Big Champagne House recs

Hi everyone,

What are your favorite Champagnes from big houses? I try to keep my spending below $150 or so for a bottle, so recommendations in this range would be appreciated. Most of the Champagnes I’ve bought are grower, and I’ve enjoyed many of them, but I’ve been curious about the bigger houses when I recently had a NV Billecart Salmon rose and a 2005 Taittinger CdC that I really enjoyed. (Surprisingly, I preferred the Billcart Salmon to the CdD even though I usually prefer blanc de blancs). Also, while I’ve had some really fantastic grower Champagnes (most recently Clouet 1911 which was so delicious), I’ve found that they can be a bit inconsistent. I’m guessing the big houses are much more consistent in terms of quality.

So what are you favorites? Why are they your favorites? Comtes de Champagne? NV Krug? Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame? Billcart Salmon? Ruinart?

Thanks!
Noah

Bollinger Special Cuvée is a big house champagne that is quite good and can age.

My favorite champs house is Billecart Salmon. They have something for everyone at various price points.

Tried to visit there during a trip to Reims back in May 2018 but they were closed.

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Agreed. I drink a decent amount of grower, and am by no means an expert on champagne compared to some people here, but I generally think Billecart outperforms it’s peers at various price points. The basic NV brut is good and my wife and I love the rose. They are also family owned vs a large corporation

I likewise enjoy Billecart-Salmon. However, at its price point I drink lots of Collet. Great Champagne at various price points.

If you search a lot, you can occasionally find Dom Perignon and Krug MV (and some vintages of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne) for under $150 – but it takes some real effort. If you can find them, those are tops and they all age. Krug MV probably my favorite of the bunch, but opinions vary.

For wines that can reliably be found below $150, I really enjoy vintage-designated Pol Roger and Roederer of all sorts (Brut, Blanc de Blancs, Rose). The quality is very, very high.

I like Billecart but (contrary to others) I’ve never found them particularly inspiring, and I don’t really think of them as a big house either.

My experience with Bollinger is somewhat variable – high highs and low lows.

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I’ve always been a fan of Pol Roger. Their regular bottling is usually quite good and the zero dosage, bdb, rose and vintage wines are usually a bit better. Not sure of the cost of the Winston Churchill these days but it is an excellent tete de cuvée.

Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve has long been a favorite of mine at the price point. Though they don’t hold the bottles back as long as they used to, they now incorporate even more reserve wine (they were already one of the best at that), and older reserve wine at that. Love their rosé too.

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Have you read through the What Champagne are you Drinking thread? There is an enormous amount of great information about the big houses as well as the growers. It’s a little more work than getting your exact question answered right here, buy ultimately much more informative I’d guess, with notes, including comments on what people love and don’t love, and discussions of house styles and changes.

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You can get Bollinger Grande Année in that price range. It’s great. As well as this and the Special Cuvée have historically aged, I wouldn’t be laying them down right now. There have been issues that I’m not sure are totally resolved.

Please elaborate

Agree very much with Sarah’s suggestion. Lots of educational and interesting posts on that thread on a wide range of Champagne by some very knowledgable posters.
Although I’m not one of those knowledgable posters, I am opinionated and I’d endorse the suggestion in a previous post of the entire Louis Roederer range - most will be well under $150.

Agree with this . . . I don’t have a “house” Champagne, but if I did this might be it.

Took a tour at B-S in 2019 - can recommend. Was essentially a private tour . . . you do have to arrange in advance . . . but a really classy operation and tour - Jerome was super, and even gave us a great lunch recommendation down the road.

Piper Heidsieck

Agree with Bollinger, Roederer, BS, and I’ll add Delamotte.

agree on both billecart and Charles heidsieck. even the brut reserves are great for them both.

I’ve been accumulating and consuming a lot of both grower and house champagnes. Here’s my opinion of the bigger houses, worth the same as the paper I didn’t print it on:

Roederer; I can’t recommend them highly enough. You should break your price barrier and pick up some Cristal, but everything they produce is outstanding today. They’re a large house but grow their own grapes, and do so responsibly and biodynamically.

Krug; Again, now above your price limit, but their MV Grand Cuvée is still one of the great bargains in the wine world. I had gotten to the point that I’d stopped buying their more expensive Vintage Brut, but a recent outstanding 2004 may change that going forward. They need a lot of cellar time to shine.

Moet & Chandon; Dom Perignon is consistently outstanding, despite producing more bottles than all of the others I’ve listed combined.

Ruinart; world class Vintage BdB

Billecart-Salmon I love their Cuvèe Nicolas Billecart and buy it most vintages. Their 2002 was available and underpriced for years, which is sadly no longer the case. They nailed that vintage. I still buy that Cuvèe most years.

Taittinger; despite the recent price increase (I could say that about everything I’ve listed), I buy their vintage Comtes BdB every year it’s produced. This has consistently been one of my favorite wines, vintage after vintage, although you can find others who disagree. The 2006 was a controversial wine that I personally loved.

Pol Roger; I really like their BdB and the Winston Churchill, but don’t buy as much these days, for no particular reason.

Lanson; I used to get their Cuvèe Noble for a song. Big house, nice wines, haven’t seen or bought any in a while.

Piper Heidsieck; Their 2002 Cuvèe Rare is drinking so well, I’ve been stocking up on other vintages.

Charles Heidsieck; I was an early fan and blew through 3+ cases of their ‘95 Blancs de Millenaires, acquired when they were remarkably underpriced. I think this wasn’t appreciated initially as the great wine it turned out to be. There’s a new Chef de Cave now, but I still pick up some of the newer vintages.

Veuve Cliquot; I think they’ve emerged from a rut they’d been in, and their Grande Dame has been outstanding of late.

Pommeroy; I have a few of their Cuvèe Louise but have yet to open one.

Mumm and Perrier Jouét; two other big houses. I don’t have any experience or opinion about these.

I think I’ve listed most of the big houses, but I’m sure I’ve left out a few. Others will surely chime in. Sorry to limit my comments to tête de cuvée wines. Since my cellar has plenty of daily drinkers, so i now mostly shop for smaller quantities of higher end champagne.

Cheers,
Warren

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Some years ago, Bollinger stopped adding SO2 at disgorgement. Possibly in combination with some other factors, this caused a lot of wines throughout the range to oxidize long before they should have. The problem has been discussed quite a bit, with some avid Champagne collectors saying they’ve seen a lot of oxidation. Tom Stevenson has written about it at least a couple of times. I guess they are now adding some SO2 at disgorgement, but I don’t know if the problem is fully resolved. Time will tell. Here are some links.

https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2013/12/champagnes-overachievers-underperformers

I guess Brad Baker disagreed that there was a problem years ago, but he seemed to acknowledge it later. Maybe he will weigh in. In any case, the problem has been widely reported among people who open a lot of aged Champagne, enough that I think it can be stated as fact.

Excellent summary.

I had overlooked Ruinart in my original post. I love Dom Ruinart BdB, and it perfectly fits your desire for top-tier big-house Champagne at less than $150. For my palate, it’s very consistent and one of the most overlooked bottlings in all of Champagne. Dom Ruinart Rose is also great, but I don’t think it warrants the premium over the BdB.

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