Champagne Vintages: What to Buy and When to Drink

Champagne vintages are declared only in "truly outstanding" harvest years, as stated by Comité Champagne. Unlike non-vintage Champagne, which is a blend of grapes from multiple years, vintage Champagne "must be composed entirely of grapes from that vintage year". This means a vintage Champagne contains no reserve wines. Non-vintage Champagne requires a minimum of fifteen months of aging. Vintage Champagne "has to mature for at least three years" before release. That distinction matters. If a year is not declared a vintage, most major houses will not bottle a vintage Champagne from it. They use the grapes for their non-vintage blends instead. Therefore, a low score for a particular year on a vintage chart often indicates that few, if any, vintage wines came out of it.

Why is a Champagne vintage chart not like a Bordeaux one?

A Champagne vintage chart tells you whether a wine from that year exists as a vintage bottling. A Bordeaux chart, by contrast, rates the quality of a wine that appears every year.

Bordeaux produces wine annually, with "over 700 million bottles of wine" made in average vintages. Emperor Napoleon III requested the 1855 classification system for Bordeaux wines, for the Exposition Universelle de Paris. This system ranks wines into categories based on price, with the first growth red wines being among the most expensive globally. In contrast, Champagne houses decide whether to declare a vintage based on the quality of a specific harvest. "For years where the harvest is exceptional, a millésime is declared". If conditions are "less than ideal", some producers will bottle a wine from that single vintage but label it as non-vintage. They have "little desire to reserve the wine for future blending". This practice helps maintain the consistent style expected from non-vintage Champagne. That style is a "product of grapes from multiple vintages", often including "anywhere from 10 to 15% (even as high as 40%) of wine from older vintages".

Which Champagne vintages were actually declared?

The decision to declare a vintage rests with individual Champagne houses. That leads to variations in which years houses bottle as vintage wines.

For example, Moët & Chandon's prestige cuvée, Dom Pérignon, was first launched in 1936 with the 1921 vintage. Its production is vintage-dependent. Louis Roederer's Cristal started out "strictly for the private consumption of the Russian tsar". It became publicly available with the 1945 vintage and is also vintage-dependent.

The following table illustrates how declaration decisions vary among houses:

House	Founding Year	Location	Prestige Cuvée	Vintage-Dependent?
Ayala	1860	Aÿ	Grande Cuvée	yes
Bollinger	1829	Aÿ	Vieilles Vignes Françaises	yes
Charles Heidsieck	1851	Reims	Blanc des Millénaires	yes
Drappier	1808	Urville	Grande Sendrée	yes
Gosset	1584	Aÿ	Celebris	yes
Krug	1843	Reims	Name defined annually	yes
Moët & Chandon	1743	Épernay	Dom Pérignon	yes
Louis Roederer	1776	Reims	Cristal	yes
Pol Roger	1849	Épernay	Winston Churchill	yes
Ruinart	1729	Reims	Dom Ruinart	yes
Salon	1921	Le Mesnil-sur-Oger	S	yes
Taittinger	1734	Reims	Comtes de Champagne	yes
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin	1772	Reims	La Grande Dame	yes

This table highlights that many prestige cuvées are indeed vintage-dependent. The house makes them only in years it deems exceptional. For a comprehensive overview of producers in the region, consult our Champagne producer atlas.

How reliable are vintage charts for Champagne?

The reliability of vintage charts for Champagne remains in debate. Some research suggests that even experienced tasters struggle to distinguish between good and bad vintages.

Roman Weil is co-chairman of the Oenonomy Society of the US and a professor at the University of Chicago. He tested the hypothesis that experienced wine drinkers "cannot distinguish in blind tastings the wine of years rated high from those of years rated low, or, if they can, they do not agree with the vintage chart's preferences". Weil's study involved 240 wine drinkers and wines aged four to 17 years beyond their vintage. It found that tasters "could not distinguish between wines of good and bad vintages except for Bordeaux wines". Even when tasters made distinctions, the match between their assessments and chart rankings was "little better than tossing a coin". When the tests ran again with wine experts, including French wine academics, the results were "again the same as chance".

Weil suggests that vintage charts are not entirely useless. He proposes they can help "find good buys in wine", as wines from years considered below average may carry prices significantly lower than their actual quality. This perspective suggests that while charts may not perfectly predict sensory experience, they can offer value in identifying potentially undervalued wines.

How do Champagne vintages perform in the market?

Champagne shipments are a significant indicator of market performance, though recent trends show some softening in demand.

The Champagne industry "is expected to sell 314 million bottles in 2023, down 3.7% from the previous year, according to the Comité Champagne industry trade group". In terms of overall volume, Champagne shipments totaled "325.5 million" bottles with a value of "6.8 Billion EUR", according to Comité Champagne data cited. Exports account for "57.5%" of the volume and "66%" of the value. France consumes "42.5%" of the volume and "34%" of the value. The top external markets by volume are the United States (34.1 million bottles), the United Kingdom (29.9 million bottles), and Japan (13.8 million bottles).

However, the broader fine wine market, including Champagne, faces evolving consumer habits. "Bordeaux demand as of 2025 was being reduced by factors including wider availability of other wines and generational differences in alcohol consumption". The total area under vine in Bordeaux "fell from 103,000 hectares to 95,000 hectares" in 2024. Global alcohol consumption per capita also "reduced from 5.7 litres in 2010 to 5.5 litres in 2019", as reported by the World Health Organization and cited. These trends suggest a shifting landscape for fine wine, where understanding market dynamics is as crucial as knowing individual vintage quality. You can track these broader movements with our live fine wine market index.

How should you store and serve vintage Champagne?

Proper storage and serving are essential to preserve the quality and enhance the enjoyment of your vintage Champagne.

When storing Champagne, whether upright or on its side, the Comité Champagne advises keeping bottles in a cool place, at a constant temperature "between 10 and 15°C". Humidity should be "high and constant, between 60% and 80", and bottles must be "protected from light, vibrations and odours". The storage area should also be "well ventilated", as stated by the Comité Champagne. For more detailed guidance, explore our guide on how to store wine.

Serve Champagne chilled, ideally "7 to 9 °C (45 to 48 °F". To achieve this, you can place the bottle in an ice bucket, half-filled with water and ice, for "20 to 30 minutes before serving". The bottom of the fridge also works "a few hours before you open it", as recommended by the Comité Champagne. When pouring, "tilting the glass at an angle and gently sliding in the liquid along the side will preserve the most bubbles, as opposed to pouring directly down to create a head of"mousse"", according to a study by scientists from the University of Reims. This study also found that "Colder bottle temperatures also result in reduced loss of gas".

Understanding the nuances of Champagne vintages allows you to make informed decisions for your cellar. That runs from their declaration to market performance and proper serving. Whether you are looking to buy at auction or considering which bottles to open, knowing the specifics of each vintage is key. Learn more about how to buy wine at auction to expand your collection.