Millésime

What it is

Millésime is the French term for vintage: a Champagne made from grapes of one specific harvest year. The year is shown on the label (2012, 2015, 2018). The opposite is non-vintage or NV: a blend from multiple years, usually built around a base year plus reserve wines.

Under Comité Champagne rules a vintage can contain at most 80 percent juice from the named year. Between 80 and 100 percent there is room for blending with reserve wines, although in practice many houses use 100 percent to show the vintage character cleanly.

When

Not every year becomes a vintage. A house only declares a millésime when the harvest is good enough to either transcend or fully represent the house style. Weak or inconsistent years go entirely into the NV blend.

For example: Krug declared 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. Bollinger made La Grande Année in 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2014. Salon (vintage only) bottles two or three times per decade.

Required ageing

The Comité Champagne sets minimum lees ageing times:

• Non-vintage: 15 months total ageing, 12 of which on the lees
• Vintage: 36 months on the lees (three full years)

Top producers go substantially longer. Dom Pérignon 2013 sits eight to ten years on the lees before release. Bollinger R.D. (“Récemment Dégorgé”) often twelve to fifteen.

In the glass

A vintage Champagne shows the harvest in its purest form: ripeness, acidity, climate pattern of that specific year. No house style smoothing everything across years. Hot years (2003, 2018, 2020) yield riper, fuller wines; cooler years (2008, 2014) offer more tension and longer cellaring.

Vintage calendar per house

Some houses declare nearly every year (Vilmart). Others deliberately selective (Krug, Bollinger, Salon). The rarity of a declaration tells you something about the philosophy: house style above vintage versus vintage above house style.

What the price gap covers

A vintage Champagne costs on average 30 to 60 percent more than the same house’s non-vintage. Three factors:

1. Longer ageing: three to ten years versus 15 months. Capital stays locked in the cellar longer.
2. Scarcity: one harvest per year, and not every harvest is declared.
3. Selection within the harvest: houses reserve their best plots for vintage cuvées, not the standard.

For consumers this means: a vintage from an average house (€60-€90) often sits at the level of a prestige non-vintage from a top producer (€80-€120). The vintage label doesn’t automatically deliver more wine in the glass than a strong NV prestige cuvée. It does deliver a specific vintage expression you can’t get elsewhere.

Ageing potential

Vintage Champagne is built to age. Ten to twenty years for top producers and strong vintages, six to twelve for mid-tier. Above twenty years the profile changes distinctly: petroleum, dried fruit, brioche. A vintage Krug 1990 drunk in 2024 tastes different from the same wine at release. Not a quality judgement, a different wine.

To learn the arc: buy three bottles of the same vintage and drink them five years apart. The most instructive Champagne investment available.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the minimum age for a vintage Champagne?

36 months (three years) on the lees, plus a few months post-dégorgement rest. Total production time at least four years from harvest. Top producers go eight to fifteen years. Non-vintage can release after 18-21 months.

Which recent vintages are considered classics?

2002 (universally outstanding), 2008 (long-ageing vintages), 2012 (acid-driven, ageworthy), 2018 (ripe, generous). 2003 produced exceptionally warm vintages that not all houses declared. 2017 was small and partly skipped.

Can I cellar vintage Champagne myself?

Yes, in a dark cool cellar (10-14°C), lying down as with still wine. A bottle bought at release and cellared ten years develops further than the same wine consumed immediately. Keep in mind that the dégorgement date matters more for further development than the vintage itself.