Non-vintage Champagne must age for at least 15 months before release under the appellation’s legal rules.
The period includes at least 12 months of ageing on the lees, the spent yeast cells left after the second fermentation. Lees ageing can contribute bread, biscuit, pastry, and creamy texture notes, while time also allows the wine’s acidity and bubbles to integrate.
Non-vintage Champagne blends wines from different harvest years to preserve a house style. The base wines may come from several villages and years, but the final bottle must still meet the appellation’s minimum ageing requirement. Producers often age their wines much longer than the legal minimum.
Vintage Champagne has a longer legal minimum: at least three years of ageing, and it is made from grapes of a declared harvest year. The legal minimum is therefore not a prediction of quality or a claim that every house releases wine immediately after reaching it.