Wine 101 · Serving
How to Store Sparkling Wine So the Bubbles Last
Our sparkling wines spend over ten years lying in the dark of our cellar before they leave. Once they go home with someone, the question we hear most is where to put the bottle. Sparkling wine is easier to store than its reputation suggests. Find it a cool, dark, steady spot and it will wait for you.
Much of it is bought in the weeks before the holidays and opened on a single night, so these questions tend to arrive together. What we tell guests falls into two moments, before the cork comes out and after.
How do you store Champagne or sparkling wine before opening?
Store unopened sparkling wine somewhere cool, dark, and steady, ideally around 50 to 54°F (10 to 12°C) and no warmer than 59°F (15°C). Keep it away from light, heat, and vibration. The bottle can stand upright or lie on its side. A constant temperature matters more than a perfect one.
Those temperatures come from the Union des Maisons de Champagne, the association of the Champagne houses, which recommends a cool place at a constant 10 to 12°C, with 15°C as the upper limit. At home, a basement closet or the back of a cool interior cupboard usually does the job. The spot above the fridge, next to the oven, or on a sunny shelf is too warm or too bright.
Temperature swings do more harm than steady warmth. A bottle that warms every afternoon and cools every night expands and contracts, and the cork feels it, so a steady 60°F closet is kinder than a room that bounces between 50 and 70.
Should sparkling wine be stored upright or on its side?
Either works. Sparkling wine is under pressure, and the gas inside the bottle keeps the cork moist and the seal tight whether the bottle stands or lies down. The Champagne houses say position has no effect. For bottles you plan to keep a long time, lying them down is still an easy habit.
Still wine is laid down so the wine touches the cork and keeps it from drying out. Sparkling wine gets the same result from its own pressure, because the space at the top of the bottle is full of moist, compressed gas. The Union des Maisons de Champagne says bottles can lie on their side or stand upright for exactly that reason, so a pantry shelf and a wine rack both do the job.
Why does light matter so much for sparkling wine?
Sparkling wine is especially sensitive to light, and ultraviolet light in particular can damage it through the glass. That fault is called lightstrike, and the Champagne houses rank it among the main risks for a stored bottle. Keep bottles in their box or in a dark cupboard, away from windows and bright store-style lighting.
Lightstrike is one reason so many sparkling wines come in dark bottles, and it's why a bottle that sat for weeks in a sunny shop window is a gamble. At home, the box it came in is the simplest protection. If your wine fridge has a glass door, switch off its light.
Can you keep sparkling wine in the fridge?
For a few days or a couple of weeks before a party, yes. For months, a cool dark cupboard is better. A kitchen fridge is colder than ideal, dry, opened and closed all day, and it hums. Move the bottle into the fridge a day or so before you plan to open it.
Plenty of people buy a bottle in early December and park it in the fridge until New Year's Eve, and that's fine. Leaving the same bottle there through the following summer is less fine. A dedicated wine fridge set to cellar temperature is another matter, and it can hold bottles for as long as you like.
Unopened bottles, the short version
- Cool and constant: around 50 to 54°F, never above 59°F.
- Dark: keep the box on, or keep the bottle in a cupboard.
- Standing or lying down, the pressure keeps the cork moist.
- The kitchen fridge is for the last few days before you open it.
How do you store sparkling wine after opening?
Close the bottle with a proper sparkling wine stopper, the hinged kind that clamps onto the neck and holds the pressure, and put it straight back in the fridge. Cold keeps the gas dissolved in the wine. Stored this way, most sparkling wines keep their bubbles for a day or two.
A regular cork or plastic wrap can't hold the pressure, so the gas leaks away. Speed counts as much as the stopper, and the sooner the bottle is back in the cold, the more of its bubble it keeps. For day-by-day timings across every kind of wine, see how long wine lasts after opening.
Does a spoon in the bottle keep the bubbles?
It's a lovely myth, and the Champagne producers themselves say it has no effect. A spoon hanging in an open neck seals nothing, so the gas escapes just as it would from an open bottle. Whatever bubbles are left the next day survived thanks to the cold of the fridge.
The Comité Champagne takes up the spoon directly, says the idea simply isn't true, and recommends a stopper cap designed for sparkling wine instead. The spoon has been getting credit for the fridge's work for a long time.
How do we store our own sparkling wine?
Our sparkling wines are made by the méthode champenoise, the bottle-by-bottle method Sébastien's family has worked in Champagne for six generations. Their years on the lees are spent in our cellar above Keuka Lake, in the cool and the dark this page recommends for your closet. You can read how the method works in méthode champenoise, explained.
Because we make so little, most of our sparkling wine goes to our Wine Club members in their shipments. Once a bottle reaches you, opening it well is the last step, and how to open sparkling wine walks through it. To see the cellar and bring your own questions, come visit us on Keuka Lake.
Come see where our bottles rest, and taste with us above the lake.
Common questions about storing sparkling wine
How long can you keep an unopened bottle of sparkling wine?
Most sparkling wines are made to be opened within a few years of leaving the winery. The Union des Maisons de Champagne notes that a Champagne reaches its peak within a few years of disgorgement. Stored cool, dark, and steady, it will hold well in that window.
Can you put sparkling wine in the freezer to chill it?
Only for a short time, and set a timer. A bottle forgotten in the freezer can freeze and push its cork, or crack. An ice bucket with ice and water chills a bottle quickly and safely.
Does sparkling wine go flat in the fridge if unopened?
No. An unopened bottle keeps all its pressure in the fridge. The reason to avoid long fridge storage is the cold, dry air and constant vibration, which are hard on the cork over months.
Written by
The Domaine LeSeurre Team
Céline & Sébastien LeSeurre and the team at Domaine LeSeurre — a family winery on Keuka Lake, in Hammondsport, New York. French roots, Finger Lakes soul.
