Uncorked: Grower Champagne
Ever since one of the world’s most famous monks, Dom Pérignon, legendarily sipped the product of a bottled wine undergoing a second fermentation in the same bottle and declared that he was “drinking the stars,” Champagne has been associated with refinement, sophistication and elegance. It is the Western World’s celebratory beverage of choice, a bubbly nectar that makes us feel good and ushers in happy times.
It is also big business.
The number of bottles reportedly produced of Moët & Chandon’s famed Dom Pérignon Champagne is around 2,500,000 a year. At $130 a bottle as an average retail price, we’re talking annual retail gross sales of a third of a billion dollars for Dom Pérignon alone, enough to make a monk blush! On one hand, it is a testament to the winemaking team at Moët & Chandon that they can craft that much of something that tastes so good nearly every vintage. Their job is to get that bottle of bubbles to taste the same every year, through the art of blending, with a little stylistic nod thrown in to showcase the highlights from vintage to vintage.
But it’s a recipe.
And that’s fine if you’re the person who eats the same thing every Monday, every week, for an entire year. I’m not that guy.
Variety is the spice of life in the wine business. We are constantly looking for exciting new wines, different flavors and different textures, and times have never been better to seek out these flavors and textures.
Grower Champagnes
One of the newest trends in the world of fine wine is the emergence of “grower Champagnes.” These artisan Champagnes, produced by tiny, individual estates within the region of Champagne, offer tasters a glimpse into the tastes and flavor profiles of each individual village within Champagne. Production levels for their entire estates are usually anywhere from a tenth to a hundredth of the production of just Dom Pérignon itself! Very cool.
Think of it this way: Say you like to drink cabernet sauvignon. Well, what if California didn’t give you an option on whether you wanted cabernet from Napa or Sonoma or Paso Robles? What if all the cabernet was just labeled “California” and blended from vineyards all over the state? Think how “plain Jane” that would be, never getting to experience the different flavors and aromas of these different growing areas, never being to determine for yourself if you’re a Napa fan or a Sonoma fan. That would drive me bonkers.
That’s essentially what “big Champagne” is trying to sell you. They’re selling bubbles and an image, but they are not selling you a dynamic wine drinking experience, which is what Champagnes from small, independent producers can do. These wines ebb and flow with each vintage, the year’s growing season from March to September leaving their mark on the finished wines. This vintage variation in connection with the one constant, where the grapes are grown, makes for a compelling drinking experience year after year from the same artisan producer. And, since these producers are actually in the Champagne zone, or, in many cases, perhaps an even more upscale village within Champagne, they consistently put their best foot forward, even if that means they don’t produce their version of Dom Pérignon in a given year. For the grower and the consumer, it’s all about that combination of quality and the uniqueness of the different bottling from the different producers, delivered at a price that is often half the price of Champagnes from the bigger houses for the same quality.
How to find a GC: Look for an RM
How do you spot a “grower Champagne”? First look for the term “Propriétaire-Récoltant” on the front or back label. This is the French term for a Champagne producer that grows its grapes and produces its own Champagne from those grapes, all on the estate. Or, if you don’t see that term, you can look for the letters “RM” followed by a series of numbers, usually on the bottom of the label in small writing. This stands for Récoltant-Manipulant, which essentially is a more technical French term for Propriétaire-Récoltant but makes the French wine bureaucrats happy!
Although this genre is growing and new importers are appearing all the time, we are fortunate that a couple of pioneering importers did a lot of the “dirty work” for us early on and discovered a wealth of splendid boutique growers, from many of the finest villages within Champagne. You can’t go wrong choosing Champagnes from the following sources, their names always to be found somewhere on the bottle:
- Terry Thiese This guy made his mark as one of the original purveyors of premium German wines into the United State. Now, he’s catching as much buzz over his Champagne selections. Our preferred growers from his catalog (with their home villages in parentheses) include Pierre Peters (Le Mesnil-sur-Oger), Marc Hebrart (Mareuil-sur-Ay), Henri Goutorbe (Ay), Vilmart (Rilly-la-Montagne), Pierre Gimmonet (Cuis) and Varnier Fannière (Avize).
- Becky Wasserman This famous selector of the finest Burgundy wines has also ventured into the world of grower Champagne. Her keen palate and top connections in the area have resulted in one of America’s top stables of artisan fizz. Top growers from her portfolio include Camille Savès (Bouzy), José Dhondt (Oger) and LeBrun Severnay (Avize).
Here is a challenge: The next time you go hunting for a bottle of something special, take the time to do a little digging and see what you can find from one of these smaller Champagne houses. Look for the RM, ask your local wine merchant if he stocks grower Champagnes and do a little reading. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. Cheers!
Text by Kyle Meyer, who estimates he’s tasted well north of 50,000 wines in his 20 years as a wine buyer. His travels include the major wine-growing areas of the world, focusing on France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, Australia and, yes, the United States. During his travels, he’s built lasting relationships with the top wine producers in each of these countries. He is currently a partner and director of purchasing for his own interactive online wine retail site, www.bestwinesonline.com.
