How Much Is My Champagne Worth?

4th February 2025

where to value champagne online

A question that I regularly get asked is to give a valuation on someone’s wine. Via social media and occasionally via our website contact form, a new message will be received from someone asking ‘I have this bottle of Champagne, would you be able to tell me how much it is worth?‘.

We have also been offered a fair share of wines and wine collections, mostly fizz related, and maybe if that were a business we wanted to venture into then I am sure we could be quite busy trading.

If you are looking to sell your old Champagne bottles online for a quick valuation and payment, then we recommend www.ChampagneCollectors.com who are a London based agency telephone 01206 700888.

Though, and it is a big though, especially for those who are not too familiar with wines and their values, it is not as simple as checking how much that bottle of wine you have is selling for online and thus placing a similar value on yours. We need to consider many factors when valuing wines and these factors increase in importance for if the wine is old, rare, expensive etc.

What to consider when valuing Champagne:

How are you going to market your Champagne? Are you going to represent yourself or are you going to choose the services of a company with experience of selling wines such as online merchants / wine auctions? Have you a single bottle / small collection or have you a whole wine library to sell? If you sell yourself then depending on your standing within the industry you will have a limited reach, if you choose a third party to sell your wine(s) then you can increase your market though of course you will be expected to pay for this service which is likely to be a commission on sale completion.

What Champagnes are you going to sell? What you collection holds will also determine very much how you will go about selling. There are many options to sell from a listing on eBay to Christie’s Wine Auctions. Have you simply a bottle to sell that was being sold a few years back at the local supermarket or have you special editions and vintages that are decades old? Are they vintage or are they simply non vintage?

Condition of the Champagne. Are you selling single bottles that are all clearly labelled or maybe you have purchased cases over single bottles so have they remained untouched in the like of wooden and branded cases? If you are selling Champagne at a certain price level then the buyers will study the condition as they will either be collectors or maybe looking to re-sell or even serve those wines in the future.

Some key points to study when you have old bottles for sale: What is the clarity of the wine inside the bottle? Hold the bottle up ideally to natural daylight so that you can see through the bottle and gauge the clarity of the wine inside. You are looking for a clear liquid or it might be a touch cloudy depending on the style and cork reactions, a darker shade will likely signify oxidisation and the darker the liquid the worse the wine will taste like by rule of thumb. What is the level of the wine inside the bottle and does it appear below the foil towards the neck of the bottle? A very low level will again signify oxidisation and that wine has escaped due to poor storage conditions. Check the cork area, is it clean and in great condition, look out for any previous leakage / rustiness / damage to foil and/or cork.

Storage. Here is the biggest factor that will affect the value of your Champagne. Have the wines been stored correctly so that the quality within the bottle will perform at its best? Again, depending on the Champagne collection you are wanting to sell, you may also have to prove how the bottles have been stored with some kind of log book. Simply turning up with a vintage bottle of Champagne will not guarantee to the buyer its condition and poor storage can mean a drastically reduced valuation as if the wine within is poor then it only has a mere trophy value ie a bottle to look at and never open to consume. Factors such as vibrations, light, temperature and humidity all have an affect on Champagne / wine.

Just because your vintage bottle of Bollinger Champagne says it is selling for £250 online does not mean that is the value of your bottle. Are you prepared to, like the £250 bottle seller, guarantee quality? Are you offering money back? If you are selling a bottle and looking to get an understanding of value then why not pop on to eBay and check the sold listings for your item as this will tell you generally what people are paying.

Performance. If you are not familiar with the wine industry then it is likely you may not know of the best time to sell your wine though you can check the wine you have by a simple search on Google. Study tasting notes, scores and more to give you an idea of the quality of wine you have and note any recommended drinking / ageing windows suggested (especially by the winemaker / winery themselves).

Christopher Walkey

Co-founder of Glass of Bubbly. Journalist and author focused on Champagne & Sparkling Wines and pairing them with foods.