Champagne: Magnum Vs Bottle: Panel Tasting Results

There’s an old saying in Champagne: ‘A magnum is the perfect size for two people, especially when one of them isn’t drinking.’ Beyond simply allowing you to drink more wine, though, there’s something indisputably alluring about the 1.5-litre format. The large bottle is inherently festive, and it looks impressive on the table. If you do have more than two people, too, it makes the wine easier to share. But is Champagne in a magnum also better, in terms of quality, than the same Champagne in a standard 75cl bottle?

There are reasons to believe this to be true. In the wine world, it’s widely accepted that wine ages differently in magnum than it does in bottle. ‘The evolution of the wine is slower [in magnum] and the integration of all aromas seems to be more harmonious,’ says Michel Drappier of Champagne Drappier. ‘One definitely recognises the same wine, same characteristics, but assembled in a more elegant way.’

This is usually attributed to the greater ratio of wine to oxygen in a magnum, as the ullage (space between wine and cork) and diameter of cork remain the same as in bottle, while the quantity of wine is doubled. ‘In magnum the wine is always more reductive and therefore less oxidative,’ says Drappier. This seems to hold true for all wines, whether sparkling or still, making magnums desirable for wine collectors interested in long-term ageing.

Age before beauty?

Compared to still wine, though, Champagne has the additional element of a second fermentation in bottle to create the mousse. Not only does this make each bottle in effect its own fermentation vessel, it also appears to produce different results according to that vessel’s size. It’s often the case that Champagne in magnum has finer, more pinpoint bubbles and a more pronounced finesse than the same wine in bottle – part of this may be that producers tend to age magnums for a slightly longer time on their lees compared to bottles, but this textural difference is often recognisable even in examples that are disgorged at the same time.

However, due to their slow-developing nature, magnums can also be at a disadvantage when tasting them shortly after release, appearing less expressive than the equivalent wine in bottle. ‘For the non-vintage Champagnes, the magnums don’t always show as much fruit as I would like,’ says Frédéric Panaïotis, chef de cave of Ruinart. ‘You get more of the ageing character, but less of the fruit. So it’s a bit of a debate.’

Behind the Tasting

We assembled 65 pairs of Champagnes in the Decanter tasting suite in London. Tasted by myself along with former buyer Simon Field MW and sommelier David Vareille, each Champagne was represented in both 75cl bottle and 1.5-litre magnum, and most of these were brut non-vintage styles – that is, Champagnes blended from multiple harvests – although there were a handful of vintage-dated Champagnes from various years as well.

It’s important to note that while the same wines were featured in both bottle and magnum, this tasting didn’t directly compare each wine in both formats: rather, we blind-tasted all of the magnums together and all of the bottles together. In addition, while disgorgement dates were generally within range of each other, they were not the same for bottles and magnums, as these were commercial disgorgements taken from current releases. If we were to be able to compare each pair of wines directly, it would be more accurate to have both bottles and magnums custom-disgorged at the same time – but that was beyond the scope of this tasting. Our analysis, then, was aimed more at examining the broader differences between bottle and magnum rather than focusing on individual wines.

The Verdict

Sweeping conclusions are hard to make, since much can depend on disgorgment dates, but as a rule of thumb, think magnums for ageing and bottles for immediate enjoyment, says Peter Liem

Our results varied widely depending on the wines, but looking back at the data after the tasting, there were more wines that scored higher in magnum (32) than in bottle (25), which corresponded to our general impressions during the blind tasting.

The most significant difference for me was the texture in magnum, which was consistently finer in tone, with a silkier mousse. While I had anticipated this to be the case, it was nevertheless striking to see it displayed across so many examples, and in some instances the differences were pronounced, as with our samples of both Drappier’s Grande Sendrée and Palmer & Co’s Blanc de Blancs.

Overall, the magnums definitely showed more reductive notes, such as rubber tones or struck match, that indicate a lesser exposure to oxygen. This often made the wines feel more restrained and youthful, sometimes even unready, and they certainly took some time to open up in the glass. ‘The commonly held preconceptions are that magnums are longer-lasting and tighter in their youth, and this tasting seems to validate that,’ said Simon Field MW.

In comparison, the wines in bottle often showed more flavours that we described as being oxidative, but they were also generally more forward and ready to drink. At times, there were wines in magnum that were inhibited by their reduction, appearing inexpressive and difficult to access, and when looking back at our notes afterwards, the same wine in bottle was much more forthcoming. Delamotte’s Blanc de Blancs was a prime example of this: in bottle it was deliciously expressive, while in magnum it felt backwards and difficult to read, and after the tasting I was surprised to discover that these were the same wine. Even in some cases where I preferred the wine in magnum – as with Nicolas Maillart’s Platine or Paul Goerg’s Blanc de Blancs – the version in bottle was more pleasurable to drink now, with the magnum withholding more for the future.

While it’s hazardous to draw too many conclusions from a limited sample set such as this, I would say that the results of this tasting reinforced my belief in the magnum as a superior format for Champagne, although I would focus on putting magnums away for long ageing rather than drink them upon release. The magnums in this tasting were generally more youthful and less evolved than the same wines in bottle, often showing a finer texture and more precise, complex flavours, even if they required more patience for their development.

In an ideal world, perhaps the magnum should be considered the standard format for Champagne, with ‘half bottles’ of 75cl available for earlier consumption.

Champagne Magnum Vs Bottle

The Judges

• Simon Field MW – Field was a buyer for Berry Bros & Rudd for more than two decades and now works as a consultant on areas which particularly interested him during that time, with Champagne topping the list in France along with Rhône and Languedoc, as well as Spain and fortifieds. Field is also a DWWA judge.
• Peter Liem – Resident in the Champagne region, Liem is a wine writer and author of ChampagneGuide.net, as well as the DWWA Regional Chair for Champagne. Formerly a senior editor and tasting director for Wine & Spirits magazine, his most recent book, Champagne, was published in October 2017 (Mitchell Beazley).
• David Vareille – Vareille is head sommelier at The Arts Club in London. Raised in Chablis, he began his career at 16 working in the Michelin-starred La Salamandre, before moving to the UK in 2004 to work at top venues including L’Enclume, Hotel du Vin, Bleeding Heart and Bar Boulud. He is also a DWWA judge.