A box of Brut Sans Année carries no vintage on the label, and that is not an oversight. It is a design choice. Vintage Champagne comes from one year, non-vintage from several. Behind that technical difference sits a whole philosophy about what Champagne is allowed to be: a fixed house style across vintages, or a snapshot of one specific season. Both have their place.
What the rules require
The cahier des charges sets two different minimum ageing times:
- Non-vintage (Brut Sans Année, BSA): minimum 15 months between tirage and shipment, of which at least 12 months on the lees.
- Vintage (Millésimé): minimum 36 months between tirage and shipment, in practice entirely sur lattes.
A vintage Champagne may only carry that name when at least 85 percent of the grapes come from the stated harvest year. In practice almost all serious producers work at 100 percent. So a vintage cannot contain reserve wine from other years beyond that 15 percent margin.
A non-vintage, by contrast, is a blend of years by definition, with older reserve wines used to keep the house style consistent year after year.
The philosophy: house style versus vintage
Non-vintage is the core product of nearly every Champagne house. Blending with reserve wines exists precisely to prevent bad years producing bad Champagne. By adding ten to fifty percent reserve wine, a house can keep the taste of its Brut Sans Année recognisable from year to year. Krug Grande Cuvée sometimes uses wines from more than ten different years. Bollinger Special Cuvée uses magnums as a reserve source. Roederer and Pol Roger do something similar.
The underlying idea: Champagne is a brand, not a vintage. A bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label or Moët Brut Impérial should taste the same in 2026 as it did in 2018 or as it will in 2030.
Vintage is the opposite. Here the house declares that a specific year was good enough or characterful enough to deserve its own bottle. The grapes come from that one year, the blend translates that season. Two vintages of the same cuvée taste deliberately different. Dom Pérignon 2012 is not Dom Pérignon 2013, and that difference is the entire point.
When a house declares a vintage
Not every year gets a vintage. Big houses declare a vintage only when quality justifies it. In difficult years they release no vintage; the grapes from that year go entirely into the NV or into reserve. In strong years many houses do release a vintage. Recent strong years in Champagne: 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019.
Some houses work differently. Krug does not consider Grande Cuvée less than Vintage; for Krug a great blend with reserves is as prestigious as a great single year. Salon only makes vintage, and only in top years, sometimes with ten years between releases.
How it tastes: NV versus vintage
Non-vintage aims for consistency and accessibility. Bread, citrus, white blossom, sometimes a touch of apple. Acid balanced thanks to the blend, mousse fine. Usually ready to drink at release, with a window of a few years.
Vintage expresses a year. A warmer vintage like 2018 feels riper, with more yellow fruit and a broader palate. A cooler year like 2013 is tighter and more mineral. Vintage tends to be more complex and structured than NV from the same house, with greater ageing capacity. A vintage from a top year can age twenty years or more.
The price
A non-vintage typically costs 35 to 70 euros from big houses, 30 to 60 from growers. A vintage tends to sit between 70 and 200. Prestige cuvées (Dom Pérignon, Cristal, Comtes de Champagne, La Grande Dame, Krug Vintage) start at 200 and climb far higher.
The price gap is not only rarity. Vintage requires longer ageing (minimum 36 months, in practice often 5 to 10 years), which means storage cost. Grapes come from one harvest, which limits blending freedom. And it is a gamble: when the year disappoints, the house releases no vintage and the investment falls back on the NV blend.
When to pick which
For an aperitif or a light meal, non-vintage is usually more flexible and proportionally better priced. For an occasion where the wine itself stands forward, or for medium-term ageing, pick a vintage from a strong year. For long-term cellaring of twenty years or more, prestige vintage comes into play, in top years.
For anyone new to Champagne, the fastest learning is a vertical of non-vintage against a vintage from the same house. The difference becomes obvious: style consistency versus year expression, two philosophies in two glasses.
Frequently asked questions
What does non-vintage mean for champagne?
A blend of several harvests, also called Brut Sans Année. The cahier des charges requires at least 15 months between tirage and release, of which 12 months on the lees. By blending in ten to fifty percent reserve wine, a house keeps the taste recognisable year after year.
When can a champagne be called vintage?
When at least 85 percent of the grapes come from the stated harvest year; in practice nearly all good producers use 100 percent. Minimum ageing is 36 months between tirage and release, in practice often 5 to 10 years.
How do vintage and non-vintage differ in taste?
Non-vintage aims for a consistent house style: a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label should taste the same in 2026 as in 2018. Vintage is a snapshot of one season. Two vintages of the same cuvée are meant to differ; Dom Pérignon 2012 is different from Dom Pérignon 2013, and that difference is the whole point.
Is vintage champagne better than non-vintage?
Different, not better by definition. Not every year gets declared: a house only releases a vintage when the season was good or distinctive enough. Non-vintage is the core product of almost every house and often the most honest measure of what a producer can do.
What does vintage champagne cost?
A vintage tends to sit between 70 and 200 euros, against 35 to 70 euros for non-vintage from big houses. Prestige cuvées such as Dom Pérignon or Cristal start at 200 euros. The gap comes from longer ageing, limited blending freedom and the risk that a poor year yields no vintage at all.