Vintage chart

Champagne Vintage Chart: Every Year 2000 to 2024

Champagne vintage chart with a rating, a drink or hold verdict, and a drinking window for all 25 vintages from 2000 to 2024. Free, no sign-up.

Grapes

Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier

Typical window

10 to 30 years from vintage for declared wines, longer for late-disgorged bottles

Ready now

14 of 25 vintages

Still holding

6 vintages

Champagne vintage chart

Sommo drinking-window engine · updated July 2026
VintageRatingVerdictDrinking windowWhat happened
2024★★☆☆☆hold2031 to 2038Frost, a wet spring, and heavy mildew pressure cut the harvest badly, and little is expected to be bottled as a vintage wine.
2023★★★☆☆hold2030 to 2040A big crop and a humid stretch before harvest made sorting decisive, so declaration is likely to be selective and the wines look fresh but mid-weight.
2022★★★★☆hold2029 to 2045Heat and drought delivered a large, exceptionally clean crop with high ripeness, and early indications point to a widely declared vintage of generous, structured wines.
2021★☆☆☆☆hold2029 to 2034A cold, soaking summer with frost damage and devastating mildew produced barely usable fruit, and almost no house will declare it.
2020★★★★☆hold2028 to 2042An early, warm, dry season gave ripe, healthy fruit with good balance and was declared broadly, though most of the wines are only now approaching release.
2019★★★★☆hold2027 to 2042Frost and severe heat spikes cut yields sharply while the dry finish kept acidity intact, and this widely declared vintage produced concentrated wines that still need lees age to show fully.
2018★★★★☆drink2025 to 2040A hot, dry summer produced an enormous, perfectly healthy crop with high ripeness, it was widely declared, and the wines are rich and open with softer acidity.
2017★★☆☆☆drink2023 to 2028Persistent rain and rot at harvest ruined much of the crop and declarations were scarce, with the few wines released best drunk soon.
2016★★☆☆☆drink2023 to 2030Frost, mildew, and a difficult flowering slashed yields, and although a late warm spell rescued ripeness, only a handful of houses declared.
2015★★★☆☆drink2022 to 2034A hot, dry summer with rain at picking gave ripe, low-acid fruit of uneven quality, so declarations were selective and the wines are broad and forward.
2014★★★☆☆drink2021 to 2032A wet August threatened the crop before a dry September saved it, and the patchily declared wines are fresh and Pinot-driven with modest depth.
2013★★★☆☆drink2020 to 2034A very late season finished cleanly and cool, giving high-acid, tightly drawn wines that a moderate number of houses declared.
2012★★★★★drink2019 to 2042Frost, hail, and mildew cut the crop to a fraction of normal, but a superb late summer ripened what remained into concentrated, deeply structured wines that were declared almost everywhere.
2011★★☆☆☆past2017 to 2025A hot, early spring collapsed into a wet, disease-ridden summer with off flavors in the fruit, and declarations were rare.
2010★★☆☆☆past2016 to 2025Heavy rain and rot at harvest forced ruthless sorting, few houses declared, and the wines released were pleasant but short.
2009★★★★☆drink2016 to 2032A warm, sunny summer gave ripe, low-acid, generous fruit, and the widely declared wines are broad and approachable rather than long-distance runners.
2008★★★★★drink2016 to 2045A cool season with a dry, sunny finish preserved exceptionally high acidity alongside full ripeness, it was widely declared, and these tightly wound wines are only beginning to open.
2007★★★☆☆drink2013 to 2027A cool, wet summer and early picking made a patchy year that only some houses declared, with Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs faring best.
2006★★★★☆drink2013 to 2032A hot July and a warm, dry September gave ripe, generous fruit, and this broadly declared vintage produced richly textured wines drinking beautifully today.
2005★★☆☆☆past2011 to 2024Rot pressure and uneven ripening late in the season limited declarations, and the heavier, earlier-maturing wines have mostly had their day.
2004★★★★☆drink2012 to 2032An enormous but healthy crop ripened in a fine late season, and this widely declared vintage gave fresh, elegant, finely balanced wines that are singing now.
2003★★☆☆☆past2009 to 2022Spring frost destroyed much of the crop and the summer heatwave forced the earliest harvest in living memory, producing atypically fat, low-acid wines that few houses declared and that aged quickly.
2002★★★★★drink2010 to 2038A warm, dry, near-perfect season gave ripe, powerful, high-acid base wines, it was declared almost universally, and the results remain benchmarks.
2001★☆☆☆☆past2006 to 2015Cold, relentlessly wet conditions brought rot and unripe fruit, and virtually nobody declared it.
2000★★★☆☆drink2008 to 2028A mixed, damp season produced ripe but unremarkable fruit, and the millennium made declaration commercially irresistible, so quality varies more than the label count suggests.

Ratings are Sommo's own reading of the vintage, on a five-point scale. Verdicts come from the same drinking-window engine the app runs on a bottle you scan, so a chart here and a bottle in your cellar are judged the same way. 5 of these vintages are past their best by our reckoning, which is the column most charts quietly leave out.

Most Champagne has no vintage at all, and that is the point of it. The house style is built by blending across years and reserve wines precisely so the bottle does not depend on the weather. A vintage chart therefore speaks only to declared vintage wines, which are a small fraction of what is sold.

When a house declares, it is making a claim: this year was good enough to stand alone. That claim is worth reading against the chart, because declarations are a commercial decision as well as a quality one, and the years everybody declared are not always the years that aged best.

Common questions

Does a vintage chart matter for non-vintage Champagne?

Not really. Non-vintage Champagne is blended across years specifically to iron out vintage variation, so the house and the disgorgement date tell you far more than the harvest does. This chart is for declared vintage wines only.

How long does vintage Champagne age?

Legally it spends at least three years on lees, and in practice most houses hold it much longer. From release, a vintage Champagne typically drinks well for ten to twenty five years, gaining toast, nuts, and honey while the mousse softens. Prestige cuvées from strong years go further still.

What does it mean when a vintage is widely declared?

That most major houses judged the harvest good enough to bottle on its own rather than folding it into the blend. It is a strong signal, but not a guarantee: declarations respond to stock levels and market appetite as well as to quality, and a few excellent years have been under-declared.

Should I age Champagne myself?

You can, and it rewards it, but the storage has to be right: dark, still, and stable at around 12C. Champagne is more sensitive to temperature swings than still wine because the pressure inside the bottle amplifies them. If your storage is a kitchen cupboard, drink it young.

Where do these ratings come from?

They are Sommo's own reading of each vintage, on a five-point scale, and the verdicts come from the same drinking-window logic the app applies to a bottle you scan. They are not aggregated critic scores.

Your cellar, not a chart

A chart guesses. Your bottle knows.

Scan a bottle and Sommo reads the vintage, the region, and the style, then tells you whether to open it tonight or leave it alone for three more years.