Krug Grande Cuvée Édition 174, NV

Non-Vintage Champagne might sound like a compromise, but it's actually where the real magic happens. Rather than bottling the grapes from just one harvest, producers blend wines from different years — sometimes going back decades with their reserve wines — to create something that tastes unmistakably like their house. It's a bit like a master perfumer working with different essences to capture a signature scent. The Champagne houses have spent generations perfecting these blends, and the result is that bottle of Bollinger or Pol Roger tastes reassuringly familiar whether you're popping it this Christmas or next. We think of it as the winemaker's calling card: a consistent expression of their style that you can rely on, vintage after vintage, which is rather more useful than the lottery of what Mother Nature decided to serve up in any particular year.