TASTING NOTES “ Mark These small growers have control over their own grapes, will know each vine intimately, and will pick at optimum maturity for their own product Savage of Savage Selection between the vignerons who are responding correctly, and those who are not. It is the most sensitive vigneron who are making the best wines. And these are often the small growers.” Indeed, according to wine merchant Mark Savage of Savage Selection – one of the few specialists in grower champagnes – the grower market is now at the stage where it’s finding more widespread acceptance, while the dominance of the grandes marques and their centuries of tradition is less certain. For one, attitudes have changed. While they may be a minority, Savage argues that there are increasing numbers of people “who aren’t obsessed with the grandes marques, who recognise that these big names have huge marketing power – the strongest in the entire wine industry – but that maintaining that requires drinkers to pay a hefty premium”. Standards have improved massively too. If grower champagnes had little hope of matching the grandes marques’ quality 50 years ago, says Savage, more recent years have seen improved insights as to which of them have the skills, vines, and location to compete, and the building of a reassuring track record of impressive champagnes to boot. “What’s more,” he says, “these small growers have control over their own grapes, will know each vine intimately, and will pick at optimum maturity for their own product. There isn’t the same incentive to take the same care if you’re just selling your grapes on to a grande marque.” Thirdly, grower champagnes are changing our ideas about what champagne is or should be. “Those few titanic grandes marques and their uniform cuvées have trained consumers to expect consistency in champagne styles. But this has only ever given us a binary view into a region that holds such wealth and diversity of terroir, style, winemaking talent and philosophy,” explains Zyw. “But now many small producers, often the younger generations, are not renewing contracts to sell grapes to the larger houses, and instead are looking to articulate their own VALENTIN PACAUT / THE EXPLORERS 76 NetJets
ALL IN THE PROCESS Testing time at Champagne Philipponnat; facing page: among the vines at Champagne Marguet vineyards, in a way we would associate with, say, Burgundy. I think the Champagne region is at the cusp of climatic, cultural and commercial change, and there’s really never been a more exciting time for champagne enthusiasts.” This, however, isn’t to say that grower champagnes are exactly set to take over. It can be hard to cut through the hype. Some argue that they are still more a product of excitable overexuberance, driven by farm-to-table restaurants keen to offer ever more discerning diners wine lists of specific Champagne regions and styles. Likewise, grower champagnes have proven a boon to independent wine retailers, competing with the market forces of much larger retailers, in providing them with a more accessibly priced product that allows them to stand apart. And, as Alan Marginean of the International Sommeliers Union notes, grower champagnes are not without controversy in the wine world where it counts – in the taste. Some feel that their “racy acidity, with lots of mouthfeel” makes them a perfect accompaniment to many foods, one way in which sommeliers might convince diners to explore a singular champagne from a house they’ve likely never heard of. “But perhaps they are less good on their own, because they lack the ageing balance and the richness [of grandes marques champagnes],” he says. “Champagne has always struggled to find a market outside of celebrations and high-end restaurants. So even if awareness of grower wines is increasing, they’re going to be more for the wine geeks.” Indeed, these grower champagnes account for between just five and 10% of exports, according to Comité Champagne. Just 5,000 of the estimated 19,000 independent growers across the Champagne region hold back some of their grapes – often from the best parcels of land – to produce their own wine, and then often only for local consumption. As far as the geeks go, the ones driving demand for grower champagnes, this is still very much a matter of caveat emptor – since, even with improved knowledge of what the market offers, both the thrill and the potential disappointment of grower champagnes is their very inconsistency and idiosyncrasy. That’s less an issue plumping for the never-tobe-repeated drinking experience of a bottle recommended by a sommelier. It’s trickier when you want to buy several. Shifts from the transcendent to the terrible in the same case might be expected. Think of grower champagnes, then, as independent films, relative to Hollywood blockbusters: always interesting if not always successful compared to the dependable if rarely surprising. MICHAËL BOUDOT Scale and historical background help to build stock levels and reserve wine levels that enable production of higher quality champagne over a longer period of time. The producer is less reliant on the quality of individual harvests. And it is true that some people’s interest is limited if they know they can enjoy a great bottle but never reorder it. If grower champagnes are a concept people love to like, then there is always reality. You can be a very small producer and make something terrible as much as the opposite can be true. People advanced in their wine knowledge are interested in grower wines but it’s important to take a balanced view. People want to find those golden nuggets – but there remain very few of those around. NetJets 77
