### The Best New Non-Vintage Champagnes 
Given the sheer scope of non-vintage Champagne it's foolhardy to overgeneralize when discussing the current state of the category. And when one throws in the differences of house styles and the varied blends that make up any given set of current releases things become even blurrier. However, generalize I will (hopefully not _too_ foolishly) on a few points that I found interesting as I conducted my tastings this fall.   
  
First, this year's set of releases (the eighth that I have tasted for the International Wine Cellar) was the strongest, overall, that I have experienced. That's interesting because there is undoubtedly plenty of wine from 2005 and 2007 in the current non-vintage bottlings, and those are two decidedly uneven vintages for the region. I have to surmise that the quality of the 2009, 2008 and 2006 wines (all very good to excellent years here) in the NV blends is sufficiently high to compensate for the shortcomings of 2007 (uneven ripeness and rot) and 2005 (rampant rot due to warm, damp conditions through much of the summer).  
  
More large houses, or "Grandes Marques," seem to be cutting back on the _dosage_ levels in all of their Champagnes. Moet & Chandon is on record as moving toward lower _dosage_, and it shows in this year's releases. It's the rare producer that doesn't say that they're trying to express their region, or _terroir_, as clearly as possible, but that's difficult to accomplish if your wine is made blurry by the addition of loads of sugar. That's especially true with Champagne, which is prized specifically for its crystalline, pure character rather than for sheer mass and weight.  
  
There are more small-house and grower Champagnes available in the U.S. now than ever before. I have to guess that this is a reaction to the ongoing success of small, specialty importers like Terry Theise, who have proven that Americans will accept artisanal Champagnes with the same enthusiasm as they have shown for small-production Burgundies. Being small is no guarantee of quality, though, just as being large doesn't necessarily mean that the Champagne is anonymous or some sort of vinous Antichrist, as many fundamentalist wine aficionados would like to believe. As stated earlier, generalizations are foolish.  
  
Note that there are a handful of vintage wines included in this year's piece. These are wines that arrived too late for us to include in the annual vintage Champagne article, which appears in the current issue of the IWC.  
  
I have included disgorgement dates for the bottles I tasted, if they were provided on the label--as well as lot numbers, if they were legible. Lot numbers are usually preceded by the letter "L" and can be found printed or embossed on a bottle's front or back label or foil, or laser-etched onto the glass itself.

The Best New Non-Vintage Champagnes

The Best New Non-Vintage Champagnes (Dec 2012)

ConstantScore(-article_id:{312 381 422 466 735 1092 1114 1146 1208 1209 1210 1231 1235 1241 1242 1245 1249 1258 1261 1276 1283 1298 1302 1312 1321 1325 1338 1601 1734 1980 1998 2164 2193 2198 2268 2425 2529 2566 2825 2994 3120 3140 3371 3977 4341 4690 4691} #producer.id:3407 #article_id:[551 TO 551])

DocValuesFieldExistsQuery [field=_primary_term]

Gatinois

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social