We're breaking down why most Champagnes don't display a year on the bottle. The vintage (which is just a fancier word for year) on a bottle of wine states the year in which the grapes were harvested. ... To combat this issue, Champagne houses create most of their cuvées as NV, or non-vintage.

Why is there no year on Champagne?

Look at the bottles of bubbles on the shelves and you likely will not see a year. That's because most Champagne is non-vintage. In other words, that Champagne is made from grapes from several different years. By contrast, vintage Champagne is made from grapes harvested from just one year.

What is a vintage bottle of Champagne?

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.