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PREMIUM

Vintage Champagne: panel tasting results

In a rare jaunt through the ‘regular’ vintage category, our judges found excellent quality from a range of years, at prices truly to suit all pockets.

Simon Field MW, Alan Bednarski and Tim Hall tasted 93 wines with seven Outstanding and 64 Highly Recommended

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their most recently released white vintage Champagnes


Vintage Champagne panel tasting scores

93 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 7

Highly recommended 64

Recommended 19

Commended 2

Fair 0

Poor 0

Faulty 1


The words vintage and Champagne make for a felicitous and evocative juxtaposition. One would have been very surprised if James Bond had offered one of his many inamoratas a glass of non-vintage Champagne.

Yet tradition and glamour belie the hard facts of the market. Non-vintage (NV) Champagne has long dominated proceedings, built out of an aspiration for a consistent style, year in year out – something achieved only by blending different grapes across different villages and different vintages.


Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the top-scoring vintage Champagnes



Best vintage Champagne: See the top-scoring bottles from the panel tasting

Wines listed scored 90 points or above.


The judges

Simon Field MW is the DWWA Regional Chair for Champagne. A Berry Bros & Rudd buyer for more than 20 years, he now consults on areas which particularly interested him in that time, with Champagne topping the list in France.

Alan Bednarski is a wine consultant, a Court of Master Sommeliers advanced sommelier, and a DWWA judge. He moved to London in 2015 and has held positions at prominent venues including head sommelier at Texture. In 2019, he came third in the UK Sommelier of the Year competition.

Tim Hall is director of Scala Wine, importing single-estate Champagnes to the UK and running guided trips to Champagne and Bordeaux. He won CIVC’s Champagne Ambassador UK award in 2013, and is a Chambellan of the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne.


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