Champagne

Champagne Brut NV: crisp apple, lemon, brioche - the house style.

The standard bottle: a blend of the three grapes and several years, with fine bubbles, high acidity and a toasty edge. Pick a house you trust or a grower's NV.

The standard bottle: a blend of the three grapes and several years, with fine bubbles, high acidity and a toasty edge. Pick a house you trust or a grower's NV.

Grower or house: the two-letter code tells you who made it.

Big houses buy grapes from across the region and blend for a consistent style you can rely on anywhere. Growers bottle their own vines, usually from one or a few villages, so the wine tastes of a place and a family. Growers often give more character for the money.

Big houses buy grapes from across the region and blend for a consistent style you can rely on anywhere. Growers bottle their own vines, usually from one or a few villages, so the wine tastes of a place and a family. Growers often give more character for the money.

Jambon de Reims + a Brut NV as the aperitif.

Cubes of breaded, herby Reims ham are the local nibble. A crisp NV's acidity and bubbles cut the fat and salt.

Cubes of breaded, herby Reims ham are the local nibble. A crisp NV's acidity and bubbles cut the fat and salt.

Blanc de Blancs = all Chardonnay; Blanc de Noirs = black grapes only.

Blanc de Blancs is pure Chardonnay: lemony, chalky, fine. Blanc de Noirs is white wine from Pinot Noir and/or Meunier: rounder, red-fruited, better with food. Everything else is a blend of the three.

Blanc de Blancs is pure Chardonnay: lemony, chalky, fine. Blanc de Noirs is white wine from Pinot Noir and/or Meunier: rounder, red-fruited, better with food. Everything else is a blend of the three.

Meunier: soft, fruity and early-drinking - the Marne valley's grape.

Long treated as the workhorse, Meunier gives round, apple-and-red-fruit Champagnes. Growers now bottle it alone and show real depth.

Long treated as the workhorse, Meunier gives round, apple-and-red-fruit Champagnes. Growers now bottle it alone and show real depth.

Oysters + Extra Brut or Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs.

Unoaked, light, very fresh Champagne is a textbook oyster partner; low dosage underlines the saltiness.

Unoaked, light, very fresh Champagne is a textbook oyster partner; low dosage underlines the saltiness.

Four zones, three grapes: where it's grown sets the style.

Côte des Blancs south of Épernay is Chardonnay country. The Montagne de Reims and the southern Côte des Bar lean to Pinot Noir. The Vallée de la Marne is Meunier's home. Houses blend across all of them; growers show one.

Côte des Blancs south of Épernay is Chardonnay country. The Montagne de Reims and the southern Côte des Bar lean to Pinot Noir. The Vallée de la Marne is Meunier's home. Houses blend across all of them; growers show one.

A Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs from a Côte des Blancs grower.

Pure Chardonnay from Avize, Cramant or Le Mesnil: elegant now, better in five years.

Pure Chardonnay from Avize, Cramant or Le Mesnil: elegant now, better in five years.

Grand Cru or Premier Cru on Champagne means the village, not the vineyard.

A Champagne may print Grand Cru or Premier Cru only if all its grapes come from villages with that status. It points to well-placed vineyards, but it isn't a stricter recipe - a good grower in an ordinary village can beat a dull Grand Cru.

A Champagne may print Grand Cru or Premier Cru only if all its grapes come from villages with that status. It points to well-placed vineyards, but it isn't a stricter recipe - a good grower in an ordinary village can beat a dull Grand Cru.

Côte des Blancs Blanc de Blancs: pure Chardonnay - chalky, lemony, long-lived.

The slope south of Épernay, around Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, grows the finest Chardonnay. Growers bottle it as Blanc de Blancs, often Grand Cru: taut and saline young, creamy and nutty with age.

The slope south of Épernay, around Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, grows the finest Chardonnay. Growers bottle it as Blanc de Blancs, often Grand Cru: taut and saline young, creamy and nutty with age.

Montagne de Reims Pinot villages: Ambonnay, Bouzy, Aÿ - fuller, red-fruited Champagne.

North and east of Épernay, Pinot Noir gives Champagnes with more body, red-berry fruit and power. Look for Blanc de Noirs and Pinot-led blends from Ambonnay, Bouzy, Verzenay and Aÿ.

North and east of Épernay, Pinot Noir gives Champagnes with more body, red-berry fruit and power. Look for Blanc de Noirs and Pinot-led blends from Ambonnay, Bouzy, Verzenay and Aÿ.

Celebration: a grower's prestige cuvée or a house's vintage.

Les Chétillons or Egly-Ouriet Les Crayères from growers; La Grande Année or Pol Roger Vintage from houses - local high end, not a famous brand's NV.

Les Chétillons or Egly-Ouriet Les Crayères from growers; La Grande Année or Pol Roger Vintage from houses - local high end, not a famous brand's NV.

Côte des Bar (Aube): Pinot Noir country of independent, often organic growers.

Far south near Troyes, on clay-limestone like Chablis, the Aube once sold its grapes to the big houses. Today independent growers - many organic or biodynamic - bottle vivid, fruity Pinot Noir Champagne, often with no dosage.

Far south near Troyes, on clay-limestone like Chablis, the Aube once sold its grapes to the big houses. Today independent growers - many organic or biodynamic - bottle vivid, fruity Pinot Noir Champagne, often with no dosage.

A growing band of organic and biodynamic growers, often low or zero dosage.

Growers such as Egly-Ouriet, Agrapart, Horiot and many Côte des Bar estates farm organically or biodynamically and add little sugar, aiming to show the vineyard.

Growers such as Egly-Ouriet, Agrapart, Horiot and many Côte des Bar estates farm organically or biodynamically and add little sugar, aiming to show the vineyard.

Arbane and Petit Meslier: Champagne's rare, sharp, herbal old grapes.

Two almost-vanished varieties with high acidity and spicy, herbal aromas. A handful of growers bottle them, alone or in field blends - a true local curiosity.

Two almost-vanished varieties with high acidity and spicy, herbal aromas. A handful of growers bottle them, alone or in field blends - a true local curiosity.

Beaumont des Crayères: Mardeuil co-op - Meunier-led Champagne at fair prices.

A small co-operative next to Épernay whose members farm mostly Meunier; a reliable source of well-made, reasonably priced Champagne.

Beaumont des Crayères is a co-operative in Mardeuil, just west of Épernay in the Marne valley. Its roughly 240 member families farm about 80 hectares in many small plots, and the co-op uses only their grapes. Around two-thirds of the vineyards are Meunier, which shapes a soft, fruity, approachable style. Grande Réserve, the main NV, is the everyday bottle and sells at the cellar door for a modest price by Champagne standards; Grand Meunier Extra Brut shows the grape in a drier, sharper form; Fleur de Meunier is a vintage Blanc de Noirs from Meunier; there is also a rosé. Production is capped at a few hundred thousand bottles, and most of it is exported. For a traveler, it's a model of the region's value rule: a good co-op's Champagne beats an anonymous supermarket label at a similar price.

Reserve wines: the old wines blended into NV are a quality secret.

Good producers keep stocks of older wines to blend into each NV. The more and older the reserve, the deeper and more consistent the result.

Non-vintage Champagne is a blend of the latest harvest with wines held back from earlier years. Those reserve wines smooth out a cold or rainy year and add depth - honey, nuts, a rounder texture - that young wine alone can't give. How much a producer keeps, and how old it is, is one of the clearest quality markers inside the NV category, yet it rarely appears on the front label. Some growers run a 'perpetual' reserve that is topped up every year: Pierre Péters in Le Mesnil blends its Cuvée de Réserve from the current harvest plus a reserve stretching back about twenty vintages, which is why an entry-level wine tastes so complete. Bollinger keeps its reserve wines partly in magnums. When you visit, ask 'combien de vins de réserve?' (how much reserve wine?) and how old the oldest is; the answer tells you more than the price list.

Pol Roger: family-run Épernay house - Brut Réserve and Winston Churchill.

A family-controlled Épernay house with a crisp, elegant style; its Brut Réserve is a reliable NV and its Churchill cuvée a classic celebration bottle.

Pol Roger is one of the few big Champagne names still owned and run by the founding family, based in Épernay and producing on a scale that keeps it easy to find. The NV Brut Réserve is the everyday bottle: fresh, finely balanced and dependable on restaurant lists. Above it sit a Brut Vintage, typically around 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, a vintage Blanc de Blancs and a vintage rosé, plus Pure, a zero-dosage NV, and Rich, a sweeter style for dessert. The prestige Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, first released in 1984 and named for the house's most famous customer, is a Pinot-led vintage wine whose exact blend is kept secret. For a celebration in Champagne, a Pol Roger vintage is a sound house choice.

Pierre Péters: Le Mesnil grower - the reference chalky Blanc de Blancs.

A family grower in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger making precise, mineral Blanc de Blancs from Grand Cru villages, with an NV built on a deep perpetual reserve.

The Péters family has made Champagne in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger since 1919; Rodolphe Péters has run the estate since 2008. It farms about 19 hectares in Grand Cru villages of the Côte des Blancs - Le Mesnil, Oger, Avize, Cramant and Chouilly - and makes only Chardonnay. The style is linear and high in acidity, with a tight mineral core: tasting the NV Cuvée de Réserve is like a lesson in chalk. That wine blends the current harvest with a reserve carrying some twenty past vintages, so even the entry bottle has depth. L'Esprit blends several top Mesnil sites; Les Chétillons, a single Mesnil vineyard, is the collector's wine and needs a decade; Le Mont Joly is a newer single-vineyard bottling. The Cuvée de Réserve is a superb grower NV to bring home; Les Chétillons is a grower's prestige cuvée for a celebration.

Egly-Ouriet: Ambonnay grower - powerful, long-aged, Pinot-driven Champagne.

A family grower in Ambonnay making rich, concentrated Champagnes aged for years on their yeast, plus a notable Meunier and a still red.

Francis Egly took over his family's estate in Ambonnay, a Grand Cru village famous for Pinot Noir, in 1980. He farms old, south-facing vines organically and treats Champagne almost like Burgundy: ripe fruit, long aging and wines meant for the table. Most cuvées spend at least four years on the yeast and some far longer, and bottles are pressurised a little lower so the bubbles don't mask the wine. Brut Tradition Grand Cru, about 70% Pinot Noir, is the core wine. Les Vignes de Vrigny, pure Meunier from a Premier Cru village, shows how good that grape can be. Blanc de Noirs Les Crayères, from seventy-year-old vines, is barrel-fermented and aged around six years - a grower's prestige cuvée. Egly also makes a still Coteaux Champenois red from Ambonnay. Expensive and scarce; worth it for anyone who wants Champagne with real weight.

Bollinger: Aÿ house - Pinot-rich, barrel-fermented, toasty and full.

An independent family house in Aÿ whose Pinot Noir-heavy, partly barrel-fermented Champagnes are full, rich and made for the table.

Bollinger has been run by the same family since the late nineteenth century and remains independent. It owns close to 160 hectares, enough for well over half its needs, planted mostly with Pinot Noir around Aÿ. The style is full and toasty: the NV Special Cuvée is about 60% Pinot Noir with older reserve wines, and vintage wines are fermented in small oak barrels. La Grande Année is the vintage wine, also made as a rosé; R.D. is a vintage aged eight years or more on its yeast and disgorged just before release. Vieilles Vignes Françaises, a Blanc de Noirs from two small plots of ungrafted vines, is a rare collector's piece. Dosage is moderate. Bollinger is the house to pick for a meal - roast chicken, mushrooms, mature cheese - and La Grande Année is a classic house-vintage celebration bottle.

Cédric Bouchard: tiny Aube grower - single-plot, zero-dosage Pinot Noir.

A tiny grower in the Côte des Bar making single-plot, single-vintage Blanc de Noirs with no added sugar.

Cédric Bouchard farms just a few hectares around Celles-sur-Ource in the Côte des Bar, almost all Pinot Noir, and bottles named plots separately under the Roses de Jeanne label. His approach is the opposite of a big house: no blending of sites, no dosage, and very small volumes. Les Ursules and Côte de Val Vilaine are Blanc de Noirs from named plots; the wines are pure, vinous and finely textured, closer to a great white wine with bubbles than to a classic toasty Champagne. Volumes are tiny, so they are hard to find even in France. Bouchard is a fine example of how the Aube, long a supplier of grapes to the houses of Reims and Épernay, now has its own grower stars. If you see one on a list in Troyes or Reims at a sane price, treat it as the grower's-prestige celebration bottle.

Rosé des Riceys: a deep, still Pinot Noir rosé from one Aube village area.

One of France's rarest rosés, made only from Pinot Noir in Les Riceys at the southern tip of Champagne. Darker and fuller than most rosé, with gentle tannin; it can age.

Les Riceys, three villages at the southern edge of the Aube close to Burgundy, have their own appellation for a still rosé made only from Pinot Noir. Grapes are macerated for a few days, longer than for pale rosé, so the wine is deeper in colour with cherry, raspberry and herbal fruit, a touch of earth and soft tannin. Young it is fresh; with ten years or more it moves toward dried fruit, mushroom and forest floor. Only around a hundred hectares can qualify and production is tiny - well under a tenth of a percent of Champagne's output. Olivier Horiot is the benchmark, with biodynamic single-parcel cuvées; Morize, Lallement, Gallimard and Vincent Brochet also make it. It works with charcuterie, poultry and mild cheeses, and is a perfect local bottle to bring home precisely because you'll rarely see it abroad.

Local find: a Rosé des Riceys or a Coteaux Champenois still red.

Champagne without bubbles - rare even in France, and the bottle nobody back home will have tried.

Two still wines make the most original souvenirs from Champagne. Rosé des Riceys, from the far south near the Burgundy border, is a deep, savoury Pinot Noir rosé made in tiny quantities; Olivier Horiot's single-parcel En Barmont and En Valingrain are the reference, and Morize and Lallement also make it. Coteaux Champenois covers still reds and whites from the whole region: pale, perfumed Pinot Noir from Bouzy or Ambonnay and taut Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, now taken seriously as summers warm. Both are scarce and some cost as much as a good Champagne, but you can find more modest examples from village growers. Ask in a Reims or Épernay wine shop, or at a grower in Bouzy, Ambonnay or Les Riceys. Serve the reds slightly cool and the rosé with charcuterie or roast poultry.

Grower or house: the two-letter code tells you who made it.

Big houses buy grapes from across the region and blend for a consistent style you can rely on anywhere. Growers bottle their own vines, usually from one or a few villages, so the wine tastes of a place and a family. Growers often give more character for the money.

Big houses buy grapes from across the region and blend for a consistent style you can rely on anywhere. Growers bottle their own vines, usually from one or a few villages, so the wine tastes of a place and a family. Growers often give more character for the money.

In the glass: Houses: consistent, polished house style. Growers: more village character, more variation, often better value.

Four zones, three grapes: where it's grown sets the style.

Côte des Blancs south of Épernay is Chardonnay country. The Montagne de Reims and the southern Côte des Bar lean to Pinot Noir. The Vallée de la Marne is Meunier's home. Houses blend across all of them; growers show one.

Côte des Blancs south of Épernay is Chardonnay country. The Montagne de Reims and the southern Côte des Bar lean to Pinot Noir. The Vallée de la Marne is Meunier's home. Houses blend across all of them; growers show one.

In the glass: Côte des Blancs: lemon, chalk, finesse. Montagne and Côte des Bar: red fruit, body. Marne Meunier: soft, fruity, early-drinking.

Longer on the yeast = more toast, brioche and finer bubbles.

After the second fermentation the wine rests on its dead yeast. A short stay keeps it fruity; years give bread, biscuit and nutty notes and a creamier mousse. Vintage and prestige wines get the longest time.

After the second fermentation the wine rests on its dead yeast. A short stay keeps it fruity; years give bread, biscuit and nutty notes and a creamier mousse. Vintage and prestige wines get the longest time.

In the glass: Brioche, toast, nuttiness; finer, creamier bubbles.

Reserve wines: the old wines blended into NV are a quality secret.

Good producers keep stocks of older wines to blend into each NV. The more and older the reserve, the deeper and more consistent the result.

Non-vintage Champagne is a blend of the latest harvest with wines held back from earlier years. Those reserve wines smooth out a cold or rainy year and add depth - honey, nuts, a rounder texture - that young wine alone can't give. How much a producer keeps, and how old it is, is one of the clearest quality markers inside the NV category, yet it rarely appears on the front label. Some growers run a 'perpetual' reserve that is topped up every year: Pierre Péters in Le Mesnil blends its Cuvée de Réserve from the current harvest plus a reserve stretching back about twenty vintages, which is why an entry-level wine tastes so complete. Bollinger keeps its reserve wines partly in magnums. When you visit, ask 'combien de vins de réserve?' (how much reserve wine?) and how old the oldest is; the answer tells you more than the price list.

In the glass: More depth, roundness and consistency across years.

Dosage decides sweetness: Brut Nature bone-dry, Brut dry, Demi-Sec sweet.

A little sugar added after disgorgement sets the final taste. Most bottles are Brut; Extra Brut and Brut Nature taste sharper and more mineral, Demi-Sec is for dessert. Many growers now use very little.

A little sugar added after disgorgement sets the final taste. Most bottles are Brut; Extra Brut and Brut Nature taste sharper and more mineral, Demi-Sec is for dessert. Many growers now use very little.

In the glass: Lower dosage: tauter, saltier, more transparent. Higher: rounder, softer, sweeter.

Warmer summers are changing Champagne: riper grapes, less sugar, more still wine.

Grapes now ripen more fully, so producers need less dosage and can make serious still wines that once failed in cold years.

Champagne was once barely able to ripen grapes, which is why sugar, blending and the second fermentation mattered so much. Over the past two decades the region has warmed noticeably, and harvests come earlier with riper fruit. Two things follow for the drinker. First, lower dosage: when the base wine is less sharp, a producer can add little or no sugar and still get balance, which is why Extra Brut and Brut Nature cuvées have multiplied, especially among growers such as Agrapart and Cédric Bouchard. Second, still wine: Coteaux Champenois reds and whites, long a curiosity, are now made by houses like Louis Roederer and Charles Heidsieck and growers like Egly-Ouriet, with organic and biodynamic farming adding to the ripeness. The flip side is a risk of losing freshness, which is one reason the old high-acid grapes such as Arbane and Petit Meslier are drawing new interest: a small share adds lift to ripe, warm-year wines. For a visitor it means more styles to taste than ever.

In the glass: Riper base wines, lower dosage, more still wines.

Bubbles from a second fermentation in your very bottle.

Still wine is bottled with yeast and sugar, ferments again, rests on its yeast, then is riddled, disgorged and topped up with the dosage. That's where the fine bubbles and toasty notes come from.

Still wine is bottled with yeast and sugar, ferments again, rests on its yeast, then is riddled, disgorged and topped up with the dosage. That's where the fine bubbles and toasty notes come from.

In the glass: Fine, persistent bubbles; bread and toast from yeast aging.

Blending is the art: villages, grapes and years mixed for a house style.

The chef de cave blends dozens of base wines, plus reserve wines, so each NV tastes the same year after year. Growers blend less and show their own villages.

The chef de cave blends dozens of base wines, plus reserve wines, so each NV tastes the same year after year. Growers blend less and show their own villages.

In the glass: Consistency and balance; less site character than single-village wines.

Oak barrels and long aging give richer, more vinous Champagne.

Some houses and growers ferment base wines in small barrels and age bottles for years. Expect more weight, nutty and toasty depth, and wines that pair with dinner.

Some houses and growers ferment base wines in small barrels and age bottles for years. Expect more weight, nutty and toasty depth, and wines that pair with dinner.

In the glass: Fuller body, nutty and toasty notes, longer aging potential.

A growing band of organic and biodynamic growers, often low or zero dosage.

Growers such as Egly-Ouriet, Agrapart, Horiot and many Côte des Bar estates farm organically or biodynamically and add little sugar, aiming to show the vineyard.

Growers such as Egly-Ouriet, Agrapart, Horiot and many Côte des Bar estates farm organically or biodynamically and add little sugar, aiming to show the vineyard.

In the glass: Tauter, more transparent, saline wines; more vintage variation.