Blending is a subtle art: it requires not only assessing the wines as they are today, but also the ability to anticipate how they will develop in the future. The blending team must also comb through the reserve wines, kept for 10 to 20 years, to uncover the typical flavours that will uphold the Veuve Clicquot style in light of the wines' harvest year.
Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label is blended using approximately fifty different crus, of which 25 to 40% is reserved wines. In good harvest years, the Tasting Committee, made up of the Cellar Master, the oenologists and the President, decides to create a vintage wine, i.e. a champagne composed exclusively of wines from that harvest year: Vintage, Vintage Rich, La Grande Dame. These wines share the potential to age exceptionally well.