Reading the Age
Disgorgement Date and Production Date: How Old Is My Sparkling Wine?
The best way to tell the age of a bottle-fermented sparkling wine is through the disgorgement date, the day the lees were removed from the bottle. The EU doesn't require this information. Many growers and some houses print it voluntarily on the back label, while others hide it within a code.
Vintage, Tirage, Disgorgement: Three Dates in a Bottle's Life
There are three important dates in the life of a bottle-fermented sparkling wine. The first is the harvest, reflected in the vintage, if one appears on the label. The second is the tirage, also called mise en cave in French. This refers to the bottling of the base wine with sugar and yeast, which kicks off the second fermentation. The third is disgorgement. Here, the plug of yeast sediment is removed from the neck of the bottle, and the bottle receives its dosage and cork.
The time between tirage and disgorgement is the lees-aging period. The time since disgorgement is the maturation under cork. Both shape the flavor in different ways. Tank-fermented sparkling wine and Prosecco skip disgorgement entirely, so all that matters there is when the wine was bottled. Since that information rarely appears on the label either, the vintage, if the producer includes one, is often the only clue available for such wines.
What Must Appear on the Label – and What Doesn't?
For sparkling wine, mandatory label information includes the sweetness level, such as Brut, Extra Dry, or Trocken. A best-before date is not required, and neither is a disgorgement date. The vintage is optional, except for wines whose category rules require it. A grower Sekt must state both the grape variety and the vintage, while Cava from the Reserva level upward always carries a vintage. For vintage Champagne, the appellation's rules even require the year to appear a second time, stamped on the cork.
Almost every bottle also carries a lot number, usually a short code beginning with an L. It's used for traceability in case of recalls. Some producers encode the bottling or disgorgement date within it, though there's no universal rule for this. If you want to know for sure, you can ask the producer directly. Many winemakers are happy to share this information, since they take pride in extended lees aging.
Codes and back labels: Krug ID and others
Since 2011, the Champagne house Krug has printed a six-digit code on the back label of its Grande Cuvée, known as the Krug ID. Entering it on the house's website reveals which harvests make up the blend. According to wine critic Jancis Robinson, the first three digits also indicate the disgorgement date, denoting the quarter and year. A code beginning with 310, for instance, stands for the third quarter of 2010.
Other houses and many winemakers print the date openly on the label, often as "disgorged in March 2025" or, in French, dégorgé en. Some instead state the year of tirage, meaning the start of lees aging. For Bollinger R.D., a late-disgorged Champagne, the date is actually central to the concept. For buyers, the rule holds: the more data on the bottle, the easier it is to judge its age.
What the disgorgement date means for buying and aging
Two bottles of the same non-vintage brand can taste noticeably different if their disgorgement dates are two years apart. The freshly disgorged bottle will taste tighter and fruitier, while the older one will be rounder, with more toast and nutty notes. Neither is wrong. If you prefer a fresh style, look for the more recent date. If you enjoy aged aromas, you can seek out older bottles specifically or let some rest yourself.
Very freshly disgorged wines sometimes need a little time to settle. Many houses therefore store their bottles for several weeks or months after disgorgement before releasing them to the market. For your own storage, a simple trick helps: write the purchase date, and the disgorgement date if known, on the box with a marker. That way, even years later, you'll know exactly how long a bottle has been resting under cork.