Storing champagne bottles

Carla Pike <cpike<-at->canterburymuseum<.>com> writes

>I have had a question from our curator concerning the safe storage
>of a full bottle of champagne among the collection.  Does anybody
>have advice on how this can be safely done?  Obviously there are
>concerns with the possibility of the cork popping.  Would horizontal
>or vertical storage be preferred, or perhaps a safe box to contain
>spillage?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I believe there are standards for storing of liquids in collections
out there, but I can't point to specific documents.

Generally, you must assume that the seal will fail at some point in
time, and the container may also fail.  Entropy exists, corrosion
continues ceaselessly, materials age, so you have to plan
containment failure into your storage methods.  Museum store things
forever.

With some liquids, where it is the bottle that is historic, not the
contents, you may prefer to drain the container, dispose of the
liquids and just keep the bottle.  I doubt this is the case in this
circumstance.

Historic containers being maintained with the liquid contents inside
should be stored in a leak proof container (e.g. a plastic bucket or
crate) so that if there is a containment failure, other objects in
the collection are not damaged.

Traditionally with wine (and presumably with champagne) the bottle
is stored on its side so that the cork does not dry out, shrink, and
crumble.  If it's a modern bottle of wine with a plastic cork or
metal screw top, this does not apply.  In these cases the materials
are better off not in contact with water.  If the bottles are of the
type better off stored on their sides, then store them in a plastic
trough/bucket wide enough for the bottles to lie flat.  As champagne
bottles may blow their cork explosively, you also need to plan for
the container to contain any exploding corks so they don't smash
other objects in the collection if they go off (perhaps using a lid
that screws on or snaps sealed, and well padded inside).

If the container is decaying, but the contents are historic, the
preference would be to drain the historic container and save the
contents in a new bottle, and the new bottle should be stored as
above for containing liquid spillage.

Hope that helps,

Valerie Tomlinson
Conservator
Auckland War Memorial Museum
Tamaki Paenga Hira
The Domain, Private Bag
92018, Victoria Street West
Auckland 1142
New Zealand
+64 9 306 7070ext7304


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:35
               Distributed: Wednesday, February 11, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-35-004
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