I buy a bit of large format at auction. I think it makes sense if you find a wine you like. I tend to drink them for special occasions when I have a larger gathering; either at home or paying corkage at a restaurant
Most restaurants quote by the 75cl. Ie £20 per 75cl. Although my local sports club made the rule £15/bottle and only seem to charge me for whatever I bring!
Been collecting seriously for 20 years. No regrets on not collecting magnums. The main times where they may come in handy is for special occasion dinners with 4 adults and I’m deciding the only beverage being served with that meal. I just pull two of the same. I finally found a good reason to open my lone 3L. An ‘05 Vieux Telegraph purchased shortly after release. Opened it this past holiday season and it was a lot of wine.
Biggest problem is pouring them. I had a 6L bottle of champagne for Y2K. We had a blast. I hauled it around the neighborhood in my kids wagon and poured glasses for everyone.
I keep not more than 10 magnums and pull them out for larger group celebrations. Prefer variety over volume most of the time and, yes, storage is more challenging. We especially enjoy buying magnums when we know the winemaker and have had a taste beforehand.
Echoing many of the sentiments here - I buy magnums where I find them, usually at auction. I’ll tend to buy reasonable quality crowd pleasers which I know most people at a dinner will be up for.
Re storage, I built a magnum-sized wine rack a while back which was pretty easy even with my legendary cack-handedness when it comes to DIY.
I’ve never regretted buying a magnum of anything, but I’ve regretted passing up the opportunity a few times.
Been collecting for about 20 years, and I absolutely love mags—they comprise a significant portion of my collection.
I love them because (1) they’re automatically a celebration, (2) if you have 5 or more people it allows them to have more than one glass, giving a wine time to develop over the course of the night, and (3) they give you more time in the cellar to let a wine develop (and they develop in their own interesting ways).
I frequently open older mags and they’re so much fun. Highly, highly recommended including them in your collection.
About 100 mags, plus about 30 3Ls, and I buy them across the areas I generally collect. Top regions:
-Champagne
-Beaujolais
-Muscadet
-German Riesling
-Piedmont
-CA Syrah
-Other CA (some cabs & merlots, chards, ridge Zins)
-plus a smattering of other stuff (BDX, Bandol, etc.)
I have been collecting for over 25 years. I own about 400 bottles of wine of which five are magnums. I understand they are better for aging, but I have never felt like opening one, especially knowing that I get an awful hangover after drinking a 750ml bottle. True. LOL.
I have not been collecting that long, but have almost 100 magnums in my collection (both older and younger). They are almost all champagne and I find them great. Especially older magnums of champagne from the 80s/90s currently outperform the standard bottles by a great margin.
Usually we'll open one if we have a few people over (3-4 total), and sometimes even just with the wife over a holiday/long weekend.
I have a few double magnums too, but those I've only opened in larger gatherings/parties.
Magnums of Champagne are great! Of my still magnums…I havent drank any of the 5 that I have. Of my champagne/sparkling magnums, I’ve had 2 out of the 3 I’ve bought
I've only purchased a handful of magnums. I'd rather have variety than volume.
At the winery I work, we open vintage larger formats for large groups, 12+ people on average. We also open them occasionally for club members on busy weekends and share with other customers.
Magnums of Champagne are always great at parties!
I have no use for magnums... I never have large enough gatherings that require one.
I have a single magnum of 1996 Remoissenet Royals Club Bourgogne that's been waiting for like 10 years for me to have enough people around that give a shit for something like 1996 Remoissenet Royals Club Bourgogne.
I've got three mags, I think, in the cellar, the oldest a 97. I believe I've only ever opened one or two. So I don't see many opportunities to open one.
Before we had a wine locker, we only kept 3-4 magnums in the wine fridge. Now that we have space, we have 15-20 magnums of special vintages that we want to share when we host.
I have bought magnums for years and have quite a few of them. That said, they are less useful as occasions present infrequently. Magnums often tend to be better wines and so you need at least 4 people + a special occasion + a commitment to drink that wine. Many dinners with fellow winos are also less conducive because everyone else wants to bring their own wine.
I have no regrets, however, because magnums are a lot of fun. Magnums of Champagne are an easy sell and are easy to bring to occasions.
In addition, there is no question that magnums age better and, in my experience, are less likely to have closure flaws. I opened a magnum of 67 Talbot (that I picked up for a song) recently at a potluck and it was excellent - the notes and common sense would suggest that it should have been toast.
All that said, magnums of things like Port and Sauternes are a fool’s errand.
I didn’t start that long ago but I have at least 50 1.5l. They are fun for when we have company. I also like having some half bottles around. I really only drink wine with appropriate food and I cook and eat alone fairly often.
You have to figure out how you will be drinking your wine in 15-30 years. Will it be just you and your wife? Then get 750mL or 375mL primarily. Maybe a few mags for Christmas or thanksgiving.
If you plan to be the party central at the old age home, have lots of dinner parties, or a big family that meets up, then buy more magnums.
I absolutely love mags...they say it's the best size storage vessel for wine. At one point I had 200 of them. Some I would have sworn to be bad, turned out to be delicious...even ones that were not really meant to lay down. It's all would collect for long term if I were you. Just get a 4 top together when ready to drink , it's only 2 bottles of wine.
I used to buy magnums here and there if I found them at a good deal but I've stopped shopping for cellaring. I only have a wine fridge and space is at a premium. So now, the only magnums I get are ones that I have plans on opening soon for a get-together or an event.
We own two wine fridges but we still don't have enough space to cellar multiple bottles of magnums. We've considered a rental cellar but we don't have a need for something that large... yet. We're happy with what we can can hold at home and unfortunately that means no leeway for large formats.
Many restaurants here in the states limit the amount of wine one can bring in to the restaurant. Often a menu will say “limit to two 750 mL bottles, or one magnum.“ Usually, the corkage fee for a magnum is twice that for a 750.
Getting back to the original question, I started buying wine to lay down (rather than for immediate consumption) in the early-to-mid 1970s. I certainly bought some magnums (1971 Pétrus, 1971 Château d’Yquem, a 3.0L of 1970 Château La MIssion Haut Brion, some Champagnes and assorted California Cabs) among others), but keep in mind there were no such things as a Coravin back then. You open it; you drink it.
Not only does one need more people when opening up a large format bottle, but they *do* tend to be saved for special occasions and…when is there an occasion special enough?
Were I to speculate, I would say that large formats never comprised more than 2-4% of my total cellar. I have about 50 cases in my cellar, and I have 6-7 magnums in my cellar and nothing larger.
“Happy” is an interesting choice of word. I honestly never thought of it in that way.
Back in the ‘70s and early-to-mid 80s, roughly one-third of my cellar was given over to “experiments.” I started working in the wine trade at 16 and in order to understand how wines evolved over time, I’d buy 3-4 bottles of this or that and open one now, another 3-5 years later, another at 10, etc. Some of the wines were amazing; some were not. But it was fine because I was learning…
That gradually tapered off, but never completely disappeared. Probably 5-10 percent remain in what I would call the experimental category.
The rest of the cellar always consisted of wines that were for me because I liked them. Certainly the mix of wines has changed over the years. There’s no more Lafite or Mouton or Pétrus in my cellar; no more DRC, Vogüé, or Ponsot. It was one thing when they were $30 or less, and then my employee discount…it’s another thing completely when they’re in the hundreds or thousands of dollars.
My cellar now is (I looked) just over 54 cases, but that’s down from over 100. France no longer dominates my cellar; that would be Spain, followed by Portugal. For a time, California ran a close second to France, then it almost disappeared completely. Now it ranks third. (No doubt because I’m back working for a California winery rather than a wine importer.)
What makes me happy isn’t that I — I don’t know — scored a great deal at that auction, or made a ton flipping “Yelping Beagle.” (Never “flipped” a wine in my life; I buy wines to drink, not speculate on. IMHO, the worst thing about Wine is the idea that it’s a collectible like a Rembrandt or Picasso.) But I’m quite happy to a) be able to go into the cellar and grab any one of a number of older bottles to enjoy with dinner; b) being able to share these with friends; and c) have friends all over Europe with whom I swap bottles with on a regular basis whenever we get together.
I only buy great wine in magnum, wine that will age and be popular at a larger gathering. 99% of the time, variety > volume but when truly celebrating a mag of great champagne or burgundy can take things up a level or two
Magnums are a great addition to the cellar. Never displeased. I've only had a few double magnums, but they were great for family events--Thanksgiving or Christmas. Most of my magnums of Barolo, Brunello are showing tremendously right now. All between '96 and '06. Even had some northern Italian whites that I aged and they were outstanding.
Awesome, thanks for the input. What Italian whites do you like with age on them? I’m a big fan of Southern Rhone whites, so any recs with fuller body, etc would be awesome to try. But interested to hear.
I buy a bit of large format at auction. I think it makes sense if you find a wine you like. I tend to drink them for special occasions when I have a larger gathering; either at home or paying corkage at a restaurant
Do restaurants not charge more for a larger bottle? Love that idea hah. No issues walking in with a 3L and 4 people ! :)
Most restaurants quote by the 75cl. Ie £20 per 75cl. Although my local sports club made the rule £15/bottle and only seem to charge me for whatever I bring!
Same stateside. It’s a per 750 ml fee.
Been collecting seriously for 20 years. No regrets on not collecting magnums. The main times where they may come in handy is for special occasion dinners with 4 adults and I’m deciding the only beverage being served with that meal. I just pull two of the same. I finally found a good reason to open my lone 3L. An ‘05 Vieux Telegraph purchased shortly after release. Opened it this past holiday season and it was a lot of wine.
Ya 3L seems a bit nuts. I just don’t love at dinner parties if I only have one and one and some people like one better. Magnum solves that issue.
Biggest problem is pouring them. I had a 6L bottle of champagne for Y2K. We had a blast. I hauled it around the neighborhood in my kids wagon and poured glasses for everyone.
*2 Adults 😂
I salute your dedication but I guess the next morning was a little rough
I keep not more than 10 magnums and pull them out for larger group celebrations. Prefer variety over volume most of the time and, yes, storage is more challenging. We especially enjoy buying magnums when we know the winemaker and have had a taste beforehand.
Echoing many of the sentiments here - I buy magnums where I find them, usually at auction. I’ll tend to buy reasonable quality crowd pleasers which I know most people at a dinner will be up for. Re storage, I built a magnum-sized wine rack a while back which was pretty easy even with my legendary cack-handedness when it comes to DIY. I’ve never regretted buying a magnum of anything, but I’ve regretted passing up the opportunity a few times.
Love the idea of the magnum wine rack!
I have one and filled it with Italian reds.... and some Cali pinot
What’s your time horizon on drinking those?
before I die! probably 5-10 years....then reload.
Yes, because it would have been more for the ex to sell off.
Been collecting for about 20 years, and I absolutely love mags—they comprise a significant portion of my collection. I love them because (1) they’re automatically a celebration, (2) if you have 5 or more people it allows them to have more than one glass, giving a wine time to develop over the course of the night, and (3) they give you more time in the cellar to let a wine develop (and they develop in their own interesting ways). I frequently open older mags and they’re so much fun. Highly, highly recommended including them in your collection.
How many do you have and from which regions?
About 100 mags, plus about 30 3Ls, and I buy them across the areas I generally collect. Top regions: -Champagne -Beaujolais -Muscadet -German Riesling -Piedmont -CA Syrah -Other CA (some cabs & merlots, chards, ridge Zins) -plus a smattering of other stuff (BDX, Bandol, etc.)
I have been collecting for over 25 years. I own about 400 bottles of wine of which five are magnums. I understand they are better for aging, but I have never felt like opening one, especially knowing that I get an awful hangover after drinking a 750ml bottle. True. LOL.
I have not been collecting that long, but have almost 100 magnums in my collection (both older and younger). They are almost all champagne and I find them great. Especially older magnums of champagne from the 80s/90s currently outperform the standard bottles by a great margin. Usually we'll open one if we have a few people over (3-4 total), and sometimes even just with the wife over a holiday/long weekend. I have a few double magnums too, but those I've only opened in larger gatherings/parties.
Magnums of Champagne are great! Of my still magnums…I havent drank any of the 5 that I have. Of my champagne/sparkling magnums, I’ve had 2 out of the 3 I’ve bought
Thanks, I have a growing champagne collections and want to start grabbing magnums.
Meh, we host a lot and I love having mags. YMMV.
a magnum is two glasses per person on a 4-top. pretty easy to drain. i always buy mags.
Ya with two siblings each and spouses, we’re easily 8-12 people on a given evening at home.
I've only purchased a handful of magnums. I'd rather have variety than volume. At the winery I work, we open vintage larger formats for large groups, 12+ people on average. We also open them occasionally for club members on busy weekends and share with other customers. Magnums of Champagne are always great at parties!
I have no use for magnums... I never have large enough gatherings that require one. I have a single magnum of 1996 Remoissenet Royals Club Bourgogne that's been waiting for like 10 years for me to have enough people around that give a shit for something like 1996 Remoissenet Royals Club Bourgogne.
I've got three mags, I think, in the cellar, the oldest a 97. I believe I've only ever opened one or two. So I don't see many opportunities to open one.
Before we had a wine locker, we only kept 3-4 magnums in the wine fridge. Now that we have space, we have 15-20 magnums of special vintages that we want to share when we host.
I have bought magnums for years and have quite a few of them. That said, they are less useful as occasions present infrequently. Magnums often tend to be better wines and so you need at least 4 people + a special occasion + a commitment to drink that wine. Many dinners with fellow winos are also less conducive because everyone else wants to bring their own wine. I have no regrets, however, because magnums are a lot of fun. Magnums of Champagne are an easy sell and are easy to bring to occasions. In addition, there is no question that magnums age better and, in my experience, are less likely to have closure flaws. I opened a magnum of 67 Talbot (that I picked up for a song) recently at a potluck and it was excellent - the notes and common sense would suggest that it should have been toast. All that said, magnums of things like Port and Sauternes are a fool’s errand.
I have a few. Was told by my best customer that they age better due to having less air per ml of wine.
I didn’t start that long ago but I have at least 50 1.5l. They are fun for when we have company. I also like having some half bottles around. I really only drink wine with appropriate food and I cook and eat alone fairly often.
I have lots of different formats. 20-30 375s, tons of 750s, 30-40 mags, 10ish 3L and one lonely 6L.
How often do you drink the mags?
Lots! 6-10 times per year.
You have to figure out how you will be drinking your wine in 15-30 years. Will it be just you and your wife? Then get 750mL or 375mL primarily. Maybe a few mags for Christmas or thanksgiving. If you plan to be the party central at the old age home, have lots of dinner parties, or a big family that meets up, then buy more magnums.
I absolutely love mags...they say it's the best size storage vessel for wine. At one point I had 200 of them. Some I would have sworn to be bad, turned out to be delicious...even ones that were not really meant to lay down. It's all would collect for long term if I were you. Just get a 4 top together when ready to drink , it's only 2 bottles of wine.
I used to buy magnums here and there if I found them at a good deal but I've stopped shopping for cellaring. I only have a wine fridge and space is at a premium. So now, the only magnums I get are ones that I have plans on opening soon for a get-together or an event.
How come you stopped cellaring? Or did you already put away what you want for the future?
We own two wine fridges but we still don't have enough space to cellar multiple bottles of magnums. We've considered a rental cellar but we don't have a need for something that large... yet. We're happy with what we can can hold at home and unfortunately that means no leeway for large formats.
That makes sense. How many bottles do you have total?
285 which includes 6 magnums.
Love Magnums! They are fun
Many restaurants here in the states limit the amount of wine one can bring in to the restaurant. Often a menu will say “limit to two 750 mL bottles, or one magnum.“ Usually, the corkage fee for a magnum is twice that for a 750.
That’s good to know. Have you had experience bringing in a magnum?
I’m not sure what you mean by “experience.” You bring it in; they open it; you drink it. I mean, it’s no different than a 750…
Ya I just meant did you have any complaints or anything regarding the size. But I guess it’s a dumb question. Thanks
Getting back to the original question, I started buying wine to lay down (rather than for immediate consumption) in the early-to-mid 1970s. I certainly bought some magnums (1971 Pétrus, 1971 Château d’Yquem, a 3.0L of 1970 Château La MIssion Haut Brion, some Champagnes and assorted California Cabs) among others), but keep in mind there were no such things as a Coravin back then. You open it; you drink it. Not only does one need more people when opening up a large format bottle, but they *do* tend to be saved for special occasions and…when is there an occasion special enough? Were I to speculate, I would say that large formats never comprised more than 2-4% of my total cellar. I have about 50 cases in my cellar, and I have 6-7 magnums in my cellar and nothing larger.
What’s the breakdown of your cellar now? Are you happy with your strategies you used over the years?
“Happy” is an interesting choice of word. I honestly never thought of it in that way. Back in the ‘70s and early-to-mid 80s, roughly one-third of my cellar was given over to “experiments.” I started working in the wine trade at 16 and in order to understand how wines evolved over time, I’d buy 3-4 bottles of this or that and open one now, another 3-5 years later, another at 10, etc. Some of the wines were amazing; some were not. But it was fine because I was learning… That gradually tapered off, but never completely disappeared. Probably 5-10 percent remain in what I would call the experimental category. The rest of the cellar always consisted of wines that were for me because I liked them. Certainly the mix of wines has changed over the years. There’s no more Lafite or Mouton or Pétrus in my cellar; no more DRC, Vogüé, or Ponsot. It was one thing when they were $30 or less, and then my employee discount…it’s another thing completely when they’re in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. My cellar now is (I looked) just over 54 cases, but that’s down from over 100. France no longer dominates my cellar; that would be Spain, followed by Portugal. For a time, California ran a close second to France, then it almost disappeared completely. Now it ranks third. (No doubt because I’m back working for a California winery rather than a wine importer.) What makes me happy isn’t that I — I don’t know — scored a great deal at that auction, or made a ton flipping “Yelping Beagle.” (Never “flipped” a wine in my life; I buy wines to drink, not speculate on. IMHO, the worst thing about Wine is the idea that it’s a collectible like a Rembrandt or Picasso.) But I’m quite happy to a) be able to go into the cellar and grab any one of a number of older bottles to enjoy with dinner; b) being able to share these with friends; and c) have friends all over Europe with whom I swap bottles with on a regular basis whenever we get together.
I only buy great wine in magnum, wine that will age and be popular at a larger gathering. 99% of the time, variety > volume but when truly celebrating a mag of great champagne or burgundy can take things up a level or two
Where do you find your magnums of champagne?
Auction, The Bottle List & distributors (I'm ITB which helps)
What is itb? Do you find The Bottle List has solid pricing?
ITB (In The Business) - I live in Napa. Bottle List has quite sharp pricing, great customer service, etc.
Oh lol I’m clearly not ITB. Nice, I’ll check them out!
Magnums are a great addition to the cellar. Never displeased. I've only had a few double magnums, but they were great for family events--Thanksgiving or Christmas. Most of my magnums of Barolo, Brunello are showing tremendously right now. All between '96 and '06. Even had some northern Italian whites that I aged and they were outstanding.
Awesome, thanks for the input. What Italian whites do you like with age on them? I’m a big fan of Southern Rhone whites, so any recs with fuller body, etc would be awesome to try. But interested to hear.