Region: Vintage Champagne
Year Rating Drinkability Style More
1971
drink now ...
Vintage Champagne: A champagne made from grapes from a single harvest versus a blend (Cuvee) from several harvest years. The year of the vintage can be found on the label.
Dom Pérignon is a vintage Champagne, meaning that all grapes used to make the wine were harvested in the same year. Many Champagnes, by contrast, are non-vintage, which means that the Champagne is made from grapes harvested in various years.
The grapes for vintage Champagne that show a year on the label were harvested from one year only, while non-vintage Champagne are grapes and wines blended from many years.
The wines in a vintage Champagne come only from the year designated on the label. Vintage Champagnes are only made in top years. Prestige cuvées are each firm's top-of-the-line wine.
First, it will be improbable to find vintage Champagne for less than $25. Champagne in this case refers to the bubbly liquid from the French appellation, otherwise we will use the sparkling wine term.
What is the difference between vintage and non-vintage Champagne?
The major difference is that vintage champagne is made from the grapes of only one year's harvest, whereas non-vintage champagne is a blend of many different years' wines.
To get you started, I blind-tasted three non-vintage Champagnes that are found nearly everywhere. I didn't love all three, but that doesn't mean you won't - again, everyone is different.
Vintage champagne only means that all the grapes were produced in the same year. Each producer tries to reproduce the same style each year - from light to full body.
This blending practice is utilized to try to get a very consistent style of wine from year to year. In exceptional years, a vintage Champagne or vintage Port will debut due to ideal growing conditions and you can expect that these particular vintage ...
The vast majority of the Champagne produced each year is designated non vintage (that is, the blend may contain wines from several different vintages). The wines in a vintage Champagne come only from the year designated on the label.
 See also: Champagne, Vintage, Region, White, Pinot
  
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