Sur Pointe

Sur Pointe describes when champagne bottles are stored upside down, on their necks. Bottles are held this way after riddling, while waiting to be disgorged, and are usually put into crates or cages to hold them in place. This method may also be used for the long-term storage of undisgorged bottles that still contain sediment, […]

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Sur Pointe describes when champagne bottles are stored upside down, on their necks. Bottles are held this way after riddling, while waiting to be disgorged, and are usually put into crates or cages to hold them in place.

This method may also be used for the long-term storage of undisgorged bottles that still contain sediment, to concentrate the sediment in the neck so that the lees have a minimal continuing effect on the wine. Some say that wine keeps better when left undisgorged and stored this way, staying fresher for a longer period of time. Others prefer to disgorge wines normally before long-term storage.

The alternative to storage ‘sur pointe’ is ‘sur latte’.

In order to drink a bottle that is stored ‘sur pointe‘, it must first be manually disgorged, in a process called disgorgement à la volée.

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