Is there a difference between non-vintage and multi-vintage Champagne?
Vintage Champagne is an expression of a single harvest, but when it comes to blending wines from different years, some producers use the term non-vintage, others multi-vintage. So, is there a difference?
That was the question posed by wine writer and founder of Grand Cru Creative, Guy Woodward, following the latest release of Louis Roederer’s Collection 246 MV – featuring wines from 10 different vintages.
The Champagne, which was first launched four years ago, replaced Louis Roederer’s Brut Premier, a non-vintage expression that represented the entry-point for the maison, and its best-selling line – a position that’s common for such a cuvée among producers in the region.
As db reported following the unveiling of this new cuvée in July 2021, unlike the producer’s brut non-vintage, which comprises a dominant base wine from its most recent harvest, blended with a series of ‘reserve’ wines from older vintages to create a consistent house style, Collection is a numbered cuvée that has a slightly different expression each year depending on the blend of wines used in its creation.
It’s also branded by Louis Roederer as a ‘MV’ – which stands for multi-vintage, as opposed to ‘NV’, for non-vintage.
Following Woodward’s question, cellar master Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon explained the difference between the two descriptors at the first UK press tasting of Collection 246 MV, which was done at 67 Pall Mall in London last week.
“Non-vintage in French is a negative word and it means that the Champagne is not at the level of vintage, but multi-vintage is a more deserving name [for Collection], because my ambition is not to be second-grade in quality – but at the same quality [as vintage],” he began, before acknowledging that, “In some houses, the multi-vintage is better than the vintage, and happens because there are more tools.”
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But there is another reason why Lécaillon is uncomfortable with the term non-vintage, and that relates to climate change in Champagne.
Looking back as far as the 70s, he said that “the difference between vintage and non-vintage was the level of ripeness: non-vintage fruit was unripe, and vintage was ripe.”
Consequently, the role of a non-vintage was “to correct it”, however, in contrast, “today, all the fruit is ripe: it is not a question of correcting, but one of style,” he said, explaining the reason to blend wine from different harvests in Champagne in the modern era.
So what’s the difference between multi-vintage and vintage Champagne then? For Lécaillon, “Vintage has more time to stretch, so you can go more on density, and multi-vintage is about less time, so you don’t have the same density, but it’s not less good.”
Concluding on the topic, he said, “I’m a big fan [of the term] multi-vintage, but, if you use the word ‘multi-vintage’, then you must number the blend, you must identify it – otherwise, you are non-vintage.”
As for the rules in Champagne for classifying styles, it is binary: a cuvée is either vintage or non-vintage.
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