What’s the difference between NV, MV and vintage Champagne? Which is best?
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Dear Dr. Vinny,
What is NV Champagne, and how is it different from MV and vintage bottlings? Which is best?
—Rich, San Diego
Dear Rich,
“NV” stands for “non-vintage,” and it refers to a sparkling wine that blends base wines from two or more vintages. More than anything, producing non-vintage wines is a way to maintain a consistent house style in spite of changing growing conditions.
In Champagne, where vintage variation was historically high, making an NV cuvée also developed as a way to ensure consistent quality and supply year after year. Maintaining a steady release of NV bubbles also lets a house show a bottling that is different from—and typically more affordable than—vintage-dated wines. The majority of Champagnes and sparkling wines made elsewhere are NV expressions.
Vintage Champagnes, which come from grapes grown in a single year, are typically more expensive and ageworthy. They’re meant to display the character of a given year rather than a consistent house style, and they’re only made in outstanding years. On the other hand, most Champagne houses are continuously producing and releasing bottles of their NV cuvée.
In recent years, there’s been a movement among some wineries toward using the term “MV,” which means “multi-vintage.” My take is that “non-vintage” could sound negative to some people. “Multi-vintage” sounds more intentional and positive, and in that sense, it might make for better marketing—even if the wine is really just an NV bottling. The fact of the matter is that if your sparkling wine does not have a vintage listed, it’s an NV wine, even if the winery chooses to call it MV.
That said, some houses claim a meaningful distinction, even though there is no technical, legal or widely accepted standard for MV wines. In those cases, MV bottlings could be seen as a special subset of NV ones. I don’t mean to sound completely cynical, and much depends on the winery’s lineup and approach to the distinction between NV and MN.
I have seen the MV bottling considered a step up from a regular NV bottling, or a way to express something different from the uniformity of an NV house style. Successive MV bottlings from the same house might have distinct styles, while that would typically be undesirable for a house’s NV. In some cases, I’ve seen MV bottlings that showcase a blend of just three vintages, whereas the corresponding NV bottling might contain wine from a dozen or more vintages.
My suggestion is to seek out vintage, NV and MV bottlings and compare them for yourself. While vintage Champagne will typically be more expensive than NV and MV releases, one isn’t necessarily “best”—rather, they offer different expressions of a style and distinctive pleasures. I never need an excuse to drink more Champagne, and you might be surprised by what appeals most to your taste.
—Dr. Vinny
