90% of Champagne sold is non-vintage, which means that it is made by blending wines from more than one vintage to embody the house style. These wines tend to be lighter, with more fruit-driven aromas, than vintage Champagnes. Non-vintage Champagne aged a minimum of 15th months by law. Vintage Champagne is made with grapes from a single vintage to show off the characteristics of an exceptional year. These wines are aged a minimum of three years. Rosé Champagnes have the same aging requirements. Some Champagne houses choose to make rare téte de cuvée Champagnes in their most exceptional vintages. These are made to display the very best wines that a house can make.
 Non-vintage Champagnes, which represent more than 90% of all Champagne sold, are blends of wines from more than one vintage. They are blended with the house style in mind and are aged 15 months minimum by law. Non-vintage Champagnes tend to be crisp and refreshing with light, fruit-driven aromas. They make excellent aperitifs and pair well with many different foods.
Vintage Champagnes are made from fruit harvested in a single year. These wines are produced to exemplify the character of one single exceptional vintage. For the most part, vintage Champagnes are made only with grapes from premiers and grands crus vineyards. The best producers of vintage Champagnes are very conservative in declaring vintages, averaging three vintage bottlings per house per decade. The legal minimum amount of aging time for vintage Champagne is three years from the time of harvest, but many houses age their wines much longer.
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 Rosé Champagnes can be can be made using one of two methods: bleeding the tanks (saignée) or blending white and red wines.
Rosés made using the saignée method are produced by drawing juice off tanks of fermenting red wine. The fermentation finishes without contact with the pomace, which leaves the wine with a lighter, pink hue.
Other rosés are made by blending white and red base wines prior to secondary fermentation. These Champagnes tend to show more structure and definition. The fruit character tends to be more berry than stone fruit and, in general, the finish is longer. Rosé Champagnes can be either vintage or non-vintage and follow the same rules for aging as other Champagnes.
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 The tête de cuvée or prestige cuvée is the finest, top-of-the-line Champagne a house produces. These wines are only declared in the very best vintages and are aged for the longest amount of time. That said, there is no legal aging requirement for this category, but in general tête de cuvees are aged as long as economically possible for the house.
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