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Champagne Bottles & Corks

Champagne is mostly fermented in two sizes of bottles, standard bottles (750 mL), and magnums (1.5 L). 

In general, magnums are thought to be higher quality, as there is less oxygen in the bottle, and the volume to surface area favors the creation of appropriately-sized bubbles. However, there is no hard evidence for this view. 

Other bottle sizes, named for Biblical figures, are generally filled with Champagne that has been fermented in standard bottles or magnums. Sizes larger than Jeroboam (3.0 L) are rare. Primat sized bottles (27 L) - and as of 2002 Melchizedek sized bottles (30 L) - are exclusively offered by the House Drappier. The same names are used for bottles containing wine and port; however Jeroboam, Rehoboam and Methuselah refer to different bottle volumes. 

On occasion unique sizes have been made for special occasions and people, the most notable example perhaps being the 20 fluid ounce / 60 cL. bottle (Imperial pint) made specially for Sir Winston Churchill by Pol Roger.

Champagne corks are built from several sections. Originally they start as a cylinder and are compressed into the bottle. Over time their compressed shape becomes more permanent. The mushroom shape that occurs in the transition is due to the bottom section being less horizontally compressible than the material above.

The aging of the champagne post disgorgement can to some degree be told by the cork, as the longer it has been in the bottle the less it returns to is original cylinder shape. The photo demonstrates this effect, on the front line, the cork from the youngest champagne is on the left and the oldest on the right.

Copyright: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Source: Champagne (wine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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