Champagne

Non-vintage Champagnes represent more than 90% of all Champagne sold and are blends of wines from more than one vintage. They are blended with the house style in mind and are aged a minimum of 15 months 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. 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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