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How To Be a Champagne Connoisseur

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How To Be a Champagne Connoisseur

Broaden your Bubby horizons. Last year, France exported 326 million cases of Champagne. These included labels with which you may not be familiar. But should be. If you want to consider yourself a Champagne connoisseur.

Champagne is not all Bollinger, Taittinger, Louis Roederer, Ruinart, Veuve Clicquot and Moet et Chandon. And being able to tell Pol Roger from your Mumm.

If drinking Champagne is one of life’s primary pleasures, discovering a new Champagne is one of its secondary ones. Every home should contain the best  French houses. Every house should have something a little different. But still top quality 

Here is a selection of the best off-the-radar high-quality champagnes you may not know about.

But should. And must. 

CARBON CHAMPAGNE

Carbon

“The pinnacle of Champagne-making partners with the giants of the automotive and racing worlds,” is how Alexandre Mea,  the CEO of Carbon Champagne, describes his latest carbon-wrapped releases.  “They reflect the synergy of our two worlds and formalize common values.”

Triple-layered with carbon fiber to protect against light deterioration, the CARBON CHAMPAGNE BUGATTI SERIES has been designed by Mea and Stéphane Winkelmann, President of Groupe Automobile SAS. SAS. Mea is the grandson of the fifth-generation wine grower, Champagne Devavry.  After four years of research and development, he created his own boutique Champagne Maison and unique bottle made from 37 segments, varnished twice and then polished.

Says Mea: “The EB.02, a limited-edition cuvée Champagne, celebrates the one-year anniversary of the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ breaking the 300-mile barrier, reaching a top speed of 304.773 mph.  

“It’s an exceptional 2006 vintage Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru with a deep gold color and millions of bubbles to complete the experience. The packaging reflects the unique design and colors of the Chiron Super Sport 300+, representing an equally unique lifestyle.”

CATTIER CHAMPAGNE

Cattier

Based in Chigny-les-Roses, a Premier Cru village of the Montagne de Reims, the Cattier family have been winemakers since 1625. |The House is now run by the thirteenth generation. Ots 119 step cellars in Rilly-la-Montagne are the deepest in the region allowing the champagnes to age in perfect conditions.

Collery

The house, which aspires to the production of “the sincerest expression of Champagne” goes back to  1813. Jules-Anatole Collery was one of the first winemakers to “champagne” and market his bottles when others were selling grapes. 

Chanoine Les Freres

Chanoine Les Freres

The Reims Maison was founded in 1730 and, produces vintage as well as non-vintage cuvee as well as the extra dry Tsarine and Tsarina... 

Devaux

Founded in 1846 by the brothers Jules and Auguste, Devaux is owned by the Union Auboise, a co-operative in the Côte des Bar – the heartland of Pinot Noir in Champagne. Closer to Chablis than Reims or Épernay, the vines grow on Burgundian soils of Kimmeridgian marl and Portlandian limestone. Chef de Cave since 1999, Michel Parisot was named the ‘Sparkling Winemaker of the Year’ at the 2020 International Wine Challenge –`Coeur de Nature` is Devaux’s first fully certified organic Champagne. Devaux is referred to as “the Krug of the Côte des Bar.

Lallier Champagne

Lallier Champagne

The Ay producer is celebrating 115 years of winemaking with Cellar Master Dominique Demarville’s cuvee champagne with “haute couture” vinification techniques.

Campagne La Borderie

Campagne La Borderie

Champagne Domaine La Borderie is now run by Brother and sister Simon and Marie Normand who took over the family estate of 11.5 hectares, located around Bar-sur-Seine,  also in the Côte des Bar. 

Ayala Champagne

Ayala Champagne

Edmond de Ayala, founded the House in 1860, buy Ay’s AYALA owed its rapid expansion to Fernand de Ayala, Edmond’s younger brother, who in 1863 settled in London where he mixed with the British aristocracy and introduced the House’s unique flavor profile to British connoisseurs, notably with the 1865 vintage that had a very low dosage for the time. In 2005 the Bollinger family bought this estate.

Haton Champagne

Haton Champagne

Going back to the reigns of Louis X111 and 1610, Maison Haton has been a patron of “Ateliers D’Art de France” since 2014. Jean-Noel and Sebastien Haton offer “a range of assertive Champagnes and essential vintages” from micro terroirs and 60 hectares of vines (including 45 hectares of its own), mainly spread over six villages in the Marne Valley: Damery, Hautvillers (Premier Cru), Cumières (Premier Cru), Boursault, Fleury la Rivière, Vauciennes and  Cuchery.

Pierre Peters

Pierre Peters

Pierre Péters produces exclusively Blanc de Blancs champagnes at Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Avize, Cramant, Oger and Vertus. Sixth-generation owner, Rodolphe Péters took over the family estate in 2008. 

Gimmonet Et Fils

Gimmonet Et Fils

Brothers Olivier and Didier Gimonnet run this family Domaine in the Côte des Blancs. The Gimonnet family can be traced back to 1750 growing vines around the village of Cuis, south of Epernay. 

Ulysse Collin

With its home in the village of Congy in the Coteaux du Petit Morin, 30 km southwest of Epernay, it is a true collector. 

Delamotte

Delamotte

Champagne Delamotte is the sixth eldest Champagne house, founded in 1760. It hosted the coronation of France’s last King, Charles X. The house was sold to the Lanson family in the 1830s. Vinification is supervised by Michel Fauconnet, cellar master at Laurent-Perrier. 

Briant Leclerc

There have been five successive generations of Leclercs, beginning with Lucien Leclerc in 1872 in the village of Cumiéres. In 1955, the house moved to Epernay and was acquired by American owners, Denise Dupre and Mark Nunelly, who appointed Hervé Jestin as Chief Winemaker Leclerc Briant are renowned winemaking pioneers, having been one of the first producers to stop using chemical fertilizers and to experiment with biodynamic vine cultivation back in the 1970s, and is one of the first houses to introduce single vineyards champagnes in the early 1990s. Today the entire vineyard is certified as organic and biodynamic. 

Pierre-Moncuit

Founded in Mesnil-sur-Oger in 1889, its vineyards are Grand Cru status. Sister and brother, Nicole and Yves Moncuit manage the estate. Their superb wines are produced from a single vintage, and no reserve wines are blended into the non-vintage offerings.

Philliponnat

Philipponnat

Champagne Philipponnat Crown is a tiny 5.5-hectare single-walled vineyard called Clos des Goisses. Acquired in 1935 and originally named Vin des Goisses, it was changed to Clos de Goisses in 1959. Production is limited to a maximum of 55,000 bottles each year.

Sanger 

Born in 1952, according to Cellar Master Nicolas Robert, the Avize-based label “offers a range of products which conciliate tradition and modernity”.

 Created by 16 winegrowers, mostly from the Montagne de Reims, Sanger is established on 13 hectares spread over 42 crus representing the entire Champagne appellation.

Telmont

Telmont

The house with Leonard di Caprio as its investor, hopes to become a climate-positive producer by 2030 and net carbon-positive by 2050. Founded in 1912 by Henry Lhopital.

Vazart-Coquart

Vazart-Coquart

Established in the 19th century, it produces only single cru champagnes from its 11-hectare estate in Champagne’s largest Grand Cru village, Chouilly. 

Yann Alexandre

Yann Alexandre is the eighth generation of his family to grow vines in the Petite Montagne de Reims, He and his wife, Severine, share a passion for lees aging, hand riddling, and disgorgement. Their wines are perhaps one of the best lesser-known Champagnes. It should be in your exploratory case this Champagne Day. And beyond. They all drink well until 2030.