Fill levels, and what top shoulder is worth.
Every serious description of an old bottle contains two or three words about where the wine sits in the glass. They are the most important words in the description.
Wine evaporates through the cork. Not quickly, but continuously, and faster whenever the temperature rises, because the wine expands, pushes past the cork, and does not come back. Over forty years the loss is visible, and where the surface of the wine sits in the bottle is the single best external evidence of how that bottle has lived.
The trade calls the missing volume ullage. Bordeaux describes it by anatomy, because the shape of the bottle makes that possible. Burgundy and Champagne, whose bottles have sloping shoulders and nothing to point at, measure it in centimetres instead.
The Bordeaux vocabulary
From the top of the bottle downwards.
| Term | Abbreviation | Where the wine sits |
|---|---|---|
| Into neck | in | In the neck, at or near the base of the capsule |
| Base of neck | bn | At the point where the neck begins to widen |
| Very top shoulder | vts | Just below that point |
| Top shoulder | ts | At the top of the slope of the shoulder |
| Upper shoulder | us | On the upper part of the shoulder |
| Mid shoulder | ms | Halfway down the shoulder |
| Low shoulder | ls | At the bottom of the shoulder |
| Below low shoulder | bls | In the body of the bottle |
The scale is not linear in value. The step from top shoulder to upper shoulder costs a little. The step from upper shoulder to mid shoulder costs a great deal, because mid shoulder is where the trade's confidence stops.
What is normal at what age
A level that would be alarming in a young bottle is unremarkable in an old one, and judging the two by the same standard is the commonest error among new buyers.
- Under 20 years. Anything below base of neck deserves a question.
- 20 to 40 years. Very top shoulder or top shoulder is normal and expected.
- 40 to 60 years. Top shoulder is a good bottle. Upper shoulder is acceptable and priced accordingly.
- Over 60 years. Upper shoulder is a genuinely fine level. Mid shoulder is common, and is a gamble the
buyer takes knowingly.
- Below low shoulder, at any age, is a decorative object, and honest sellers describe it as one.
Burgundy and Champagne are quoted as a measurement from the base of the cork to the surface of the wine. Under 2 cm is excellent at any age. Three to four centimetres on a forty-year-old Burgundy is normal. Beyond about five, the risk rises sharply.
What the level tells you, and what it does not
It tells you about temperature history. A bottle that has lived at a steady 12 degrees loses very little. A bottle that has spent thirty years in a house with hot summers loses a great deal, and the level is the record of it.
It does not tell you the wine is sound. Ullage and oxidation are related but not the same thing: a cork can seal badly for liquid and well for air, or the reverse. Plenty of top-shoulder bottles disappoint and the occasional mid-shoulder bottle is thrilling. The level is the best single proxy available from outside the glass, which is not the same as a guarantee.
It also matters why the level is where it is. A bottle recorked at the estate will have been topped up, so a high level on a sixty-year-old wine is either exceptional storage or an intervention, and you are entitled to know which. That is question six in the ten questions.
Beware the seller who volunteers no level at all, and the photograph taken from below, which flatters every
bottle ever made. Ask for the shoulder photographed straight on, against a plain background.
How we describe it
Every old bottle in this cellar is offered with its level stated in the standard vocabulary above, before any conversation about price. The 1946 Pétrus and the 1954 are offered as very top-shoulder fills, because that is what they are. Where a bottle is at a level we would not buy ourselves, we say so and price it as what it is.
None of that is generosity. A bottle sold above its condition comes back, and the collector does not.
What does top shoulder mean on a bottle of wine?
The surface of the wine sits at the top of the slope of the shoulder. On a bottle of thirty to fifty years old it is a normal and perfectly good level.
Is mid shoulder acceptable in an old Bordeaux?
It is common above sixty years of age and it is a knowing gamble rather than a fault. The wine may be excellent; it may be tired. The price should reflect the uncertainty, and an honest seller will say so.
How is ullage measured in Burgundy and Champagne?
In centimetres from the base of the cork to the surface of the wine, because the sloping shoulder gives no landmarks. Under 2 cm is excellent; 3 to 4 cm is normal on a forty-year-old bottle.
Does a low fill level mean the wine is spoiled?
Not necessarily. The level records temperature history rather than the state of the wine. It is the best external indicator available, and it is not a guarantee in either direction.