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I have a bottle of 1979 Champange Rose Heidsieck & C° Monopole and kept in refrigerator for over 20 years. Is it still good?
Is the Champange better with age?
Thanks,
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Supreme Being
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 19/05/2008 13:33:52
Posts: 129,
Visits: 314
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Your questions have no easy answer. But just in case you are planning on opening this bottle for the festive season we thought we'd best come back with what we have so far.
Initially most rosé champagnes have more light floral tones than non-rosé when released, when they are aged these are overtaken by more fully bodied flavours. So rosé improves in a similar way to non-rose but the differentiation between the two starts to blur with age. In a way it has a lot to do with personal taste and the initial reason for buying rosé due to this change in character.
By all accounts the Champagne Rose Heidsieck & C° Monopole 1979 was a particularly fine champagne from quite a remarkable year. When stored in ideal conditions it will have reached its peak and should be drunk now as further ageing may begin to impair its quality.
As to whether it is still good; you should expect with 20-year-old champagne that it will be a little limpid and not as explosive as it was when first released as most of its fizz will have dissipated. You will find its cork to be fully crushed and will not expand as much, if at all, as it would with young champagne. Don't worry this is to be expected. The wine itself will also have turned much darker, and with a rose, perhaps even orangy. This does not mean it has spoiled.
Storing it in the fridge for 20 years is really the tricky bit. Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn’t store a bottle of champagne (or wine for that matter), in a regular fridge for more than a few months due the risks of spoiling it. How was it stored? Was it stored on its side (with the contents in contact with the cork) or upright? A fridge as well as being a much lower temperature is also a very dry environment and this could have caused the cork to have dried out letting oxygen in and spoiling the contents. Also is it a food fridge? It may have taken on flavours from strong food stored with it over the years.
Another aspect is the temperature. This could both be positive and negative. A household food fridge is at a far lower temperature than ideal and also has range of different temperatures within them. Champagnes do not respond well to fluctuating temperatures and with the opening and closing of the door and possible icing at one end and warm at the other this temperature gradient may have damaged it as well. On the other hand, assuming the low temperature was constant and it never iced up may have caused it to age more slowly. Also as carbon dioxide is more soluble at lower temperatures it may also be fizzier than expected for a bottle of its age, but again this comes back to how the low humidity has affected it.
We are sorry to suggest that you should prepare for disappointment when opening this bottle. However there is also a chance that you may have something very remarkable on your hands. It probably will not improve with any further ageing and is likely to pass its peak soon, so it would be one to try soon.
As the Heidsieck & C° Monopole Rose 1979 was an exemplary example from a special year, when you open it, if you choose to do so, we would recommend having a second bottle of champagne on standby; just in case. If it has spoiled, you should immediately use this to toast this remarkable bottle that has been on life’s journey with you for twenty years.
Please do come back and tell us if you are going to open it and if you do what your experience was.
Kind regards and happy tasting
Jeremy Hopkin
Libation U.N. Limited
www.libation-unlimited.com
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