Does Champagne Go Bad?

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In the past few years, wine lovers have been buying sparkling wines like Prosecco, Cremant, Cava, and wines from Champagne not only for the holidays or special celebrations but also for everyday drinking. With the increased frequency of consumption comes a common question: How long does champagne keep? Many of us are increasingly mindful of drinking in moderation and less likely to drink an entire bottle in one evening. Perhaps you are a single sparkling wine lover or your partner does not like sparkling wine and you need some advice on making champagne last. Here are some tips and tricks on storing opened champagne - or any other sparkling wine.

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How long does an open bottle of champagne keep?

An open bottle of champagne sealed with a stopper and placed in the refrigerator will keep for at least 24 hours. It is possible to use an inexpensive bottle stopper like this one (affiliate link) made of food-grade silicone. Keep in mind, though, if there is enough pressure from the bubbles, the stopper may become dislodged while it is stored, causing the the champagne to go flat.

 
 

With a stopper like this, the wine will start to lose some of its bubbles and freshness fairly quickly. However, it will still be good enough to make mimosas or other mixed drinks for a day or two!

Some people who like less aggressive bubbles may actually prefer champagne or sparkling wine on the second day. After three days, most sparkling wines become flat (not sparkling).

How do I keep an open bottle of champagne fresh?

When champagne or sparkling wine loses its freshness, it is simply due to the natural oxidation of the wine over time as it is exposed to air (read more about drinking your already-opened wine in our “How to Tell If Your Wine is Bad” blog!). To minimize the oxygen coming into contact with the leftover champagne in the bottle, there are a few options to seal the bottle that are a little better than a simple bottle stopper.

The first is the Kloveo champagne stopper (affiliate link), a highly rated stopper made in Italy.

 
 

We’ve used the Champagne Stopper by Kloveo for a few years, especially for inexpensive domestic sparkling wine or cremant.

For more expensive non-vintage or vintage champagne, we use the Repour Wine Preserver.

 
 

Check out our full review on the Repour Wine Saver, including our field test on a bottle of champagne.

For both the Kloveo and the Repour, bottles should stay standing up in the refrigerator once the enclosure has been placed on the bottle opening.

How do I keep an open bottle of champagne bubbly?

Regardless of the enclosure, the reason we recommend keeping an opened champagne or sparkling wine in the refrigerator is to slow down the loss of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is more soluble in wine (and any other beverage) when temperatures are lower.

Can old champagne make me sick?

Old champagne (or any sparkling wine for that matter) will not make you sick (unless of course, you overindulge). If you are concerned about the quality of an older wine, assess it just as you would a container of milk you’ve had opened a few days in your refrigerator. If it looks unpleasant, smells unpleasant, and a few small drops on your tongue taste unpleasant, then yes, the wine has gone bad but won’t make you sick.

How long can I keep an open bottle of champagne in the refrigerator?

We recommend drinking any remnant champagne within 24 hours. However, when using the Repour Wine Saver (affiliate link), we’ve had some champagne that was still bubbly and fresh enough to drink three days later.

Will champagne freeze?

Yes, champagne (and any other sparkling wine) can freeze.

It is generally not a good idea to place sparkling wines in the freezer simply for the reason that one can forget the wine in the freezer. Upon opening the freezer door the next day, you can be greeted with a wine popsicle - and typically the cork has been compromised or pushed out of the bottle. While one can thaw and drink most still wines, sparkling wines often lose some of their bubbles after being frozen.

How long can I keep champagne or sparkling wine unopened? Does champagne expire?

When purchasing any sparkling wine or non-vintage champagne, a good rule of thumb is that it is still fresh and effervescent a few years after bottling. If you can’t find the year when the wine was bottled on the label, ask the wine bottle shop owner or staff. Some premium and luxury sparkling wines and non-vintage champagnes can be stored even longer than a few years. If your wine is vintage champagne (meaning that there is a vintage, or year, on the front of the bottle) these wines can age 15 years or more.

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Not sure if your bottle is vintage champagne? Here’s an example of vintage champagne (left) next to non-vintage champagne (right). If it’s not clear if your particular wine is vintage champagne or not, you can scan a photo of it into an App like Vivino or CellarTracker (or ask your local wine bottle shop for help!).

Americans are trained to look for expiration dates on all sorts of goods, but expiration dates are uncommon in wines. Preferences vary significantly when it comes to consuming aged sparkling wines. If you are not sure if you like the taste of aged vintage champagne, consider looking for it by the glass at a restaurant or wine bar around the winter holidays and splurge on a glass. It’s much better to learn your taste preference by the glass rather than investing in a bottle you might not enjoy years down the road.

How do I store sparkling wine at home?

If you are going to drink your sparkling wine in a few weeks, then it is fine to store it at room temperature, away from light and heat. Don’t store it in the refrigerator long-term, as the cork might dry out, resulting in loss of carbonation or oxidation of the sparkling wine.

If you are going to store sparkling wine or champagne from a favorite producer over months or years, consider investing in a small wine refrigerator like this one. Or store in a closet as recommended by Roy Wilson, our recent podcast guest.

 
 

For more ideas on wine storage, read our detailed article on storing wine in your home as well as our reviews on small wine refrigerators and larger wine cabinets.

Does Champagne go Bad?

In conclusion, if you store your wine well before consuming it, and have an appropriate stopper to place in the bottle after opening, you can get one or more days of enjoyment out of that special champagne or sparkling wine.

The two enemies of any type of opened bottle of sparkling wine are oxidation and loss of carbon dioxide, which are fought valiantly by using a stopper and refrigeration, respectively. With those two in place, you can unwin(e)d for a day or two after opening that chilled sparkler!

Have you enjoyed champagne or sparkling wine a day or two after opening? Share your experience (or questions!) below.

Cheers!

14 Fun Facts About Champagne

Whatever your plans for February 14th and whoever you might be sharing it with (a lover, a spouse, a friend, or your very worthy self!), we’ve got fourteen fun facts to help you enjoy that celebratory bubbly. Even better, our list is a guide to champagne itself: where it comes from, what’s on the label and in the bottle, and how it’s made. Get ready to love that bubbly even more than you did before!

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Champagne is closer than you think.

In fact, the region is just an eight hour flight (RDU to CDG) and a thirty minute train ride (to Reims) away! Want to plan a visit? Don’t forget to make a plan for bringing some champagne home with you.

With champagne, capitalization matters.

When you see Champagne with a capital C, it refers to the region of Champagne; the little c refers to the wine itself.

Bubbles in wine used to be considered a defect.

Up until the 17th century, sparkling wine was often considered defective by winemakers. Sparkling wine naturally occurs in cellars if temperatures drop in the autumn before fermentation is complete and the wine is bottled.  When temperatures warm in the cellar, the once dormant yeast become active and feast on the remaining sugars, causing effervescence when carbon dioxide from restarted fermentation is trapped in the bottle. We’re glad someone finally recognized the benefits of those bubbles!

Champagne labels are written in a secret, coded language.

(And we’re not talking about French!). Each bottle of champagne includes a code indicating the type of producer who made the wine in the bottle, but it’s not actually a secret. Here’s how to crack the code:

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RM (récoltant-manipulant): Grower producer, aka grower champagnes. Estate fruit for 95% or more of production.

SR (société de récoltants): Union of growers who pool resources and make wine under one or more brands.

MA (marque d’acheteur). Sell champagne as their own but don’t produce it themselves. One example is Kirkland Signature at Costco.

RC (récoltant-coopérateur): Grower-cooperator. Grape grower takes his/her grapes to a cooperative for winemaking and the wine is sold under the grower’s brand.

ND (négociant-distributeur): Merchant-distributor. Wine merchants who buy finished wine and put their own labels on them.

NM (négotiant-manipulant): Merchant-producer. Most of the large champagne houses and some of the smaller houses - they purchase more than 6% of their fruit from growers. Veuve Clicquot is an example.

CM (cooperative-manipulant): Cooperative-manipulant. Cooperative of growers band together and share resources and sell resulting wines under one brand.  

September is the magic month.

This is when grape harvest typically occurs in Champagne, though it will vary depending on the weather. Grapes are harvested by hand and the amount harvested is regulated.

In France, there are over twenty rules governing the pressing of grapes!

Grapes are pressed in either traditional presses or through mechanical means such as a pneumatic press. It’s possible that a single Champagne house will use a traditional press for Pinot Noir, but the pneumatic press for Chardonnay.

Not all the pressed grapes from Champagne end up as champagne.

Some juice also goes to produce still wine, vinegar, fortified wines, and spirits.

In France you can grow up to be a cellar master …

… which is kind of like a French superhero! It’s the cellar master’s job to blend the vins clairs (separate batches of still wines produced from different vineyards, varieties, and plots) and réserve wines (wine reserved from previous vintages to contribute to later cuvée blends). This creates a cuvée (which simply means, blend).  This process of blending is called assemblage.  

In Champagne, even red grapes can make white wine.

Confused? Here’s how you know what color the grapes were before they turned into that beautiful bubbly:

Blanc de Blancs is white wine from white grapes. In Champagne, blanc de blancs is almost always 100% Chardonnay.

Blanc de Noirs is white wine from red grapes. In Champagne, blanc de noirs is either Pinot Noir or a blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Rosé is typically Pinot Noir pressed or undergoing a short maceration before pressing to make a pink base wine.

Champagne is the perfect drink for blowing off steam.

That’s because it knows what it feels like to be under pressure! The secondary fermentation of champagne takes place in cellars - it happens very slowly due to the cool temperatures. Carbon dioxide given off during the fermentation is dissolved into liquid, creating the signature fizz.  The pressure builds to between five and six atmospheres, or seventy-five to ninety pounds per square inch. That’s at least two times the pressure in your car tires!

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The cork on a bottle of champagne can withstand six atmospheres of pressure.

That seriously strong mushroom-shaped cork is secured by a muselet (wire cage). The bottles are placed in the cellar for a few months to allow for the dosage to integrate well with the rest of the wine. The dosage is a small amount of wine and sugar added back to the bottle once the yeast sediment has been removed.

In Champagne, there are no champagne flutes or coupes.

In the land where champagne originates, and increasingly in restaurants here in the US, champagne is served in a white wine glass so that one can enjoy the unique aromas of the wine. And while coupes are fashionable for building champagne towers, their broad shape allows bubbles to quickly dissipate. Personally, we love the Gabriel Glas Gold for any fine wine!

It’s possible to open a bottle of champagne without anyone getting hurt!

Good news, right? Check out this short (< 3 minute) video and photo series for (safely!) opening and serving champagne.

You don’t have to drink the whole bottle.

If you want to finish off that bottle, we’re not going to judge you. But if you want to save some for later, no worries. Champagne stoppers can be purchased from a kitchen supply store or from an online retailer. You can get a well-crafted champagne stopper from Italy or France for no more than nine dollars. The wine will keep for two to three days. For more information on champagne’s shelf life, check out our blog, “Does Champagne Go Bad?".

And if you’re planning a romantic dinner for two, be sure to get a champagne bucket to chill the bottle. And don’t forget the flowers!

Happy February 14th from KnowWines!

Cheers!