Understanding a Champagne Label

If you have ever looked at a Champagne label you’ve no doubt seen a variety of abbreviations. What do they all mean?  These little abbreviations can tell you a lot about what’s in the bottle.

To help decode your next Champagne label we’ve pulled together a  list of Champagne labeling terms. Cheers and happy sipping!

• A cuvée de prestige is a proprietary blended wine
• NV: Non Vintage. Blended across vintages to produce a specific house style.
• NM: Négociant manipulant. These companies (including the majority of the larger brands) buy grapes and make the wine
• CM: Coopérative de manipulation. Cooperatives that make wines from the growers who are members, with all the grapes pooled together
• RM: Récoltant manipulant. (Also known as Grower Champagne) A grower that also makes wine from its own grapes (a maximum of 5% of purchased grapes is permitted). Note that co-operative members who take their bottles to be disgorged at the co-op can now label themselves as RM instead of RC
• SR: Société de récoltants. An association of growers making a shared Champagne but who are not a co-operative
• RC: Récoltant coopérateur. A co-operative member selling Champagne produced by the co-operative under its own name and label
• MA: Marque auxiliaire or Marque d’acheteur. A brand name unrelated to the producer or grower; the name is owned by someone else, for example a supermarket
• ND: Négociant distributeur. A wine merchant selling under his own name