Sparkling/Champagne for the cellar

[vovo]

Realising the cellar is very under represented by the bubbles and deciding to rectify that.

Considering some grower champagnes like Pierre Peters, Franck Bonville, Andre Clouet etc but it seems the vintage options are a touch unaffordable, do the NVs cellar well and how long typically would one expect them to last in the cellar?

Any other options to consider popping in the cellar?

Cheers

[Mahmoud Ali]

Hi Vovo,

Non-vintage Champagne can cellar quite well but not for as long as a vintage. The last aged NV Champagne I had was last Christmas and it had been in my possession for 7 or 8 years. It had no disgorgement date and as it was on sale was likely on the shelf for a year or two - that means it was 8 to ten years old. It was drinking well with "lots of fine, persistent bubbles, plenty of aged character, yeasty autolysis, and depth. Complex, perhaps Pinot dominant, very engaging and demanding of attention".

Provided it is a good Champagne, I believe you can safely age a non-vintage for at least 10 years. Long ago, Tom Stevenson, in his Champagne guide, said of the Lanson Black Label, that it was something you could safely cellar for five years then as a sommelier to guess the house and vintage. One of the reasons Lanson was known for its ability to age was because it was made without malolactic fermentation, was quite acidic, and needed the age.

I am not familiar with the grower names you mentioned so I can't say how they will do with time. The grower Champagne that I have experience with is the Rene Geoffroy 'Expressions'. When I had the 2009 disgorged bottle in 2017 I thought it "Very nice, the age having improved it beyond recognition", and the following year it was a "lovely aged champagne, brioche, autolysis, and richness". So they do age.

Cheers ............... Mahmoud.

[brodie]

Realising the cellar is very under represented by the bubbles and deciding to rectify that.

Considering some grower champagnes like Pierre Peters, Franck Bonville, Andre Clouet etc but it seems the vintage options are a touch unaffordable, do the NVs cellar well and how long typically would one expect them to last in the cellar?

Any other options to consider popping in the cellar?

Cheers

There are heaps of great options for cellaring champagne. I would strongly recommend vintage champagne over NV myself. Vintage Champagnes are made for cellar aging, whereas almost all NVs are made to be drunk on release. Of course you can cellar NVs, but personally I think the bigger (cellaring) bang for the buck is with the vintage wines

HOWEVER - you firstly need to decide : Do I actually like the taste and flavour profile of aged champagne?

There are many high end wine geeks who strongly prefer their champagnes younger and fresher. My advice to to find a way to try some older champagnes and see if you like them before you jump into this!

Brodie

[Mahmoud Ali]

I agree with Brodie regarding whether you like the taste of old Champagne. I also agree that vintage is the better option but 'Vovo' did say that the vintage option wasn't affordable. Champagne is one drink, whether vintage or NV, along with port I might add, that can be drunk on release, and good examples of NV can be develop fine complexity with age - enough to deceive guests into thinking it was vintage.

[WAwineguy]

I also agree with Brodie on aged champagne being a matter of personal taste. My wine journey has led me through being a red wine fanatic to now a champagne enthusiast. While I do appreciate the quality and complexity of good aged vintage champagnes, sometimes the taste can be overpowering when you are more used to the freshness and acidity of young champagne.

But to answer your question, yes NV champagne can age well. As an experiment I cellared a few bottles of our favourite NV champagnes, Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve, and Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose (in my view one of the 3 or 4 best NV Rose Champagnes). I opened the Rose after 4 years and it was superb. NV champagne hardly ever remains in my cellar more than a year!

[WAwineguy]

PS: Bonville, Clouet and Peters are all really good houses in my view, and I have bottles from all of them in my cellar.

[vovo]

Thanks all, a bit to digest. I prefer the aged version of pretty much all other wine compared to their young equivalent. The secondary and tertiary characters are something I enjoy. However, I should not assume the same for Champagne or sparkling which could result in a very expensive disappointment.

I will try seek out some aged versions to try. I actually think I might have a bottle of Moët NV in the cellar that was gifted to my partner, probably about 5 years old now, would this be worth using as a yardstick Vs a current release to test aged sparkling preference?

I also got 3 bottles of Lanson black as they were on special

Thanks again

[mse]

I still have 2 bottles of 1998 Krug Vintage Brut to hold on to, I might try one out in late 2023 at its 25 year.

[Mahmoud Ali]

I prefer the aged version of pretty much all other wine compared to their young equivalent. The secondary and tertiary characters are something I enjoy. However, I should not assume the same for Champagne or sparkling which could result in a very expensive disappointment.

Yes you should. If you like the aged version of "pretty much all other wine" then you will surely like aged champagne.

I will try seek out some aged versions to try. I actually think I might have a bottle of Moët NV in the cellar that was gifted to my partner, probably about 5 years old now, would this be worth using as a yardstick Vs a current release to test aged sparkling preference?

That is an excellent idea.

I also got 3 bottles of Lanson black as they were on special

They age very well, particularly in the past when it was made with no malolactic fermentation. In the past a minimum of 5 years aging was recommended.

[phillisc]

Purchased a dozen Lanson blacks last year, for a silly silly price of $20 each. Found a little inconsistency, perhaps in how they were stored by the retailer, heat affected perhaps, some were bright, others lacking. Have found that they are best served ice cold, the good ones so far had 2-3 hours in an esky. Perhaps dulling any unpleasant flavours, or masking the failings of my palate. Anyway for the price, can't really complain.

Cheers Craig

[Ian S]

Thanks all, a bit to digest. I prefer the aged version of pretty much all other wine compared to their young equivalent. The secondary and tertiary characters are something I enjoy. However, I should not assume the same for Champagne or sparkling which could result in a very expensive disappointment.

I will try seek out some aged versions to try. I actually think I might have a bottle of Moët NV in the cellar that was gifted to my partner, probably about 5 years old now, would this be worth using as a yardstick Vs a current release to test aged sparkling preference?

I also got 3 bottles of Lanson black as they were on special

Thanks again

I think that's all-round a good strategy.

The Moet may have softened a little in that time, but it should be well short of the extremes that lovers of old/ancient champagne enjoy. Hopefully it will show the 'direction of travel', so in that sense, useful for sure.

I don't know what Lanson Black Label is like these days, but in times gone by it was the most acidic of the major houses, positively demanding cellaring.

[Mike Hawkins]

I’m not sure drinking 5 year old NV champagne will give you a proper view to how decent vintage champagne ages. In some respects, it’s not too different to cellaring Yellowtail for 5 or 10 years… it won’t be a great insight into how a better wine from an equivalent variety would taste.

The three reasons I say this …. (1) the grapes used are of much lower quality (2) chapitalisation - though often denied by the Maisons - does apparently take place in the massed produced champagnes and therefore skews the taste and sweetness (3) the acid profile is very different as it’s expected the NV champagne will be consumed asap.

That said, the taste profile that may help you identify your preferences is the toast and honey notes. I suspect aged NV champagne would develop those.

[dingozegan]

Ageing NV Champagne is definitely worthwhile. They don't have the complexity of aged Vintage Champagne, but a good house/label stored in decent conditions will develop the classic aged Champagne characters. For example, I've aged Lanson Black Label for 15 years and served it blind to wine lovers who guessed it as Vintage with some age - it ages well, showing all the developed-autolytic and toasty notes you might expect. I've done the same for the likes of Piper, Pol and Roederer, but not for as long (more like 5 to 10 years max).

If you're going to age Grande Marque NV's in the low to mid-cost range, I think the likes of Lanson and Bollie are solid candidates (because of the acidity). But it really depends what style of Champagne you like anyway (I like richer styles too, so am happy ageing the likes of Roederer NV, for example).