Drinking wine from a Magnum is better!

Magnum means a bottle that holds 1.5 liters of wine. This is the best bottle shape for drinking wine and always having the best satisfaction. If you pay attention when you go to some special event, to some company presentation tasting, or to some party, the magnum always makes a good show. Space is everything for wine but also for us, if you think about it.

Always remember that wine is a living product that combines all colors in the bottle. Chemical reactions, physical aggregations, structural changes. And everything happens according to very specific times that depend on the temperature at which the bottle is located, the degree of humidity, the cap with which it was closed and, finally, on the shape and capacity of the bottle. The smaller it is, the faster all these transformations will be. The aging of a wine in the bottle is a very delicate phase that, if done incorrectly, could seriously compromise its quality. When you open a bottle that has been in the cellar for a few years, there is always great fear because what you had invested in years before could turn out to be a flop. Or a unique and exciting surprise in itself.

Here the magnum is the best measure to offer perfect refinements and maturation of wines. But what happens in the bottle after it has been corked?

Colore
The polyphenols that make up the white or red color of wine initiate polymerizations, i.e. reactions that transform the molecule. The flavones, in white wines, begin to lose their greenish-straw brilliance and begin to follow the path of browning until they expire, if too late in time, towards maderized and brown colors. The anthocyanins, on the other hand, responsible for the beautiful color of red wine, pass from a violet vivacity to a purple-red color, then cardinal, up to burgundy and garnet colors that recall the great aged Baroli. From the color of the wine you can recognize its age. Magnum slows this process down.

Scent and aroma
This process is very interesting and affects the many aromatic compounds found in wine. The aromas will always be fresher and more delicate when the wines are young. For example, jasmine in a white wine after a few years of aging could become an interesting sensation of acacia honey. A feeling of a green apple goes from a golden apple to a quince until it becomes a baked apple... not always the best of life. Aromas are molecules that over time transform, oxidize, change structure and offer different sensations. This applies, for example, to the cherry that passes from marasca, to black cherry up to Boero. Again, Magnum slows down these processes and better integrates changes.

Tannin
Tannin is a polyphenol, a molecule that lengthens and complexes over time to form long, sometimes branched chains. Imagine a glass crystal that slowly brings others closer together to form a ball. Initially, that crystal was rough and sharp. Then start smoothing its sharp sides until you have a smoother surface. It's the same thing that happens with tannins. When they are young they are rough, astringent, glassy... then they become softer, caressing, silky... In magnum, the evolution of the tannin is normally valuable.

A magnum is therefore really worth it. It's a bigger investment when it comes to cost but if you think that it normally costs less than two bottles and is worth the same amount... you do the math!

Fabio De Vecchi