NV vs Vintage Champagne: What’s the Difference?

Key facts

NV minimum ageing

15 months

NV on lees

at least 12 months

Vintage minimum ageing

36 months (3 years)

Vintage

grapes from one year

What NV is: several years blended for a steady style

NV Champagne carries no year because it blends wines from different harvests. The most recent year forms the base, topped up with reserve wines (vins de réserve) kept from earlier years.

The reason is the weather at 49°N, which swings a lot from year to year. Some years ripen well, others stay cold and sharp. Blending across years evens this out, so this year’s bottle tastes close to next year’s.

Older reserve wines also add roundness and depth to a young base, which is why each producer’s NV has its own recognisable style.

At least 15 months, 12 of them on lees

The Champagne AOC rules require NV to age at least 15 months from bottling, of which at least 12 must be on the yeast lees before they are removed.

Time on lees brings bread and brioche notes and finer bubbles. These are minimums; many producers age their NV for two to three years.

Vintage: one year, at least 36 months

Vintage Champagne (Millésime in French) is made from grapes picked in a single year, and that year is printed on the label. It must age at least 36 months, or three years, roughly twice the NV minimum.

With no other years to smooth it out, a vintage shows its year directly. A warm year gives riper, fuller wine; a cool year gives a sharper, leaner one.

Why not every year is a vintage year

Each producer decides for itself whether to make a vintage; no authority declares it for them. In a year when grapes ripen poorly or rain spoils the harvest, the wine goes into the NV blend or the reserve instead.

So vintage is not automatically better than NV. They have different goals: NV aims for consistency, vintage for the character of one year.

Making a vintage also means holding good wine back from the NV blend and keeping it in the cellar at least a year and a half longer, so producers do it only when the year justifies the wait.

Reading it on the label

Most NV labels never print the letters NV. What you look for is whether there is a year.

• No year on the label: NV
• A four-digit year, often with the word Millésime or Vintage: a single-year Champagne
• Sweetness terms such as Brut or Extra Brut appear on both and have nothing to do with the year
• Some bottles print a disgorgement date (dégorgement), which tells you when the wine left the cellar

Questions people ask