Exact Answer: 1 Week If Opened; 3-4 Months If Unopened
Everything has a shelf life just like the living beings have a lifespan for living. No matter what the thing is, it has to expire one day or another. Especially if we look at food items or beverages, it becomes highly important to know the time for which it can last.
Moreover, when it comes to packed edibles or beverages, their shelf life differs based on whether it is opened or unopened. If we take champagne, in particular, many people are fond of it and love celebrating their happy moments with champagne. But, not everyone is aware of its shelf life and the right way to store it.
How Long Does Champagne Last?
State Of Bottle Of Champagne | Duration |
Opened Bottle | Up to 1 Week |
Unopened Bottle | 3-4 Years |
No matter what the occasion is, people celebrate it with a bottle of champagne. Moreover, it is a great option to gift your loved ones, friends, or family. This is mainly because people love to have a collection of champagne in their houses.
However, there is one thing that many people wonder about: how long does champagne last? You might be tempted to compare it to excellent wine, which can last for decades, but champagne has a shorter shelf life.
As a result, it’s critical to understand when the optimal time is to consume your champagne so that it doesn’t spoil. Furthermore, champagne loses its greatest attributes rapidly after opening, so you’ll need to store it properly to keep the taste and fizz.
You need to make sure that you store your champagne the right way. If you are storing an opened bottle of champagne, it can last up to a week. But, if you want to store an unopened bottle of champagne, it can last for three to four years.
The first thing you should consider is whether or not your champagne is vintage, as this will affect how long you may keep it unopened. The difference between the two is the grape harvest.
Vintage champagne is prepared from grapes picked in a single year, whilst non-vintage champagne is made from grapes harvested across several years. Non-vintage champagne must also be aged for seventeen to eighteen months in the bottle at the winery, whereas vintage champagne must be aged for three to four years.
Why Does Champagne Last That Long?
The primary reason why your champagne lasts for a certain period is the way it is stored and the type of champagne it is. If you store an opened bottle of champagne it has a very short shelf life of a few days only. While an unopened bottle has a shelf life of three to four years.
Moreover, if the champagne is not vintage, it might last up to four years which is much less as compared to the shelf life of vintage champagne. Vintage champagne can last up to even ten years if stored in good condition.
To extend the life of your unopened champagne, it’s critical to store it properly. Your bottle of bubbly is a living beverage with the potential to lose quality if exposed to improper circumstances for an extended period.
If you store your champagne in a place where the temperature keeps on fluctuating, it will get bad soon. Not just this, if you put the bottle on something that makes the bottle vibrate, there is a great chance that it will get spoiled.
On the other hand, you can increase the shelf life of your champagne by storing it in the right place. Make sure that the cork is in place in your champagne bottle, or it will lose all its fizz and you won’t be able to enjoy it.
Though if your champagne gets spoiled, you can easily tell but without opening the bottle and tasting it, there is no way to know if your champagne has gone bad. You should be able to identify something incorrect, such as mould or a damaged cork, but these occurrences should be unusual if you store it the right way.
Conclusion
Many people find it aesthetic to store and collect champagne. But, just collecting it is not enough unless you store it in the right way and place. Everyone who stores champagne at home must be aware of its shelf life.
Your champagne will be all good in taste and smell for up to four years if kept unopened. And, in case you notice the fizz is gone or a foul smell is there, it means your champagne has gone bad. Though this doesn’t mean that you can’t have it or it will have any harmful effect. It simply won’t taste the same.