Vintage

Over 80% of Champagne production is non-millesimé. The amount of reserve wine included in the blend depends on the style of the House. A fresh, cheerful wine like Taittinger may incorporate barely a tenth of reserve wine, while a juice with the richness of a Krug may draw on several vintages, and only half of the recent harvest. Other champagnes are made from a single year's juice, and are not destined to improve over time. This is not to say that they won't if the quality is there, and the bottles are stored away from light at a constant temperature of 10-15°C. After one or two years, however, improvements remain negligible, until eventually the freshness wears off.

Vintage champagne, on the other hand, improves with age, especially if aged for at least three or four years on lees before disgorging. Lovers of aromas of toast, cookie and unique flavors will have to wait a decade or so after the harvest. Vintages are supposed to mark an exceptional year, a principle that not all producers respect, since some offer a vintage almost every year.

The great blenders are seeing increasing demand for prestige cuvées. With the best vintages from the best vineyards, the cellar master strives to assemble the most elegant expression possible. Customers demand the best, and they can afford it, even if the market has changed a great deal since the Russian tsars enjoyed Louis Roederer in lead crystal bottles at the imperial court. While some champagne houses are concentrating their efforts on these cuvées, those that have persisted with vintage champagnes are beginning to see their efforts rewarded.

Champagne is almost always the fruit of a blend of several grape varieties (crus and cuvées are also part of the blend). Only the Blanc de Blancs, very elegant, lively and fresh, with lemony notes, is made exclusively from Chardonnay. Blanc de noirs (black grapes) is rounder, with a nose of cooked apples and spices, for example, and sometimes a deeper, almost golden color, but not rosé. For rosé, turn to champagne rosé, generally blended with a little red wine. In Europe, all still rosés, from Puglia to Provence, are made by skin maceration before pressing. Californians simply blend red and white wine to obtain a soft, pale pink color: a technique that seems to give good, even excellent results. On the other hand, some Champagne grower-manipulators opt for pellicular maceration, even though it is more difficult to control the tannins.