The next generation of 'Grower' Champagnes

It’s 20 years since I got excited about the first real movement in ‘grower’ Champagnes (I don’t like the term but dont have a better one).

Brought into the spotlight by Anselme Selosse, and featuring (for me) Lilbert, Gimmonet, Peters, Vilmart. Launois, Diebolt-Vallois, Hebrart and many others, quite a few of which had been around for a long time. This was to me a whole new world, bringing lower dosage and a more lean mineral style different to the toasty, brioche of the big houses (yes yes huge generalisation)…

But now, there seems to me to be a whole new generation of producers, often working with very small volumes (land isn’t cheap!) and a renewed focus on still wines.

I would include producers such as (in no order) Lurquin, Stroebel, Feneiul, Cordeuil, Bougy, Alexis, Rogerie, Brochet (both of them), Servagnat, Leclere, Casanova, Christian Gosset, Dechannes, Gauditabois, Rogerie, Lefevre, Girard-Bonnet, Courtin, Bouvet, Benard, Nowack, and plenty of others.

I don’t think they are all exported (other than to Italy usually where demand is crazy).

But just a short post to highlight these in one place.

Also worth mentioning the real focus on still wines, several of the above are using their best grapes for their Coteaux not their Champagnes, though prices remain high of course, but not really compared with the same quality burgundies, and they bring a really interesting cooler climate style.

(I sell some of these but not to the US/UK)…

Keep an eye out and let’s talk about some of these producers.

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I should add, that in a world where current vintage Selosse is selling at auction for over €3000, these represent good value, I think apart from Lurquin none of the Champagnes are over €100, the issue is just finding them…

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I agree with you that it’s hard to come up with a better term than “grower” Champagne to describe these producers. But one of the problems with the term is that it elides what for me are two quite distinct phenomena. There have been grower-bottlers in Champagne for a long time, with many emerging in the early 20th century for similar reasons that grower-bottlers emerged in Burgundy around that time. These grower-bottlers, however, didn’t adumbrate a particularly different vision from the grandes marques: they just did more or less the same thing on a smaller scale, producing a brut sans année and a vintage from their holdings, generally using similar methods to what the grandes marques were using in the winery. There are plenty of very fine smaller producers who still essentially stick to this model, making excellent wines for what has generally been a more modest tariff than the big brands.

What really took off in the 1980s and 1990s, however, and even a little bit earlier in Avize, and which is also generally included under the “grower Champagne” rubric, is a new vision of what Champagne could be, stimulated above all by contact with Burgundy (Selosse was also heavily influenced by his time in Spain). More artisanal winemaking techniques (barrel fermentation, retaining more lees, no centrifuging and less filtering, etc) and a more terroir driven approach (first simply parcel by parcel vinification, then ultimately lieu-dit bottlings), and more attentive viticulture (a vigneron mentality as opposed to a productivity-driven mentality) are really the key themes here. Themes that have today been adopted by plenty of smaller but previously more conventional growers, as well as by several of the big houses. I have made the arguments in favor of this account of Champagne’s recent history here: Robert Parker Wine Advocate. Producers influenced by this movement are really doing something quite different from the vast majority of grower-bottlers.

While I am very sympathetic to Champagne’s Burgundian turn, as I sometimes call it, it’s important to recognize that both represent important aspects of region’s history. Going back to the Middle Ages, Champagne had a monastic-derived tradition of terroir viticulture—which, via the stimulus of Burgundy, is being rediscovered today. But equally, since its conception as a sparkling wine, Champagne has been about blends, marques and house styles. So it isn’t a question of authentic vs less-authentic, but of two really quite distinct philosophies coexisting in the same large region.

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I am really excited about Coteaux Champenois. 10+ years ago these were extremely rare, expensive curiosities. Now with Burgundy prices where they are they actually seem like bargains and they are unique in their own way. Particularly the whites. I have noticed them showing up more on a few lists in NYC.

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As was Burgundy for the maisons - so essentially all the wine that was bottled - pre the 1919 law establishing Appellation d’Origine…

Expensive? I think that might be more of a US thing, as at least I remember Coteaux Champenois being dirt cheap this side of the pond back then, basically because nobody wanted to buy them - from the wines I saw, Bollinger’s Côte aux Enfants was the exception that proved the rule. Curiosities yes, but expensive? No, not really.

Only now in the past few years I’ve started to see more and more of those expensive Coteaux and even wines that were affordable back then seemed to have become more pricey by the year. The only thing that has provided enough inexpensive Coteaux is that as the vintages have become warmer and warmer, more producers seem to be making some Coteaux Champenoises as well - the grapes get ripe enough so that the Coteaux wines actually taste like white or red wine, not just flat Champagne. Most of these new Coteaux Champenoises with no track record seem to be pretty reasonably priced.

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Here is what I vaguely remember from 10-15 years ago. It was an extremely niche category and the ones you did see where in the $50-80 range. This was a time when you could get excellent Village level wines from top producers for $40-60 and Premier Cru from around $75. Now some of those same village and premier are $300+. Yet I recently bought an excellent Eitenne Calsac “Photogramme” Coteaux Champenois Blanc for $80.

I have seen some crazy prices on other producers like Emilien Feneuil .

I’m really intrigued by this new generation. I adore champagne but often find a lot of the things I try just seem kind of generic. Ones I love (Bouchard, Vilmart e.g.) are getting pricier so I’m on the lookout for new, distinctive and affordable producers. I hope folks will share ideas about those that are both worth trying and findable in the US.

Of course coexisting in the many of the same large houses who are of course experts at both blending and single vineyard wines. :wink:

For all that, the largest producer of single vineyard wines in Champagne is still Ulysse Collin.

I’m very interested in the “new wave” (whatever we want to call it), but I have some reservations. Of those I’ve tried, many have seemed dogmatic about low/no dosage and very low SO2, often with none at disgorgement. I have found many wines that, to me, are overly lean and a bit oxidative, not in a good way. I even get a bit of ethyl acetate more often than I’d like (I am extremely sensitive). I would love suggestions that I might like, based on what I’m saying I don’t like. I should point out that I love some low/no dosage Champagnes, but they need to seem ripe to feel balanced to me. Notable successes here are Pierre Gimmonet, Egly-Ouriet, and of course, Cedric Bouchard.

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Not surprising, given where he’s located (though we’re all fortunate for it!).

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I’m with you, as we’ve discussed. I recall being at a Champagne dinner at Racines, so this must be 5 years ago, when the last flight (or two) were Coteaux, and the pricing on them was wild based on what was in the bottle. While Burgundy has certainly outpaced that pricing, I think for producers like Feneuil who make tiny amounts of the Coteaux, the pricing will be extremely high - as it is for Egly. But as Champagne becomes warmer, I can see some of the producers focusing more on it, and I’m certainly more open to trying more - I’ll be in Champagne in a week or so, am curious what they say.

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Coteaux’s are a very difficult subject, and from every producer we sell that makes them, we take 3 or 6 coteauxs just to try, the prices are ridiculous and unsellable to a wider market and are more for specialists than a wide public.

The best red without question is Egly’s but for the price one can get something similair for a fraction of the price in Burgundy or more probably the Jura.

The best white I have tasted was from Dehours. I think a lot of producers use coteaux’s to take the toast notes out of new barrels, in the past they were probably the house wine but now they get sold.
Marie Courtin’s white is also very good, she advises to open two or three days in advance.

Really good reds come from Lahaye, Pouillon and Laherte Frere. Franck Pascal makes a really interesting Coteaux from Meunier called confiance. Benoit Marguet’s coteaux’s are a complete disaster and ridiculously expensive.

The most interesting development with the Coteaux’s is with Oudiette, a really promising producer, there is a rumours that they only want to release coteaux’s this year, I don’t think there will be many takers at their prices.

Apart from Egly two of the best coteaux’s I have tasted was a 2002 Bouzy Rouge from Maurice Veselle and a red coteaux from Ledru fron the 1996 vintage.

Brochet told us, why should he make a coteaux that tastes like a Saint Aubin replicate, when I can make champagne. And Savart, he totally ridicules the idea of coteauxs.

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I think there is an element of sons must symbolically kill their fathers if they are to enter the world and establish their own stories. in the grower champagne world. A lot of the younger generation producers are not so in awe of Selosse and the so called terroir champagne model. When we ask who the biggest influence, it is often Bedel, a totally under appreciated producer, but one who was fundamental in influencing a generation of bio-dynamic prodcuers. I remember a tasting with the Chiquet brothers, and one said, when one sees what Bedel does with the land she has, then there is no such thing as terroir.

Saying this Peter Leim also writes that not every terroir in the Champagne has the capability to bring forth good or great champagnes, this is something I wish some producers would take more to heart.
Expressing the terroir at the bottom, middle and top of a hill has a certian academic or nerdy interest but for me the better champagne is sacrificed.

Bouzy red was the wine of kings, served at the cornation in Reims, but it was the Bordeaux model that made champagne great, making the best blend rather than an expression of terroir. This probably had more to do with the markets champagne was sold to, predominantly the english in the beginning.

I think now we are seeing a symbiose of the two styles Bordeaux and Burgundy and what is perhaps more fascinating is the Jura influence which is to be found in certian producers with a leaning towards more natural wine.

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Tim Stroebel is headed Coteaux only I heard.

My favourite of past year was Casanova’s red. Alexis’ Troissy is much more ‘natural’ but very well received.

They are always going to be for the geeks, but that’s what we all are.

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i had a 15 marguet ambonnay pinot that i found to be exceptional. definitely somewhere between chambolle and jura (11.5%). not amazing value at the suggested price, but not entirely out of line for such quality of pinot. i can see where some of the more natural producers making carbonic reds or ultra lean whites do not propose an enticing value proposition. however, the calsac photogramme is quite reminiscent of bizot’s hcn blancs in my opinion. lassaigne has some interesting still iterations as well. lots to explore in this genre; perhaps one of the few winners of the seemingly recurrent climate patterns. would i recommend paying 1er cru coin for these wines? most likely not. but i am completely fascinated by quite a few of the examples i have sampled.

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that and “elide” are great words I’d never seen. Thanks.

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I knew nothing about these wines. Here’s a decent intro.
https://vineandbubble.com/stories/coteaux-champenois