Champagne: 2023 New Releases

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Champagne is one of the most dynamic regions in the world. Change and innovation continue at an increasingly fast pace. Many of the most coveted wines now command Burgundy-like premiums, a relatively recent phenomenon here. There’s a lot more going on beyond the obvious, though, and plenty to explore.

This report is the largest we have ever published on Vinous. It includes wines I tasted in Champagne in March and then in New York in the months that followed. Champagne continues to be one of the most dynamic regions in the world. For that reason, this year I asked my colleague Anne Krebiehl MW to contribute to this report. For the most part, my notes cover producers that have long been part of our coverage, while Anne's focus is on newer estates or those that have only appeared in our reports sporadically. There are a few cases where we both tasted wines from the same estate, but they are the exception. All of Anne's reviews are clearly marked within their respective texts.

Amphoras in one of the cellar rooms at Henri Giraud, where they are a complement to the heavily curated selection of oak barrels used for most of the wines.

Grower Champagne - A New Era

Grower Champagne has been all the rage for the last twenty or so years. For readers new to the category, grower estates are small, family-owned domaines that started making Champagne from their vineyards as contracts to supply larger houses expired, similar to what happened earlier in regions like Burgundy and Piedmont. These wines were frequently marketed as purer, artisan expressions of place – Champagnes with more personality, often made with a greater focus on sustainable viticulture and low-intervention cellar practices. They also cost, or used to cost, substantially less than grand marque Champagnes, which were often portrayed as essentially soulless corporate products with flashy packaging. It was a good story and often true. Over time, the maisons lost visibility on restaurant lists and in the minds of passionate consumers as grower Champagnes exploded in popularity.

Today, the grower Champagne movement has reached an inflection point. As I have written a few times in recent years, today we are witnessing a sort of convergence, where the differences between these two categories – once stark – are now far more nuanced.