🍷 Cuvée

Cuvée is a French word with two main meanings. In Champagne the cuvée is the first and purest juice from pressing. From 4,000 kg of grapes 2,550 litres of juice are pressed: the first 2,050 litres are the cuvée, and the remaining 500 are called the taille. The cuvée gives a finer, longer-lived wine.

The second meaning is broader: a cuvée is a batch of wine or a blend put together for one bottling. A winemaker may combine wines from different grapes, plots or years. In this sense cuvée is close to the word blending: blending is the process, and the cuvée is its result. The word often appears in wine names, such as Cuvée Prestige, but on its own it does not mean special quality.

The term is most common for Champagne and other sparkling wines, but it is used for still wines worldwide too. Cuvée is linked to French wine, to blending and to Champagne production.