Nice move by Antonio, but I wonder exactly how this will be carried out? Every Champagne has a lot number on it (I believe required by law) that allows it be traced back to the disgorgement date and more. Around 1/2 of them can be decoded with a little common common sense. The other half you need to talk to the producer in order to get the info. According to the letter of the statement “I will longer review NV wines that do not carry disgorgement dates, or at the very least a lot number that can be traced back to a disgorgement date”, 99.99% of all NV wines already qualify.
I will say that more progress has been made in terms of disgorgement date lately than I thought would occur this fast. A number of large producers are going to start or have started putting disgorgement dates on Vintage cuvees and to me this is key. Disgorgement date is important, but it isn’t the most important aspect of knowing what is in the bottle. The most important aspect (relatively speaking) is knowing the makeup of the wine particularly the vintages in the blend. In a vintage cuvee, that problem is solved with the vintage date so the disgorgement date is very valuable. On a NV cuvee, the disgorgement date is great and a big help, but the real key is knowing the blend of vintages or the base vintage of a particular release. Most NV cuvees see a separate release each year so the disgorgement date of a particular cuvee can help, but pretty much all bottles of a release (regardless of disgorgement date) will taste the same at the same points in their life. Where NV cuvees vary is between releases when the base vintage and reserve wines change. The disgorgement date will allow you to make a guess as to the base vintage, but I would rather know the base vintage. I would really like both, but to me, on NV cuvees, the base vintage is the most important. Most producers have guidelines on how long they age their NVs so you can tell what is fresh or not fresh based on a base vintage.
The other factor to consider is that larger production NV cuvees have studies showing disgorgement dates have resulted in sales decreases. Some folks get confused over the date and think it is an expiration date. Other people only want to buy the disgorgement on July 17 and July 16. Another group gets scared by too much info. A simple line on the back label that would state “Based on the XXXX vintage” would be a huge help. While I would like more, this information is the most key piece missing and the most important in my mind as it would allow you to at least compare/classify one NV release vs. another.
An easy solution would be for a producer to set up a spot on their website where you could input the lot number and get all the info on a wine that you need (blend, base wine, reserves, steel/oak, malolactic, bottling date, disgorgement date, dosage, etc…) I’ve tried to get a producer to try this out, but no one has made the move yet. To me this eliminates the worries of confusion among the masses and lets those who want to know, know.
The larger producers are very concerned about confusing those who like and buy wine, but aren’t into wine as much as those on this board and the like. They do want to find a way to get information out to those who want it, but also want to balance out their fear of confusing the masses (I’m not sure I agree they will confuse the masses, but I have seen it with friends and family so there is something to this worry).
To summarize, there is no excuse for not putting a disgorgement date on a vintage wine. It is important to the wine’s development and this isn’t a wine that is going to be sold everywhere to everyone. I would love disgorgement dates on a NV wine and it helps, but if I am going to fight for one piece of info for NVs, I would rather see a base vintage statement on the back label.
I have an upcoming article talking about this and I applaud Antonio for his move. I’m just not sure how it will play out and while it helps, I think there is something else that helps more.