plenty of moisture in that air bubble between the liquid of the champagne and the cork inside the bottle to prevent the cork from drying out.
So it will all come down to personal preference.
It has also been argued that if the bottle of champagne were to be stored on its side for long periods of time, this would actually give the cork too much moisture, and cause it to degrade quicker.
In Summary
So there you have it! You now know that champagne doesn’t actually get better with age, and that you are much better off drinking it while it’s lovely and fresh.
Depending on whether you have opted for vintage or non-vintage champagne, the bottle will only last you for between 3 to 10 years from when you purchased it.
A bottle of unopened vintage champagne will last you for between 5 to 10 years depending on how it’s stored, and a bottle of unopened non-vintage champagne will last you for around 3 to 4 years.
You will need to ensure that you store them correctly, too, as factors such as temperature and sunlight can expedite the process that will cause the champagne to go bad.
