What makes vintage champagne

You take a risk. Read more: This is why you should always decant your wine — Champagne included. As a Majestic Wine blogger pointed out , keeping non-vintage Champagnes for too long can have some pretty unpleasant effects on the colour and taste of the wine.

Le Mailloux says that when he is given a bottle as a gift, he puts it straight in the fridge "because I know it will be opened within the following weeks.

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Non-vintage champagne is generally revered for being fresh, acidic and very fizzy. Vintage champagne is often less fizzy, much richer and more like a good white Burgundy. Champagne houses only declare vintages in years with the best harvests, creating blends which offer a different taste experience to their non-vintage bottles.

Unlike non-vintage NV champagnes, vintage sparkling wines can only be made from grapes from that year. Vintage Champagne means that it's taken from just one year's harvest. It's not something that Champagne houses do every year, either—it's reserved for particularly good years.

Champagne houses generally only make three or four vintages a decade. It's not always the case, but vintage Champagnes tend to command higher prices, too. That's because there are far fewer bottles of them out there than non-vintage Champagnes.

Each vintage is unique—they tend to be a bit more complex on the palate. Sign up for PureWow Recipes. A valid email address is required. Sign Up. Please enter a valid email address The emails have been sent.

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