Champagne – A Wine For All Seasons

As the end of year holidays approach, it’s only natural to start thinking a little bit more about bubbly. In reality, though, Champagne is a wine for all seasons.

Champagne continues to be one of the most exciting regions in the world. This year I tasted a number of wines and producers that are new to me. The explosion of small, estate-bottled Grower Champagnes is one of the biggest reasons the region is so full of discovery. These small, family-run properties used to sell their grapes to the big houses, but as those contracts expire, the younger winemakers representing the new generation are choosing to make their own wines, echoing a trend towards estate-bottled wines that started in Burgundy and a few other places in the 1980s.

[Above: Tasting dosage trials for Anselme Selosse’s six lieu-dit Champagnes, March 2013]

What are the differences between the Chardonnays of Le Mesnil, Cramant, Oger and Avize? Or the Pinots from Aÿ, Mareuil, Ambonnay and Bouzy? What are the attributes of 100% Pinot Meunier wines? What is the potential of emerging areas like the Côte de Sézanne and the Aube, which in many ways resembles Chablis more than Champagne? Up until a few years ago, these were difficult discussions to have. There just weren’t enough reference points. Sure, you could taste the vins clairs as Krug, Roederer or any of the big houses that source fruit and/or wine from those villages, but there were only a handful of growers bottling their own wines that were worth following. Today, there are dozens, and that number continues to increase each year. The growers, used to selling fruit, are themselves just starting to learn about their own terroirs, giving birth to numerous single-vineyard ‘lieu-dit’ wines that give us the opportunity to explore dimensions in Champagne in ways previously not possible.