Since I normally drink about 375ml of wine on an average night, halves are very appealing. Unfortnately I cannot get all of the wines I want in halves, and some don’t keep well. That being said, I keep a large supply of red, white and sweet wines around in halves.
In the Cost of Goods, the only thing that costs half is the juice. Bottling costs are the same or more since smaller producers like ourselves may bottle the 375s by hand. For the glass, corks, foils, and labels there is little or no price break, especially since I may buy 10 cases worth of supplies for the 375s, 500 cases of supplies for the 750s. In fact, I probably pay more per unit for all supplies except the glass.
Storage is the problem for me. Hate to give up rack space when I’m popping at the seams in the cellar as it is.
I love them and buy them year in year out; Bordeaux is easy buying eP, Burgundy more difficult but sometimes doable if you ask your merchant early on and he is able to get some of the bottles reserved for restaurants. Not as many as I would like but getting better from year to year. At todays prices I love to open a half instead of a full bottle and I don’t think that the " quicker ageing " factor ( I think it’s a only a bit ) will spoil my fun when opening Pontet Canet or Montrose 2009 from a half in a few years time.
I don’t buy half-bottles except for dessert wines. Not enough wine in the bottle…
Only a few producers in Germany bother to bottle dry wine in 375s. Even Auslese I prefer in 750s (or Magnum.)
Cheers,
Bill
What Bill said, I only really buy BAs or LGK in 375, Spatlese and Kab I prefer in magnum!
I love 375’s, esp. those with glass stoppers or screwcaps – so I can pour off half of a 750 when the need arises. How long they keep obviously depends on the wine. I don’t do it with mature, special occasion wines. But for “grocery” wines, it is fine for a week or so. Sometimes, the wines are better the second time around, especially with e.g. the Minervois Rosenthal imports.
I know that’s the accepted wisdom, but is it really true?
A sound cork lets essentially no air through, so I don’t see why the aging would be different if the cork quality is the same.
I read years ago that in Bordeaux in the past the beefiest lots that were expected to last longest were bottled in magnums, so the longevity of magnums may have had more to do with selection at the outset than bottle size. (I doubt today that the lots are differentiated given how modern the cellars are there and blending for uniformity.) That made me wonder if the widely accepted connection between bottle size and ability to age is really a fallacy.
If nothing else, the amount of air the wine gets from the headspace is greater. Given the volumes we’re talking about, is that a trivial difference?
Joe,
I do this all the time with wines at various price points. My experience has been that the poured off 375ml lasts for a long time if there is no head space. I regularly keep these for a week with no problem. As an experiment one time I even tried a month. Honestly, the wine was still fine. As others have mentioned the poured off 375ml is usually better after being held for several more days. I will admit that I think that the optimum window for drinking the poured off 375ml is between days 3 and 7.
I think that is right in many cases. It’s like one last racking.
As a rule of thumb, I’d agree. I find several days like this in a 375 can have an effect similar to slow-oxygenating in a full bottle: usually a favorable outcome.
Re: headspace/liquid volume ratio, considering the number of molecules in even very small volumes (about 2.007 x 10^22), I’d imagine the greater ratio for halves relative to 750s and mags could significantly affect the long-term rate of the chemical reactions that are part of the aging process. You’d want to turn to Mark or Joe for authority on the subject, though.
My experience with short and medium-term storage of wine poured off into 375s is the same. Refrigerated, this is often beneficial. I’ve kept things for many months that were still good. In one case, I lost 375ml of Donnhoff Grauburgunder (pinot gris) at the back of the refrigerator for 6 or 8 months. It was stupendous – leagues better than it was when first opened.
As for the headspace, I would think the oxygen introduced in the pouring would be at least as important, no?
As a footnote, I do find that in some wines that are prone to oxidation or have some VA – Rhones, for instance – that can be more pronounced when I reopen the 375ml. No surprise there, though.
But John, 750’s get exposed to air during bottling. Why would they be exposed to more air than 375’s?
I was talking about wine that you pour off from a 750 into a 375.
Ah, ok. Even so, I think minimizing headspace when pouring into a 375 helps minimize oxidation over the course of, say, a week.
I love .375’s, especially for Port and Sauternes. I’ve move away from white burgs in that format. The only poxed Dauvissat I’ve ever had was in a .375, and just this week I poured two '08 Matrot halves down the drain.
Absolutely adore 375s and have quite a few. Since I like my wines mature, I’m fine with them getting to how I like them in 10 years instead of 15 if that’s the case.
If wines are prematurely going in 375s, then they’ll also be premature in 750s, just a few years later.
Barry – Even assuming that 375s do mature more quickly, which I was questioning above, I think it’s wrong to assume that there is simply a linear acceleration and that they’ll taste in 10 years like a 750 will in 15 years. The supposed difference with 375s is oxygen exposure because of the headspace ratio or oxygen penetration through the cork. But oxygen-related reactions are only one of many things that contribute to maturity. I don’t see any reason to think a smaller bottle would effect the other chemical process.
You have less free SO2 in a half-bottle in relation to the air-space and gas exchange-rate of natural cork than in a 750 or Magnum. You might get better results in stelvin, but cellaring 375s for an extended period, unless they are dessert wines (which are normally dosed with 4 or 5 times as much sulfur as a dry wine) is an invitation to oxidation. Really, really cold cellars may help.
Cheers,
Bill