Grower Champagnes

If there is one quality, one concept that has become sacrosanct in the world of fine wine, it is the hallowed notion of terroir. Within wine’s upper echelons, place is everything, with the top sites of Burgundy and Bordeaux, Piedmont and Priorat venerated by wine lovers the world over.

It is something of an irony, then, that the one region where terroir is barely mentioned – actively suppressed in its top wines, even – is the most glamorous of them all. Champagne. Here, among the wealth of prestige cuvées and grandes marques, the vast majority of wines revolve around expressing a house style, rather than a regional style. Meticulously assembled, produced and presented though they are, the majority of bottlings are volume blends from across the region, often sourced from scores or even hundreds of sites, The idea of them expressing terroir is, by definition, a non-starter.

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As a result, we rarely talk of terroir in Champagne. Instead, the region is most commonly referred to as a single entity, which of course it isn’t. Far from it. Why is the Côte des Blancs so named, after all? Why is the region as a whole split into various grands and premiers crus, themselves so often airbrushed from labels? There are countless spots where certain grape varieties thrive and certain characteristics come to the fore. Yet with the big names dominating the narrative, it is the quality of the assemblage that is more widely heralded. And certainly the skill involved in blending multiple component parts is worthy of acclaim. But as an approach, it is something of an anachronism in today’s terroir-obsessed wine world – one that it’s hard to see being taken up afresh elsewhere.

There is, however, another way. In recent years, the interest in – and demand for – so-called ‘grower’ Champagnes has rocketed. Such wines, made exclusively from a producer’s own grapes rather than bought-in fruit, tend to harness their terroir more vividly as a result. They also allow the producer to showcase its personality, via a more individual style of winemaking (the Champagnes of hipster favourite Jacques Selosse are perhaps the apogee of the concept, via a highly oxidative style that has brought the domaine widespread acclaim, along with a few puzzled faces among purists).

As a result, the new power move at a dinner party is to present a grower Champagne that you’re unlikely to find elsewhere. Being able to talk of the heritage of the producer brings with it an extra kudos that comes from being in the know, and uncovering a lesser-known find at better value, with a better story.

It's a play which French drinkers have been employing for many years. It is perhaps telling that the vast majority of large-volume and grande-marque Champagnes are sold in export markets, whereas the vast majority of grower Champagnes have traditionally been consumed domestically (grower Champagnes are differentiated on the label, incidentally, by way of the initials ‘RM’, standing for ‘Récoltant Manipulant’, rather than ‘NM’ for Négociant Manipulant). With more and more growers now electing to make their own Champagne rather than selling their grapes to larger houses, the availability of such wines is increasing – which is good news for us.

Late last year, we launched a new range of grower Champagnes, spanning seven different producers. For wine director Peter Mitchell MW, it’s a range that perfectly fits the Jeroboams ethos. ‘It reflects what we’re about,’ he says. ‘Smaller, family-owned domaines with a real sense of place and provenance.’ Grower Champagnes – notably those of long-term supplier Georges Vesselle – have been listed in Jeroboams previously, but never in such a broad range. And the new additions bring with them a variety of styles to bear.

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If the top wines of the grandes marques are perfectly polished, pristine and generally hard to fault, the best grower Champagnes tend to offer a bit more character and personality. Some veer to the richer, more oxidative approach made famous by Selosse, and/or employ more low-intervention techniques; many focus on specific terroirs and individual grape varieties. All are generally more ‘vinous’ wines, if that is not a tautology – incorporating a certain body and weight that makes them more than simple fizz.

Part of the reason for this is that many growers age their wines in large oak barrels – something that is often avoided by the big houses (with the notable exception of Krug) since it is hard (and expensive) to manage on a big scale. But with most growers stationed close to, or even living above their cellar, they are on hand to monitor the process, while working on a smaller scale that makes it more manageable and affordable. The result is not so much an oaky flavour, but a certain structure, often allied to a touch of richness and nuttiness in the wines.

Beyond that, it is down to individual preference. The NV bottlings of both Thierry Fournier and Domaine Lagille, for example, are both dominated by Pinot Meunier, and as a result boast that extra weight and poise. The Thierry Fournier NV Reserve, with 80% Pinot Meunier, is not dissimilar to the rich, Pinot-heavy Bollinger house style in that perspective but with added verve; Domaine Lagille’s 100% Meunier NV L’Inattendue is more towards the pure, elegant Laurent-Perrier/Taittinger end of the spectrum.

Other examples are a touch more funky: Paul Clouet’s NV has that structure and classic bruised apple richness that one associates with modish growers; Bereche NV is in the same vein – very vinous, with just a hint of oxidisation but in a good, rather than wacky way; Daniel Moreau’s wines (exclusive to Jeroboams) all come from a 10km radius in the Vallée de la Marne, whose climate alleviates the risk of spring frost and therefore favours Chardonnay, allowing the domaine to make a fine Blanc de Blancs

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Finding the right grower Champagne for you is part of the fun of this category. And if you still occasionally want to fall back on the safety net provided by the ultra-reliable grandes marques, we also have just the thing. Another recent addition to our stellar array of such names is the venerated house Philipponnat. Long a darling of the purists, its various cuvées are all supremely polished, high-class renderings of the classic styles, from Non Dosé (zero dosage) to Blanc de Blancs. Perhaps most excitingly of all, it produces one of the finest, most famous single-vineyard renderings in all Champagne, in its legendary Clos des Goisses. Terroir, it seems, is alive and well after all…

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