Non Vintage (N.V.)
Blended from wines of several years to achieve a constant "style de maison" House style. This blend will depend on the art and history behind the house and its Chef du Caves. Many NV Champagnes are a blend of thirty or forty different wines. A non-vintage Champagne cannot be sold until it is 15 months old, although most reputable houses will age the wine in their cellars for longer periods. An NV wine will often improve in the bottle after purchase, if it is kept in the right conditions, ideally a cellar, but failing that, in a cool dark place. As the bottle ages the Champagne will become softer on the palate, richer in taste. However, it is not recommended to keep Champagne longer than it was originally cellared by the maker.
Vintage
Vintage Champagne is a blend of wines from a particular year, when the quality of the harvest was sufficient to declare a "Vintage". Obviously, not every year is a vintage year, but the vintage is left to the individual houses themselves to declare. Therefore, some houses declare a vintage Champagne in a year where others did not feel the quality justified it.
Vintage Champagne must be 39 months old before it is sold, i.e. 3 years after the 1st January following the harvest around September. Again, many Marques will age their wines for longer than this legal minimum.
Rosé
Rosé Champagne can be made in one of two ways: First by maceration of black grapes during pressing, so that the colour leeches out from the skins (the juice from black grapes is white) or by adding a small proportion of the red wine form the Champagne region (often Bouzy Rouge) to give the wine a rose tint. The former method (de saignée) is more expensive and difficult to control, but many would say produces the better Champagne. An excellent Rosé is Laurent-Perrier, produced de saignée.
Prestige Cuvées
Most Champagne houses produce a special bottle in a vintage year and these are normally deemed to be "Prestige or Deluxe cuvées". Probably the most famous of these is Moët's Cuvée Dom Pérignon. In fact Moët invented the Cuvée Prestige with D.P. in 1921.
Prestige cuvées represent the
pinnacle of a house's achievement and can be a vintage or occasionally a blend of vintages. They cost around three times more than a
Non-Vintage, and around double the price of a Vintage. Why are they so expensive? Well, the grapes will have been hand picked (like all Champagne grapes) but they will have come from the top-producing vineyards, and more or less hand selected. Then they will be very carefully pressed, the resulting wines carefully blended and bottled in a specially shaped bottle. The Champagne is left to mature for five to seven years, after which the bottles will be riddled by hand prior to disgorgement. Then, there is often a pretty box. Clearly, these wines are a premium product, crafted with the utmost care to produce a premium wine, but I suspect they carry a premium profit margin! But then why does a Rolex watch cost a hundred
times more than a Swatch, when the Swatch tells time better? (I've got both - the
Rolex won't work the ski-lift either!) I have tasted a number of prestige cuvées over
the years, usually at someone else's expense, including Perrier-Jouët
Belle Epoque (Flower Bottle) 1989, Lanson Noble Cuvée 1988, Mumm
Grand Cordon 1990, Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle 1990, Moët
& Chandon Dom Perignon 1985, 1990, and other
years, various vintages of Taittinger Comte de
Champagne Blanc de Blancs yet none really stick
in my mind. (I remember the names because I collect the bottles!) I coveted a bottle of Krug
1982 for years which I had been
hoarding for a special occasion or an excuse to drink it. When the time came (a
voyage on the QE2), it was an anti-climax. Perhaps I had been expecting too
much, but I recall a similar feeling when I drank a Château Latour for the first time.
There are those who simply must drink Cristal at £90 a bottle, but there are many wines around virtually as good for less than a third of the price!