The February launch is the first of a limited edition range of selected vintages to be released when cellar master Dominique Demarville is happy that they have reached their peak of condition and are ready for drinking.

The inaugural selection consists of a 20 year-old Brut Millésime 1990, the 1980 vintage and rare Rosés from 1989, 1978 and 1975. Each is available in 75cl bottles and larger formats.

The launch has been timed to coincide with the 200^th anniversary of Madame Clicquot’s creation of the first ever champagne from grapes of a single harvest.

Demarville said: “The best vintage champagne can mature for decades.  However, during that maturation period, each wine will reach a number of ‘perfection peaks’ in terms of drinking potential.

“The Cave Privée Collection allows us to offer limited quantities of our best vintages for sale from our own cellar when they reach those peaks of perfection. Each selection will be disgorged to order and I will create a bespoke dosage liquor for every vintage, with minimal residual sugar to enable the full character of the wine to shine through.”

Each bottle in the Cave Privée Collection will be individually numbered on the neck collar, with full details on the back label of disgorgement date, number of bottles disgorged and grams per litre of residual sugar in the dosage liquor.

With a stylized ‘yellow ribbon’ incorporated in the design of the Cave Privée Collection capsules, Veuve Clicquot has at the same time relaunched its cor vintage range to include a thread of the same yellow into its labels.

The colour is a historical reference to Madame Clicquot’s original practice of tying a yellow ribbon around the necks of all bottles of vintage champagne for shipping, in the days before individual bottles were labelled.