Non-vintage (NV)
/ˌnɒnˈvɪn.tɪdʒ/
Non-vintage (NV) /ˌnɒnˈvɪn.tɪdʒ/ describes a wine made by blending wines from more than one harvest year, so no single vintage date appears on the label. It is most common in sparkling and fortified wines, where producers use multiple years to achieve a consistent house style rather than express a specific year’s character.
Examples
- A major Champagne house releases its flagship Brut without a year on the label; merchants list it as “NV Champagne Brut” to show it is a multi-vintage blend.
- A 10-year Tawny Port combines wines from different harvests to match a 10-year style, making it functionally a non-vintage wine even though the label highlights age rather than a year.
- A large-brand Prosecco blends base wines from several recent harvests to keep the flavor consistent; the bottle carries no vintage date and is sold as NV Prosecco.
Etymology
“Non-vintage” combines the English negative prefix “non-” (meaning “not” or “without”) with “vintage,” a wine term for both the harvest year and the wine from that year. “Vintage” traces back to Old French “vendange” and Latin “vindēmia” (grape harvest), from “vinum” (wine) and “dēmere” (to remove, take off). As 19th–20th century labeling practices formalized the use of specific harvest years, producers who blended multiple years—especially in Champagne and fortified wines—adopted “non-vintage” as a clear contrasting term, with “NV” becoming standard shorthand in English-language trade and literature.