Grower Champagne

This blanc de blancs is Guillaume's flagship cuvée. It's a blend of two premier cru vineyards: Les Prés in Vrigny, an east-facing vineyard on sandy soils, and Les Vignes Dieu, a south-facing parcel in Coulommes that has chalky soils. The 2020 base is creamy, precise and effortlessly elegant. Dosage of just 1g/l; unfined and unfiltered.

This wine is from a single premier cru parcel in Vrigny, where the vines were planted in the 1970s and 1980s. Unlike the Prés Dieu cuvée, this is a blend of blanc de noirs: a blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The sandy limestone soils of Vrigy give the wine detail and texture, and the Pinots give it power and depth. Dosage of just 1g/l; unfined and unfiltered.

Instantanée is a single vintage Champagne that is made every year in order to take a “photo” of that year, the domaine explains. This 2017 is citrus-edged, with a firm and bracing backbone of acidity. It's a blend of roughly equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier from across Ludes, Villedommange, Rilly-La-Montagne and Brouillet. It spent 6 years ageing on lees before disgorgement, and the wine has taken on weight and structure in that time.

Champagne Éphémère was launched in 2014 as a collaboration between Frédéric and a few longtime friends, namely Sillery-based négociant Drémont Père & Fils. The 2018 celebrates the gorgeous depth of fruit in 2018, drawing on exclusively grand cru sites (roughly 80% Chardonnay from Avize, Cramant and Oger, and 20% Pinot Noir from Bouzy). 3g/l dosage.

This blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir comes from premier cru vineyards in the heart of the Montagne de Reims. It's made by expert winemaker Laurent Champs, whose wines show taut control and complex structure. Malolactic fermentation is blocked, and the wine - from the sunny 2015 vintage - shows tension and grip, with a juicy, ripe citrus character and racy freshness. The wine was matured in old oak, giving a softness and breadth on the palate. It's long and complex, and consistently one of our favourite champagnes from Vilmart.

This non-vintage grand cru is a blend of 50% 2020 and 50% reserve wine. It has a sea air, briny freshness, and is so quintessentially chalky blanc de blancs on the nose. The palate has a soft mousse (it is slightly lower pressure than mainstream Champagnes) and a salty, fresh length with an agile weight. It is discreet and reserved on first opening, but its reticent refrain opens up with some coaxing. One for the purists.

Ultradition is the flagship wine of the estate, and showcases how well Pinot Meunier suits the clay-limestone soils in this part of Champagne. The bright floral nose makes this a brilliant aperitif Champagne, yet the smooth and balanced weight of the palate makes it equally well suited to food. Take your pick.

This is drawn from two west-facing chalky limestone sites, and produces a taut, chiselled expression.

Aurélien Laherte is a champion of Champagne's lesser-known other varieties. While a few other growers frequently use them in their blend, brave and few are those making single variety expressions, like this Petit Meslier. It's chalky, tight, austere, and fierce, with notes of green apple and herbal echoes. This is not Champagne for the faint-hearted, but it is for the brave.

The Zéro Brut Nature is the signature cuvée of the Tarlant family. They place great emphasis on maturity: in the vineyard (with a proliferation of old vines); in barrel (using long ageing in old oak), and in bottle, sur lattes (long lees ageing before disgorgement and release). As a result the most recent release of their wonderful Zéro Brut Nature has 2014 at its heart, where most other Champagne houses are on 2018 or 2019. The wine shows fabulous complexity and depth thanks to its unusually long ageing. It is tightly-wound, with a vinous concentration and length. Its extended ageing in bottle before disgorgement adds depth and creaminess. Blind, you'll trip over yourself saying it's Krug. If we had a 'house' grower champagne, this would be it.

This is a new release from Champagne Tarlant, replacing the higher dosage Brut Réserve. The Extra Brut has just 3g/l residual sugar, much closer to Benoît and Melanie’s preferred dry style of Champagne. Their wines have all the textural depth of flavour you could want without the softening dosage sugar, thanks to their long ageing before release. Although this is their ‘entry level’ cuvée, it has the magnificent 2015 vintage at its base - notable not only for the inherent quality of that vintage, but also in comparison to most grandes marques who are already on to the 2017 or 2018 base wines in their non-vintage blends. It’s a blend of 51% Pinot Noir, 34% Pinot Meunier, and 15% Chardonnay from the Tarlant’s vineyards around Oeuilly. It was disgorged in September 2020, so enjoyed not only almost 5 years ageing sur lattes, but also a further 15 months in bottle before release in early 2022. It is chalky, chiselled, mineral, and moreish. And it offers a brilliant level of quality, and huge character, for its price.

This has a similar grape variety make-up to the blanc version, with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc in the blend. Indeed, it's made from the same base as the Grains des Celles, with a dash of Coteaux Champenois (red wine) added for colour.

When it comes to the Venn diagram of up-and-coming names, thrilling quality, and brilliant value for money, look no further than Grains de Celles. It’s a blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, with 25% of one of Champagne’s rarer grapes, Pinot Blanc. It’s a fantastic launchpad to explore the rest of the Gerbais range. The wine shows great vinous precision, with a layered expression spanning crisp red apple to salty preserved lemons, with a beautiful texture, gentle and refined. Until recently this cuvée had been a non-vintage blend, but 2020 follows on from 2019 as a single vintage release, with precision and singularity of expression. Dosage 2g/l.

Like Aurélien Gerbais' other non-vintage cuvées, this has a solera reserve at its heart, stretching back to 2011. It's a 100% Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs.