You pick up a bottle of Prosecco. On the label, where the year should be, it says NV.
A small doubt creeps in. Is this old stock? Did they forget to put the year? Is NV somehow worse than a vintage?
None of the above. NV stands for Non-Vintage, and for sparkling wines in particular, it's not a downgrade. In many cases, it's the standard — and understanding why changes how you think about the bottle in your hand.
What non-vintage actually means
A non-vintage wine is a blend of grapes from multiple harvests. Instead of using only grapes from a single year, the winemaker combines wines from two, three, or more different vintages to create a consistent style.
In Champagne — the most famous example — the major houses have been refining their NV blends for decades. The goal is that when you pick up a bottle, it tastes like that producer, not like that particular rainy summer. Continuity is the craft. The chef de cave — the cellar master — is essentially a blender, maintaining a house style across years that vary enormously in the vineyard.
Prosecco works similarly. Most Prosecco is non-vintage by design. Glera grapes are meant to be captured young and fresh. Blending across harvests maintains that freshness and the characteristic floral, peachy profile that makes Prosecco what it is, regardless of what the summer was like.
When does the year actually matter?
For still wines meant to age — especially reds — the vintage year matters a great deal. A Barolo from a warm, generous year will taste and evolve differently to one from a cooler, more challenging season. Collectors track vintages for this reason, and so do we.
But for a Prosecco meant to be opened tonight, with aperitivo, in good company? The year is largely irrelevant. What matters is that it's fresh, that it tastes alive, and that the person who made it knew what they were doing.
The Vinum Mirabile Proseccos
All four wines in our Vinum Mirabile range are NV — which means each bottle delivers the same bright, clean, Glera character regardless of when it was produced. The painting on the label changes. The wine inside is consistent, intentional, and ready to drink the moment you open it.
NV doesn't mean no story. It means the story is in the style, not the season. That's a different kind of craft, and just as valid as chasing the perfect year.