Expert summary:
Small they may be, but grower Champagnes are in the ascendancy, offering great breadth of personality, from quirky and individual to classic and food-focused styles
This TasTing feaTured 100 grower Champagne estates, ranging from the highly renowned to the virtually unknown, both large and small. Launois Père et fils, for example, is relatively large for a Champagne estate, with 21ha of vineyards, as is Pierre Moncuit with 20ha. nathalie falmet, on the other hand, owns 3.2ha of vines, while fabrice gass of alexandre filaine owns just 1ha. in addition, this tasting presented wines from across the Champagne appellation, from classical growing areas like the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de reims to lesser-known terroirs in the Côte des Bar, Coteaux du Morin and Massif de st-Thierry.
i was not present at the tasting and did not taste the wines, thus i have no direct connection with the results. Looking at the data, the panel seemed to favour wines of lower dosage: of the top 13 wines (those that scored 92 or above), eight qualified as extra brut or non-dosé. as Champagnes today tend to emphasise ripe fruit flavours more than they did in the past, this is not entirely surprising. The panel also showed a strong tendency towards Chardonnay: of the top seven wines (those that scored 93 or higher), five were blanc de blancs. This also reflects modern tastes, which often prize Champagnes that focus on delicacy and finesse.
Perhaps related to this, the panel preferred Champagnes of classical profile and traditional character, and those of assertively individual personality tended to be scored lower (although this is almost always the case when averaging the scores of multiple tasters). The wines of ulysse Collin, for example, from the vineyards of Les Pierrières and Les Maillons, are intensely flavoured, atypical Champagnes, appealing to some while appearing extreme to others; MouzonLeroux’s L’ascendant, made in a perpetual cuvée that encourages a mature complexity rather than primary fruit flavours, also scored lower than anticipated. The Champagnes of franck Pascal, which are unusually bold and richly textured, emphasising their vinosity over their effervescence, did not fare well in this tasting. On the other hand, the top-scoring Champagne was a surprise, as Pierre Bertrand is not a widely known estate.
‘The panel favoured wines of lower dosage, and showed a strong tendency towards Chardonnay’