Every major wine style sees change in its timeline; as change is the only constant. Here we will talk about the most influential change in modern Champagne era; The rise of grower Champagne and the big boys who have shaped it and are still going strong.
The world of champagne has seen connoisseurs to take the road of Grower Champagnes. Now, while that doesn’t mean that big house Champagnes are not good, it’s just that a seasoned champagne lover gets to have an edge in their choice and gets a liquid that is driven by the winemaker’s character and the terroir. A category that has skyrocketed to fame and has got the artisanal part of Champagne to limelight. It is pretty much like a single origin coffee, artisanal single estate chocolates, farmers market vegetables etc.
So; What is a Grower Champagne?
Grower Champagne is a type Champagne, where the grape is grown, vinified, and aged by a specific grape grower and his/her family. This means that the winemaker cultivates the vineyards, harvests the fruit, and produces the wines with his/her own hands.
Which was an uncommon in Champagne as most of the Champagne houses/ cooperatives, would have set growers, from whom they would purchase the grape to produce their wines. Which is completely opposite to the concept of growers.
What is the difference between Growers and House/ Cooperative Champagnes?
The major difference midst these two categories is simply the fruit, which isn’t that simple at all. Grower Champagne producers literally have their full control and undivided attention on their own vines year-round, meaning that they are the ones regulate cultivation of the land, care taking and harvest.
In a House/Cooperative, these brands aren’t mostly doing the farming at least for their non-vintage production and are relying on external farmers to provide fruit for their use.
In this case unless the house has a very tight relationships with growers that you trust, it’s hard to regulate the quality of the farming practices and finally fruit going into the wines.
Another major difference on the overall experience part is that House/ Cooperative Champagnes producers work with fruit from many different parcels and appellations, so their blends year after year to create a more consistent flavor profile.
In case of Grower Champagne, these farmers are working with the same parcels every year, which are always susceptible to a specific vintage’s climate and weather conditions. This leads to vintage variations and is pretty much the truest indicator of the terroir that vintage.
How do we recognize a Grower Champagne?
We are looking for a specific alphabet code. Every bottle of Champagne is marked with a specific set of letters. In total, there are seven official identifications but 3 main types; denoting fruit origins.
For growers we are looking for; RM - Récoltant Manipulant : This labeling signifies that 95% or more of the fruit within the bottle was estate-grown and not purchased.
The other markers are as below:
NM - Négociant Manipulant : This is the most common labeling of them all, denoting that 94% or more of the fruit was purchased from external growers. Most House Champagnes will show ‘NM’ on the label.
CM - Coopérative Manipulant: One single co-op produced this wine from numerous regional growers’ fruit.
The Pillars Grower Champagne
While there are many producers nowadays in the segment, I will like to mention about the ones that stood out to be on the top of the grower food chain for quality and influence. The ones who established the movement have been influencing others to produce great Champagne..
JACQUES SELOSSE
The complete credit to escalate grower Champagne to sky rocketing fame can be given to Jacques Selosse. The man at helm, is the legendary Anselme Selosse; at times also called the “King of Growers”, a revolutionary residing in the famed Côte des Blancs village of Avize.
Anselme was also awarded, France's top winemaker in all categories by the magazine Gault Millau in 1994; making him the first Champagne maker to get the recognition.
Anselme Selosse
Image credit: callmewine
The Selosse family has been growing grapes or centuries, but the game changed when Jaques Selosse took over the business from his father and became the first in the family to produce and sell their own Champagne in 1959. Even when he started to bottle his own liquid, he was unsure of the success and sold his wine to Champagne Lanson, as there was a great financial security in doing so.
Domaine Jacques Selosse
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Anselme, with his experience of top-quality Burgundian chardonnay, joined his father in 1974 and took over the production from in 1980. Anselme continued to make Champagne like his father and has said at times that he never consumed his wines. It was in 1976, where his altercation of the existing wine created something, he really loved, and as he says, “it was like discovering freedom.”
In the 70’s the fruit going into Champagne were a result of higher yields and a depreciated quality. The lack of quality fruit could be masked by high dosage levels and large additions of reserve wines in the final blends.
Anselme Selosse's focus has always been on getting the highest quality fruit for his champagnes as possible. Within the first six years at the helm of the family domaine, Anselme committed to two radical steps: dramatically reducing yields and farming organically. This was the result of his education in burgundy, apprenticeship under influential Burgundian oenologists; that put his focus to terroir forward wine making.
He encountered difficulties with his family, who started to compare his style to his fathers and predecessors. While he was talking about allowing nature to express itself. The family saw it as lazy wine growing.
On the vineyard part; fortunately, he was blessed with family vineyards in Grand Cru sites in Avize, Cramant and Oger. In the winemaking process, he opted to preserve the character of the fruit by doing only indigenous yeast fermentations and minimizing the use of sulfur. Anselme only uses indigenous yeasts and wooden barrels (of which 20% new) where the wines stay on lees for a couple of months.
Selosse believes: “At the time of vinification, we must add nothing. 100% of the identity and the character of the wine is found in the grape juice; to do too much would be to mask, to mark, to alter.”
Anselme Selosse gets his used barrels from the famous Domaine Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet. All of this completely lines up with his opinion of having a superlative base wine that results to a fantastic Champagne.
Today the family’s credo is: “It is man who perturbs nature the most thus one must refrain from intervening as often as possible”.
While these innovations reflect on the fine quality; what is it that creates the elusive taste profile, which Champagne lovers have started to call “Selossian Style”.
A Solera Type Assembly
At the heart of the production, is a very complex and superlative base wine that is blended via Solera. Anselme, got influenced about solera during his visit to Spain, in the regions of Penedès, Rioja and Andalusia.
The vines are spread out in 54 plots across 8.3 hectares. Grapes from all plots are vinified separately in Burgundy barrels. The proportion of new oak casks remains low to have minimum influence. Fermentation is natural without additives. The juice is not racked, and lees are periodically stirred.
After 8 to 12 months in oak barrels, the wine will continue maturing in casks or vats, with lees, before aging in bottles between 3 and 10 years.
While they have few different champagnes in their list; like Initial: which is a blend of three vintages of Chardonnay grapes aged for at least 2 years before disgorgement.
The Selosse Line up
Image credit: selosse-lesavises.com
Version Originale: A blend of three vintages of Chardonnay but aged longer in bottle (42 months) before disgorgment with minimum sugar in Extra Brut style.
Millésime: A single vintage Blanc de Blancs from the grapes of two vineyards in Avize, Le Mont de Cramant and Les Chantereines.
It’s; Substance: The Crown Prince of Grower Champagnes; above all
Substance declared its supremacy in the grower Champagne world and is one of the most sought-after bottles in the world of champagnes with only 3000 produced each vintage. A single vineyard (Avize parcel) Champagne with 38-year-old vines, a Solera base wine, with blend consisting of wines from 1987 vintage till now.
Selosse utilizes a true solera approach, with two levels of reserve wines (or criaderas), one aged in cask and the other in tank. The youngest vintage accounts for about 22% of the volume and is aged together with the reserve wines rather than blended in at the end. Substance then spends about 6 years in bottle prior to being disgorged and bottled with very low dosage.
If Substance is the Crown Prince; then the Selosse Rosé is the Phantom of the Opera. We know of its presence, rarely seen. A wine so rare that a friend of mine celebrating a special day with his wife at his restaurant found it listed not available at Sellosse’s own restaurant.
In this Grand Cru rosé; Anselme Selosse uses approximately 90% Chardonnay and 10% Vin Rouge produced with Pinot Noir grapes from Verzy and Ambonnay. The grapes are harvested at full ripeness, the bunches are taken to the cellar to ensure that the fermentation of the base wines preserved with the Soleras method with only indigenous yeasts. After the blending of the two varieties, they proceed with the second fermentation in the bottle, resting on the yeasts for at least 6 years with minimal dosage.
Lieux-Dits Collection
Composed of 6 vintages from 6 different plots. This is a jewel box for collectors. An experience to understand the true essence of terroir of 6 different villages, 6 different plots (Lieux-dits), 6 different tastes and nevertheless the same work, the same winemaking and farming techniques.
Lieux-dits :
Les Carelles (le Mesnil-sur-Oger)
Obtained from a vineyard planted with Chardonnay on a chalky hillside facing east and located in the village of Mesnil -sur- Oger. The name of the locality comes from a chalk quarry nearby. This has a subtle toasty edge. Very mineral with pear and a bit of apple. Really vinous. Concentrated flavours here. Pristine, fine, and expressive.
La Côte Faron (Aÿ)
Comes from a pinot noir vineyard, planted on a very steep hillside facing south and located in the commune of Ay. The name of the locality evokes the characteristically steep and sunbathed slopes. It’s the most powerful Pinot Noir; spicier, fruitier and with most reductive notes.
Le bout du clos (Ambonnay)
This comes from a vineyard planted with Pinot Noir (80%) and Chardonnay (20 %) on a gently sloping hillside facing south, located in the commune of Ambonnay . Its powerful and elegant.
Les Chantereines (Avize)
Chantraine is based on Chardonnay, a wine full of charm. Which is birdsong, elegance, charm. Absolutely no power but plenty of depth. It’s like a gentleman that doesn’t boast about how rich he is. You can see it, you can feel it.
Sous le mont (Mareuil-sur-Aÿ)
This is a hillside vineyard; on the southern slopes you have the Clos des Goisses. The presence of magnesium in soil produces the flavors that magnesium produces in sparkling water, which is a kind of elegant bitterness It is serene and can be luminous. It’s not demonstrative or masculine, it is rather feminine.
Chemin de Châlons (Cramant)
It’s an extrovert, cheerful, in a religion it would be a Benedictine rather than a Cistercian. Someone who loves talking and is very often smiling. Someone who is easy to talk to, but that doesn’t mean that they’re simple.
Anselme with son and the next keeper of the domaine, Guillaume Selosse
Image credit: Polaner selections
EGLY-OURIET
Domaine Egly Ouriet
Image credit: bortarsasag
Francis Egly, the rock of Ambonnay. He is to Pinot Nior what, Sellosse is to Chardonnay. Often termed to be the most precise champagne producer from vinerad to cellar. Egly-Ouriet Champagne was established in the 1940’s; when Francis Egly’s grandfather bought 3 hectares of land in Ambonnay and marriage to Madame Ouriet added 9 more hectares of land.
Francis began working with his father (Michel) in the early 1980s and took the reins fully when his father stepped back from the business in the early 1990s, then most of the grapes were sold to negociants. While Francis was the first one to bottle a full vintage, it was his father who had the courage to bottle some percentage of his harvest, making him one of the very first growers.
Francis Egly
Image credit: different drop
Founded with 3 hectares of vines, the Egly-Ouriet house, now stretches across a vineyard of just over 15 hectares on Grand Crus (Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzenay) and a Premier Cru (Vrigny), This is bottled separately in its own Premier Cru cuvée called Les Vignes de Vrigny. The age of the vines goes back to 1947.
Vinification is a major keystone of the signature style of Egly-Ouriet Champagnes. The grapes are harvested at full ripeness, vinified exclusively in barrels for 1 to 5 years. No malolactic fermentation is carried out to preserve the maximum freshness, a low dosage and prolonged ageing sur lie are the keys to these exceptional Champagnes.
Egly Ouriet produces several cuvées, the flagship being the Grand Cru Extra Brut V.P. (Vieillissement Prolongé); a blend of 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, non-vintage Champagne aged on its lees for seven years.
Next in line, Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Brut Les Crayères Vieilles Vignes : It is a 100% Pinot Noir from vines planted in 1946 in the Crayères vineyard in Ambonnay.
It would be incorrect to ignore another great wine from the portfolio:
Egly-Ouriet Les Premices: The Origins of the great house.
Les Premices by Egly-Ouriet is a homage to the first vines planted by the family. This champagne, often crafted from a single vintage, captures the purity and expression of the initial vines. Les Premices is a living testament to Egly-Ouriet's deep-rooted connection to the land and the history that shaped their winemaking journey.
Les Prémices is an equal blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier. The vines are, on average, 40 years old and are rooted in the typical soil of the Massif de Sainte-Thierry. As always, it is made the classic Egly way—old vines, low yields, hand harvesting of fully ripe fruit, long lees aging, no fining or filtration and low dosage.
ULYSSE COLLIN
Domaine Ulysse Collin
Image credit: the finest bubble
Story of Olivier Collin; a vineyard stagiaire, established his own Domaine from family vineyards in Congy and the Coteaux du Petit Morin and became a champion Champagne grower.
Based in Congy, which is in the Coteaux du Sezanne. His family's vines had been rented out to a large Champagne house; he got them back in 2003 and since 2004 he has been making interesting terroir-driven wines of real intensity and depth.
Collin's family had been vineyard farmers since 1812, who were renting out their 8.7 hectares of vineyards to a negociant. Olivier wanted these vineyards back: he felt he could do something special with them. Olivier studied law for eight years before changing his way to wine growing, and in 2001 he completed an 6 month internship at Jacques Sellosse before spreading his own wings in winemaking.
Olivier Collin
Image credit:stanislascollin
Olivier got back the first 4.5 hectares in 2003 (his law education might have helped); it was a difficult season and he had to sell all the grapes. Healthy yields in 2004 meant he could finally start making his own wines. In 2005 he got back the remaining 4.2 hectares.
Olivier started with a minimal investment of €2,500, buying a ploughing machine and a broken tractor. For the first two years the wines were made off-site before he got the cellar back from the rental agreement. He acquired second-hand barrels from Limoux for €50 and didn’t even have a pump to fill them.
He took the knowledge from Sellosse and gave wines his own identity. As with Anselme, everything at Ulysse Collin goes through barrel. The approach here is about working with discrete parcels and then seeking to express these terroirs to the fullest.
Collin started his journey with a plot of Chardonnay named Les Pierrières and made his first bottling from the 2004 harvest. A few of years later, he introduced a Blanc de Noirs made from Pinot Noir grapes from the Les Maillons plot in Barbonne-Fayel.
He believes in minimum intervention but is not a follower of organic winemaking in his vineyards as he is not in favor of using copper. As per Oliveir; the mildew pressure is high in Champagne, and if you use copper, he maintains, then you damage the soil microbes. He also thinks that copper thickens the skins of the grapes and can lead to some bitterness in the wines. Between 20 and 40% of the wines each year are kept back as reserves.
Different from the grower fashion, his wines are non-vintages. Ulysee Collin Champagnes are made as blends of three harvest years. As blending vintages together is as you can limit problems that occur due to variable climate.
Ulysse Collin is known for its “lieu-dit” (single-vineyard) champagnes. They produce 5 single vineyard champagnes from their 4 sites.
Image credit: delikesar.life
Champagne Ulysse Collin Les Pierrières Blanc de Blancs NV: These vines are around 40 years old. The exposure is south-southeast. His first release was 5 400 bottles exclusively from this vineyard. It has passed to 48 months sur lie ageing starting with the 2015.
Champagne Ulysse Collin Blanc de Noirs Les Maillons Extra Brut NV: Pinot Noir from a 6-hectare vineyard called Maillons, which has heavy clay soils over chalk. Ulysee Collin owns 2.5 hectares here, and his vines average 40 years old. Les Maillons" stays 36 months sur lie before release.
Champagne Ulysse Collin Rosé de Saignée Les Maillons Extra Brut NV: Beautiful deep coloured rosé in a frosted bottle. It is a 100% single vineyard Pinot Noir rosé champagne.
Champagne Ulysse Les Roises Blanc de Blanc Extra Brut NV: This is a 0.6 ha plot that makes around 3500 bottles of blanc de blancs a year. Started with 36-48 months of sur lie will move up to 60 months going ahead.
Champagne Ulysse Collin Les Enfers Blanc de Blancs NV: From the neighboring plot of Les Roises ; Les Enfers went from 36 to 48 months sur lie , going ahead it will be released with 60 months of aging.
Champagne Ulysse Collin Le Jardin d`Ulysse : Olivier Collins' first 'deviation' towards multi-variety Champagne. 2015 is the first vintage of this wine, which comes from a 1.55-hectare plot of old vines, planted to all three varieties in Collin's home village of Congy. It is a blend of 50% Pinot noir, 30% Chardonnay and a 20% Pinot Meunier.
The juice was fermented spontaneously and slowly (up to six months) with natural yeasts in mainly-used Burgundy barrels. The wine was bottled unfined, unfiltered and aged sur lattes for 5 years. The wine was disgorged and finished with a minimum dosage (1-2 grams/liter).
ROSES DE JEANNE (CEDRIC BOUCHARD)
One parcel, one variety, one vintage, and zero dosage; is the essence of Roses de Jeanne. The estate is named with homage to his Polish grandmother, Janika.
Cédric Bouchard had a rapid rise to Champagne stardom. After a stint as a sommelier in Paris, he started his winemaking journey in 2000 with a 1.37-hectare, unpromising, north facing parcel of land in Côte des Bar. His high-quality production and champagne quickly earned him a reputation as one of Champagne’s most talented young producers and was in 2008 was awarded the title of Champagne’s finest winemaker by the Gault Millau.
Cédric Bouchard
His approach to unwavering quality starts in the vineyards, where he seeks to maximize quality at every step. He farms organically, restricts yields dramatically (it’s among the lowest in Champagne), the vines have not seen any chemicals for over 10 years, but Cédric is not interested in getting any organic certification. A team of 40 pickers work in his tiny parcel to ensure that every grape is picked at the peak moment.
Bouchard prefers to make a wine style representative of the vintage and place of origin. Rather than following the long-standing norm of blending blending different vineyards and vintages.
Each wine is made only from juice from the first pressing, fermented only with indigenous yeast. Cédric doesn’t prefer Champagnes that are too fizzy; hence he looks for an incredibly low, 4.25 bar of pressure for the secondary fermentation, for which he uses a liqueur de tirage with sweetness of 17g/l and bottle-ages for minimum time on the lees, the Champagnes are already packed with flavours and then bottles with zero dosage.
Old Stockpile in his barn, No kilometers long
Image credit: vinography.com
Bouchard increased his vineyard holdings by combining his father’s 1.37 hectares of vines, with his own assortment of prime parcels. The wine from his father's holdings were originally bottled under the Inflorescence label, since the beginning in 2014 all cuvées have been bottled under the Roses de Jeanne label. Cédric's lineup includes the following wines:
Cédric Bouchard - Roses de Jeanne - RDJ n°1/ n°2: The newest release; It can be deemed as one of the most mysterious champagne in existence. Only a handful of people are aware of what goes into the bottle. most probably only his family. As he says, “Maybe my daughters will tell people one day what these wines are, but I really want people to taste this Champagne with no preconceptions, and just to decide if they like it or not,”.
The Champagne was inspired by Cédric Bouchard's mother-in-law. "She doesn't care what it is, or where it's from; she just tells me if it's good or not, yes or no," he explains. In that spirit, he elected to select his favorite vat in the cellar and to disclose neither its origins nor encépagement (the grape selection of a parcel), so everyone who drinks it will be effectively tasting blind.
The n°1 released in 2022 and the n°2 in 2023. Around 300 bottles are released in a lot.
Image Credit: Magnus (Instagram: Champagne Viking)
Roses de Jeanne Val Vilaine: It is a 100% Pinot Noir from the 1.5-hectare lieu-dit of Val Vilaine. The vineyards that he received as a family hereditary from his father. This is a south-facing parcel in the village of Polisy, planted in 1974. 300-500 cases produced annually.
Roses de Jeanne Cote de Bachelin [La Parcelle] – It is a 100% Pinot Noir from the 1.5 hectare lieu-dit of Côte de Bachelin. Spends a full three years on the lees, and thus, is always bottled as a vintage cuvée. This too was once part of the Inflorescence range but is now Roses de Jeanne. 150 cases produced annually. The Champagne is being discontinued with 2014 as its last vintage.
Roses de Jeanne Les Ursules – Another limited 100% Pinot Noir from the .9-hectare single vineyard of Les Ursules. It’s a relatively flat vineyard just down the road from Bouchard’s cellar, vines are planted in 1974. 250-300 cases produced annually.
Roses de Jeanne La Haute-Lemblée - 100% Chardonnay (five different clones) from the .12 hectare lieu-dit of La Haute Lemblée. Extremely limited and the only Chardonnay based champagne in the portfolio.
Roses de Jeanne Bolorée – How many Pinot Blanc Champagnes are out there and then how many of them are of good quality? . With this champagne he takes Pinot Blanc to its optimum level. Very old and rare Pinot Blanc from a 0.217 hectare lieu-dit known as La Bolorée. He was initially uninterested in the parcel, but it landed in his lap after he drew the short straw in a dual between growers. Today, it is perhaps his most cherished site. The parcel is on pure chalk with Pinot Blanc planted in the 1960’s. Extremely rare find.
Roses de Jeanne Presle : His love of using different clone turns an obsession with this champagne. This is an unusual blanc de noirs from a west-facing parcel of the same name in the village of Celles-sur-Ource. Bouchard owns just 15 rows here, with no less than ten different massal selections of pinot on multiple rootstocks in a 0.25ha vineyard.
Roses de Jeanne Le Creux d’Enfer Rosé – a 100% Pinot Noir from the .07 hectare lieu-dit of Le Creux d'Enfer. Made by the “saignée” method.
Conclusion
Certainly, two decades ago, no one would have imagined that a tiny estate in the Côte des Bar could achieve international recognition as one of Champagne’s greatest. To me Bouchard is Dr. Frankestine of Champagne world; ambitious, intelligent and hardworking: churning one monster of a champagne at a time.
All of these wonderful winemakers are artists who are presenting nature and winemaking; hand in hand one vintage at a time. While they are becoming very hard to find with every vintage; if you are a champagne lover and you see one, these are definitive purchases.
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