The Grower Champagne Shift from Esoteric to Mainstream

In 2001, when I started my Master of Wine studies journey, I headed to self-educational Champagne with a group of six MW students from our study group. At that time, I worked in the UK for a subsidiary distributor of LVMH, doing Champagne sales and marketing in London, so we visited Veuve Clicquot and Krug (houses I already knew well) as well as many of the other Grandes Marques. But one of the most memorable visits was to see a small producer of growing interest to savvy collectors in the UK: Anselme Selosse. It was nearly impossible to get him to commit to our visit until just before we arrived, and we were informed by a friend that arranged the visit that it could either be 5 minutes or 5 hours long, depending on what he thought of us. We wound up spending most of the day with him. He was warm, passionate, and an absolute treasure trove of information and innovation. When I returned to the UK, I was able to find bottles of Selosse to buy without too much trouble and at affordable prices. Good luck with that now.

Twenty-odd years ago, grower Champagnes were esoteric wines made by eccentrics and heretics. By 2010, dozens of names had emerged as trendy, highly sought-after outliers. I lived in Singapore from 2008 until 2015, where Selosse and Egly-Ouriet were already becoming incredibly scarce and prohibitively expensive. Names such as de Sousa, Jacques Lassaigne, David Laclapart, Agrapart, Benoit Lehaye, Pierre Peters, Pierre Gimonnet, and Larmandier Bernier were becoming fashionable, largely thanks to regular Friday night grower Champagne tastings hosted at Artisan Cellars (a retailer well worth checking out if you’re in Singapore).

Now, while grower Champagnes are still not exactly mainstream, not least of all because the volumes are usually much smaller than the Grandes Marques, you can usually find some good ones in most retailers and even supermarkets that sell alcohol. Still, a few Champagnes selected for this report may be more challenging to come by because of their short supply, but most should be widely available.

Grower or Grande Marque?

Even given the recent popularity of grower Champagnes, many wine consumers continue to opt for a well-known Grande Marque. Much of this has to do with perceived reliability and uncertainty about the grower’s style. Tried, trusted, and consistent often wins over an unknown entity. It doesn’t help that the range of styles of Champagnes has broadened enormously over the last 20 years, as have consumers’ tastes. So, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand the style of an unknown Champagne being offered and, more to the point, whether it will be your style.

When it comes to wines priced over $50 and usually closer to $100 (or more), wine buyers are cautious of experimentation. Couple that with the fact that a lot of Champagnes are sipped with friends, and for special occasions, no one wants to get it wrong. It’s no wonder that most of us resort to old favorites, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, knowing all the big names very well, I can assure you that you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck by opting for some of the grower Champagnes in this report. What’s more, many of these grower wines have more cellaring potential than most of the standard NV Grandes Marques and are right up there in terms of quality with some big brand vintage and prestige cuvée offerings.

Speaking of Style: a Word on Dosage

As part of my quality assessment, I look at overall balance, and for nascent wines not quite ready to drink, I consider the sense of balance that will develop with bottle age. Some non-dosage or low-dosage wines can be on the crisp/tart side. And some people LOVE this tartness. But, if the acid stands out and doesn’t match the ripeness of the fruit or dosage, then the wine will lose some quality points, which is reflected in my score. For many Champagne lovers, this is when a preference for a particular style trumps quality—as it should! Your personal taste should always outweigh scores. As a critic, I must score all wines with the same criteria and consistency across the board; otherwise, the scores are meaningless. Likewise, at the other end of the spectrum, some consumers don’t like overly acidic Champagnes and prefer a little more dosage. If the sweetness stands out and overshadows the fruit expression, the wine will lose a few points.

Some Champagnes labeled as Brut (0-12 g/L dosage) could more accurately be labeled as Extra Brut (0-6 g/L) or Brut Nature (0-3 g/L). In the wine names in my reviews, I have left the term used on the label within the name but put the drier style it would qualify for in brackets so that readers can understand the style more precisely by looking at the name. For example, Egly-Ouriet’s Les Vignes de Vrigny Premier Cru Brut has only 1 g/L of dosage, so after the name I inserted, ‘(Brut Nature)”. Also, I inserted the dosage amount into the tasting note whenever that information was available.

Finally, you may well ask, are most grower Champagnes too Extra Brut (extra dry) for you? A lot of grower Champagnes indeed have less dosage than most Grande Marque NVs. Most of the growers I tasted were in the Extra Brut category (less than 6 g/L). But—and this is big BUT—I’m noting that the grapes for these grower wines are often harvested riper than is often the case for Grandes Marques. Couple this with the fact that the recent vintages featuring in most of these wines (e.g., 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019) were warmer years, and you automatically tend to get richer, more flavorsome, less acidic, better-balanced wines that really don’t need as much dosage to give a harmonious experience on the palate. If in doubt, read the tasting note. I will never hesitate to say if something is on the tart side or if the sweetness stands out.

Perpetual Reserve Champagnes - Réserve Perpétuelle

Réserve Perpétuelle is a term used on some grower Champagne labels and a style I enjoy if done well. Rather than storing reserve wines in separate vessels to use as blending components, as is traditional for the Grandes Marques, smaller grower houses sometimes keep their reserves in a single vessel or collection of collective vessels—like a solera system. This method tends to layer in rich, mature, nut and caramel-like notes among the youthful fruitiness. A few Champagnes in this article that use this method with fantastic results include:

Hure Freres, Memoire Extra Brut

Ruppert Leroy, 11, 12, 13... Brut Nature

Dehours & Fils, Lieux Dit Brisefer Reserve Perpetuelle Extra Brut

J M Sélèque, Solessence Nature Élevage Prolongué Brut Nature