Vieillissement sur lies

French · ageing on lees

Vieillissement sur lies is ageing on lees in bottle. Champagne's minimums are 15 months for non-vintage and 36 months for vintage, counted from tirage.1,2

In practice, the Comité Champagne says, non-vintage is usually aged 2-3 years and vintage 4-10 years.3 Other rules give other minimums:

WineMinimum on lees
EU traditional method9 months
Cava Reserva18 months
Franciacorta18 months

Sources: 4,5,6

During this time autolysis changes the wine. See ageing minimums and ageing on lees.

See also

Minimum ageing by appellationMethodsAgeing on leesMethodsAutolyseGlossaryNon-vintage (sans année)StylesVintage (millésime)Styles

Sources

  1. Comité Champagne (champagne.education). Fiche Élaboration du Champagne (FR) (2024-05)
  2. Cahier des charges de l'AOP « Champagne » - modifications approved by the INAO national committee on 11 September 2024 (national opposition procedure text) (2024-09-11)
  3. Comité Champagne (champagne.fr). Maturation
  4. EUR-Lex. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33 (consolidated text), Articles 47, 48, 49, 53, 54 and Annex III Part A (2023-12-08)
  5. Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (Spain). Pliego de condiciones de la Denominación de Origen Protegida «Cava»
  6. Consorzio per la tutela del Franciacorta. Franciacorta DOCG production regulations (English translation), as amended 17 July 2017 (2017-07-17)

Facts checked on 2026-10-19