Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

If most of my bottles are standard Bordeaux 750ml, then should I get racks that that fit Champagne or just Bordeaux? Thanks.

Michael-P

Is the physical volume the racks will occupy a concern?

And you might want to taste if Champagne slots you are considering hold bdx bottles properly, or if they are too loose.

It might depend on the sizing you select.

Champagne can go on top of racks if you have some head room and not cases and cases of champagne..

I have Bdx-sized slots so I can't answer your question directly Michael. Can you find out the spacing of the particular Champagne racks you're considering? I don't know if they are all the same. You could take two blocks of wood spaced that far apart and put a Bdx bottle on top of it to see how secure it would be.

I also use the top for storing Champagne, like Rob. Champagne bottles, because of the bulbous bottom and long neck, don't stack bottle-on-bottle as well as Bdx. Some are worse than others (e.g. Krug, Taittinger Comtes), making more than 2 rows not so stable. And it always seems the bottle I want is on the bottom row...

I just want to maximize the bottles racked, so thinking that for every stack I would save 0.5" by going Bordeaux (at 3") instead of Burgundy or Champagne (at 3.5"). Correct? And if I do go with the bigger racks, will my Bordeaux sit OK in those 3.5" racks? Thanks,

Michael-P

You can't go with 3" for Bordeaux bottles anymore, Michael-P -- almost everyone has gone to some form of wider shoulder. Not necessarily Haut-Brion, but at least Mondavi Reserve cab...

That is so ignorant of the Bordelais.

So much of their customer base -- hospitality, retail, home cellars -- have been using a certain size racking for all these years.

Why change the geometry of the bottle?

If they really feel the need to distinguish themselves, or prevent fraud, etc. then bottle embossing like Pichon Lalande or Pape Clement or CNDPs would have worked just fine, and not cause these low level irritations.

It's annoying even for those who use old OWC to store things, when one can no longer fit things in lengthwise, or easily on top, when the wood dividers are long gone.