How long should you hold onto a bottle of Ridgeview before popping the cork? It’s a question we’re often asked and it’s a fair one. Our wines are synonymous with celebrating and we know there’s a multitude of bottles out there, quietly biding their time for a special occasion.Â
So is there a time limit on storing quality English sparkling wine like ours? The short answer is yes, but that limit isn’t absolute and the timeframe depends on the wine in question. Nevertheless, we have some good rules of thumb to ensure every bottle of Ridgeview you open is the treat it was lovingly created to be.
All wines change over time. Some are made to be enjoyed young, others improve with age. Sooner or later, there is an inevitable decline. But while a wine is either at or approaching its peak, it’s in its drinking window. This is when it should be opened.
With very few exceptions, the drinking window for English sparkling wines starts the moment they’re released. For quality producers such as Ridgeview, there is a vision behind every wine, and that vision is on display from the outset. We release our wines at the point of perfect balance. So the immediate good news is that it’s never too soon to open a bottle of Ridgeview.
In even better news, English sparkling wines typically have a far longer drinking window than most types of still wine. This means you have time to pick your occasion – anywhere from many months for most non-vintage (NV) sparkling wines to years for some vintage editions.
Wine needs to be stored well to stay in peak condition, especially if you’re not planning to open them straight away.
The main factors that spoil wines are excessive heat, fluctuating temperatures, bright light and vibrations.
So the ideal storage conditions are cool, dark, constant and still. Bottles should lie on their side to keep the wine in contact with the cork, which will start to let in life-sapping oxygen if it gets too dry.
How you store wine is often overlooked, but with just a few simple steps, you can ensure to bring out the best in your bottles. Discover how to make your wine sing out in the glass by following easy storage tips in our guide below.
Handy Guide to Storing Wine
If you are planning to save a bottle of Ridgeview for a truly special occasion, we’d strongly recommend choosing a vintage wine such as our Blanc de Blancs. As well as being a showstopper in its own right, as a vintage wine it has far more ageing potential than an non-vintage blend like our signature Bloomsbury – designed to be enjoyed fresh and young.
In terms of overall style, the two are broadly similar. They’re white English sparkling wines with Chardonnay to the fore and both showcase a deft balance between beautiful fruit purity and toasty brioche notes. The main difference is in the depth and complexity of flavours.
Where Bloomsbury celebrates youthful effervescence, our Blanc de Blancs is something of an odyssey, unfurling new layers of flavour with each sip. And it’s this complex flavour profile that lends itself to a harmonious maturation over a few years. The colour deepens to gold, the mousse mellows, the fruit becomes honied and candied, and the brioche notes evolve to become toastier and nuttier.Â
In the same timeframe, Bloomsbury would lose the vital lustre that makes it such a joy to drink. So while you may discover new depths of pleasure from your vintage English sparkling wine after 5-10 years, our recommended drinking window for Bloomsbury is up to 3 years from release.
Shop Vintage WinesVintage wines have the capacity to evolve into something different from the wine originally released. But does different mean better? That’s a question that can only be answered by your palate.Â
Aged sparkling wines are an acquired taste, and certainly a very different proposition from the original creation. Lovers of mature sparkling wines often speak of sherried notes, and enthuse over the softening of the mousse down to a prickle. These characteristics aren’t for everyone. Crucially, the maturing flavours also alter the personality of the wine. What it gains in interest and complexity, it often loses in vitality – a wine to talk about but perhaps not to toast with. And ageing definitely affects food pairings, so you’ll need to think carefully about the menu before opening an older bottle for a celebratory meal.Â
And finally, it’s worth thinking about visual appeal. Because the fizz does diminish in older sparkling wines, they won’t pour with the same bountiful cascade of bubbles as their younger counterparts. Meanwhile, rosé sparkling wines, so carefully blended to achieve the perfect pink hue, will fade to a more muted orange with age. It’s for this reason that we would avoid leaving sparkling rosé tucked away for too long.
If you’re unsure about how or when to age our sparkling wines, magnums are a noteworthy exception. Large-format bottles have the unique capacity to evolve more gracefully than standard sizes (discover more about the art of magnum ageing here). Our top recommendations? Our Bloomsbury Magnum NV and vintage Magnum Blanc de Blancs – they certainly stand up to laying down.
Of all the factors to have in mind when considering the right time to open a bottle of English sparkling wine, there is one we always like to remember. In fact it’s the founding ethos of Ridgeview: Life is for celebrating.
Any moment can be a special occasion – it’s how you choose to spend that moment that makes it special. Of course there are milestone moments in life, and a great English sparkling wine, saved up to be savoured, is the perfect accompaniment. But a visit from friends, a family gathering, a good news day, a romantic night in – all of these are reason enough to reach for the Ridgeview. It’s the sparkle that opens up the celebration, not the other way round.
If you do want to discover the heights well-aged English sparkling wines can reach, you should definitely consider joining OurView, our award-winning wine club.
Members are treated to rare gems released from our cellar, exclusively for them. From our library of archive wines and prestige vintages unavailable to the public, to exclusive wines crafted solely for members, OurView offers insider access to rare wine discoveries.
The Ridgeview archive holds a treasure trove of sparkling wines, resting undisturbed in our naturally cool cellars, gently ageing on their lees for around a decade before disgorging. This carefully controlled anaerobic maturation means these wines retain their youthful verve while developing incredible depth and complexity of flavours.
Explore wine club membershipExperience Ridgeview in a whole new way with our debut Still Chardonnay. Bursting with vibrant fruit flavours and elegant floral notes, our new still Chardonnay charts exciting new horizons for world-class English winemaking.
Complex, deeply layered and deliciously food-friendly, it’s made for bringing people together and savouring life’s special moments over a sumptuous dish or two. Now available online or at our vineyard restaurant, The Rows & Vine.
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