Whether it’s at a wedding or following a promotion, no good celebration is complete without a delicious glass of champagne.
But just how long can champagne be stored before it goes flat?
In a new study, researchers from the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne set out to find out.
And their findings suggest that when it comes to keeping your champagne bubbly for longer, it’s all about bottle size.
While a standard 750ml bottle has a shelf-life of around 40 years, larger 3 litres bottles – also known as jeroboams – can keep your bubbly fresh for a whopping 132 years, according to the study.
Whether it’s at a wedding or following a promotion, no good celebration is complete without a delicious glass of champagne. But just how long can champagne be stored before it goes flat?
| Name | Size | Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Mini Bottle | 20cl | 1/4 Standard Bottle |
| Half Bottle | 37.5cl | 1/2 Standard Bottle |
| Standard Bottle | 75cl | 1 Standard Bottle |
| Magnum | 1.5L | 2 Standard Bottles |
| Jeroboam | 3L | 4 Standard Bottles |
| Methuselah | 6L | 8 Standard Bottles |
| Salamanzar | 9L | 12 Standard Bottles |
| Balthazar | 12L | 16 Standard Bottles |
| Nebuchadnezzar | 15L | 20 Standard Bottles |
Champagne gets its bubbliness from carbon dioxide (CO2), which is generated during a second round of fermentation within the bottle.
By combining yeasts, sugar and wine, champange producers spark the production of CO2, as well as additional alcohol.
While the yeast dies within a few months, the flavours and aromas become more complex with time.
This explains why older bottles tend to be more expensive.
However, champagne also loses CO2 over time, with the gas slowly seeping through the cork and metal cap.
In their new study, the team, led by Gerard Liger-Belair, set out to find out how the size of the bottle influences how long the champagne remains bubbly.
The researchers measured the CO2 levels in 13 different champage vintages that had been aged for multiple decades and sealed with metal caps.
If you really want to get the best from your champagne, you’ll want to opt for a 3 litre jeroboam. The researchers found that this keeps champagne bubbly for an average of 132 years
As expected, they found that the amount of CO2 in the bottles decreased over time, with the oldest vintage, from 1974, losing 80 per cent of its carbonation.
However, the size of the bottle was found to play a ‘tremendous’ role in the amount of CO2 that remained.
Based on the analysis of the 13 bottles, the team developed a formula to calculate a bottle’s average shelf life.
They predict a standard 750ml bottle will still spontaneously produce bubbles for 40 years, while a 1.5 litre bottle will stay bubbly for 82 years.
However, if you really want to get the best from your champagne, you’ll want to opt for a 3 litre jeroboam.
The researchers found that this keeps champagne bubbly for an average of 132 years.
‘Increasing the bottle size is found to tremendously increase its capacity to preserve dissolved CO2 and therefore the bubbling capacity of champagne during tasting,’ the researchers wrote in their study, published in ACS Omega.
