How big is your bottle?

The other night I donned my favorite Alexander McQueen dress and went to an old-school black-tie party amid the gold-leafed splendor of Spencer House, an 18th-century aristocratic palace in St. James. The guests wore kilts and sparkling evening gowns; the tables groaned with silver and flowers. They invited us to dinner and served us brandy in the drawing room after the speeches. The event marked the launch of Bollinger RD 2008, the pinnacle of the Bollinger range, which is aged for approximately twice as long on lees as “regular” vintage Bollinger, for added complexity. Opportunities to try Bollinger RD (whose initials mean “recently slit”) are few and far between, but in this case it was even more unusual to try it in a 75cl, 1.5-litre magnum and three-litre jeroboam.

This was a bit of show-boating in bollingerspart, but the size of the bottle can dramatically affect how well a champagne centuries. “Time doesn’t flow the same way in a bottle, magnum or jeroboam,” says Bollinger’s chef de cave, Denis Bunner. “The taste is really different depending on the size of the bottle. This is because gas exchanges are modified”.

A magnum is twice the size of a 75cl bottle, but its neck, which always contains some oxygen, is the same diameter; this means that the ratio of oxygen to champagne in a magnum is much lower than in a bottle. In the less oxygenated environment, champagne matures at a more majestic rate. And, like a tomato sauce or a slow-cooked leg of lamb, it tends to taste better and more integrated the more gradually it ages.

Time doesn’t flow the same way in a magnum or jeroboam

The difference between the three formats was striking. The 75cl bottle was by far the most evolved: its citrus flavors contrasted with more “tertiary” aromas of salty Marmite and roasted hazelnuts. The jeroboam and magnum, by contrast, were much more youthful, taut, and bright. They would need more cellar time but would ultimately be worth the wait.

“When it comes to storing prestigious cuvées, large formats make a world of difference,” says Nick Baker, founder of the best bubble, a London champagne merchant who has hosted extraordinary large format comparative tastings over the years. In the long run, he says, “the jeroboams in particular really emphasize that reducing element: they make the champagne much smokier. Because the lees are spread over a larger surface area, you also get a smoother, creamier texture. Beyond jeroboam there doesn’t seem to be that much of a difference.”

Unaged champagnes in larger formats can also be great, add, if you want to make a splash. “Carlos Heidsieck NV is good on jeroboam, ideally the fruity base of 2014. The often overlooked piper heidsieck in jeroboam it is also amazing. And the roderer Collection 241 [base 2016] It’s just glorious right now.”

But large bottles aren’t just a champagne thing, they are in increasing demand for came also, according to Brett Fleming, MD of fine wine merchant Armit Wines. “In well-known vintages there is a tendency to ‘go big,’” she says. “Aging the wines is part of it… but also, frankly, it’s because they look fantastic at a dinner party.”

Some of the most collectible large formats in still wine are those of the Vendemmia d’Artista project by super-Toscan Ornellaia, which features works by a different artist each year. The recently released 2020 vintage has been interpreted by the conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, in a series of works that touch on the etymology of the word “wine”. The 75cl bottles have a quote from Vitruvio; 100 double magnums show an etymological tree; 10 one-of-a-kind six-litre Impérials (or Methuselah in Champagne language) are engraved with the Vitruvian quote translated into one of 10 languages. Kosuth has also created a unique work for a single nine-litre salmanazar. (Some of the larger bottles will be auctioned online through Sotheby’s in September, to raise money for the Guggenheim Museum’s Mind’s Eye program, which helps blind and partially sighted people access art.)

In London’s hedonistic Bob Bob Ricard City restaurant, over a third of the wine list is magnum or larger. “But we cap the markup on fine wine at £75 per 75cl, no matter how expensive it is for us to buy,” explains head winemaker Giacomo Recchia. “This makes our offer of large formats very competitive.” Large bottles include Cristal Methuselahs and Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, Impérials de Latour and mouton rothschild; magnums from Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe and Louis Jadot for the double magnum. Recchia pours out these monsters using a VCanter Decanter Cradle, a crane-like contraption handcrafted in Lucerne (starting at $3,100, vcanter.com).

Nick Baker, however, prefers to do the heavy lifting himself: “The Jeroboams are pretty much doable. Methuselahs are a bit more of a challenge. Plant your feet wide apart. Take it nice and easy. And make sure no one moves his glass unexpectedly, otherwise you’ve had your fill.

@alicelascelles