Is there anything more iconically decadent than a luxuriously rotund bottle of icy French bubbly? In truth, if you do not love champagne, there are numerous delicious and effervescent wines that are close enough for a great celebration. If, however, your oenophilic tastes run towards the true blood of Champany, nothing else will do, and you are cursed to an ever more expensive habit. Unlike other collections, a champagne collection is constantly in flux as you drink your most precious holdings, only to replace them with new ones. There are some distinct considerations, however, when founding your new collection.
Instructions
1. Get an appropriate storage facility. Poor storage temperature is the bane of a champagne collection. If you are not blessed with a vast and deep stone lined wine cellar under your manor, you may consider investing in a dedicated wine refrigerator. You can adjust the temperature to perfect storage levels and to ideal service temperatures.
2. Determine your tastes in champagne. Most refined modern palates tend to prefer the very dry brut champagnes, which are finished with a very small amount of sugar in their dosage. There are a very few champagnes that are even drier than brut, most of which carry house names such as Piper-Heidsieck’s Brut Sauvage that has no sugar in the finish. Sweeter than brut is extra dry, sweeter than that is dry or sec champagne, and sweeter than that is demi-sec or semi-dry. Most serious champagne aficionados find anything sweeter than brut to be far too sweet.
3. Consider a focus for your collection. You may divert from your focus at any time, but the focus gives some sense of order to your champagne collection. You may want to collect a decade’s worth of vintage Krug or Crystal, or you may want to collect Blanc de Noirs from all the major champagne houses of the region. Simply choose a starting point, so that you know when you are diverting from it.
4. Consider your rate of consumption. If pristinely kept, champagne has a shelf-life of several years, which can be several hundred bottles in your collection if you drink a bottle a night. If you only put one bottle away per week, or less, you may want to keep your collection to a couple of dozen. If you have a facility to store them, larger bottles such as magnums, Jéroboams, Salmanazars and Nebuchadnezzars will keep the wine proportionately longer and in better condition. But once you open them, you must consume them. With a 15 L Nebuchadnezzar, that can be a challenge to the most devoted of us.
5. Visit wine and champagne shops at every opportunity and chat up the experts. The experts in a good wine shop will know the characteristics of the labels that they carry, and they will be able to guide you well. While two brut champagnes may be equally dry, they have a depth of complexity that makes them entirely different in character. One may be best with a plate of oysters while the other is a perfect wine with a plate of strawberries--let the experts guide you.
6. Enjoy your collection. There is no collection that will bring you as much joy and satisfaction as a collection of Champagnes!
Tags: your collection, than brut, brut champagnes, champagne collection, sweeter than
