France

Champagne

The drink for all occasions. “In victory we deserve it! In defeat we need it!” Sir Winston Churchill.

The days of relying on a few big houses, with massive marketing budgets turning out swill are over. No longer do we have to put up with getting served battery acid with alcohol, bubbles and sugar in it.

Today, the best Champagne comes from houses dedicated to quality in the vineyard and winery. They are becoming better known and getting the recognition they deserve. More importantly, these delicious Champagnes are making their way into our glasses!

Champagne styles that can be drunk through every stage of a celebration and meal, from a crisp aperitif style to rich Blanc de Noirs made from 100% Pinot, complex blends, and, when they get it right, some of the most inspiring Rosé.

The best Champagnes are best drunk from a bigger glass, a little warmer, and, believe it or not typically taste just as good when they’ve lost their bubbles and gone flat!

Try a little salty hard cheese, Percorino or Reggiano Parmigiano work a treat to bring out the flavours.

Most Champagne is made form three grape varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and, Pinot Meunier. On rare and typically special occasions you’ll find Champagnes made with all seven permitted varieties, adding Fromenteau A.K.A Pinot Gris, Abanne, Pinot Blanc, and, Petit Meslier.

Winemakers in Champagne are master blenders. They have an arsenal of options at their disposal, whether it be combining varieties, fruit from different sites and sub-regions, fermenting and maturing base wines in different vessels, particularly old oak barrels, or, using reserve wines made using a solera system across multiple vintages often covering a period of decades.

Equally some of the finest Champagnes are made from single vineyards and vintages.

Like many of the world’s large wine regions there are efforts underway to further define the sub-regions of Champagne. Partly in a push to recognise the quality of sites previously given less recognition.

You can explore the world of Champagne further in the Wine Bites Mag.

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Showing 77 Delicious Wines!

The release of the 2015 saw the Bouzy shift from a Pinot/Chardonnay blend to a 100% Pinot. The 2015 Bouzy Grand Cru is vinous and demonstrative, and more giving than its 2014 predecessor, bursting with aromas of sweet plums, peaches, white flowers, red berries and spices. Medium to full-bodied, layered and textural, with bright acids and a precise, saline finish, it has turned out very nicely. William Kelley
$195
$185ea in any 3+
$175ea in any 6+
Seriously outstanding fizz!
Grand Cru powerhouse! When Champagne has gone flat & is still delicious you know you're onto something good! Grab one of our +5 years in bottle of the same wine, drink one of these at the same time & see how bottle age changes quality fizz! I can feel a When Harry Met Sally Moment coming on! Not a fake one! This is the kind of bubble you propose with! Personality+ The ingredients: 100% Grand Cru Vineyards + 100% Chardonnay + 50% Reserve Wine, 50% barrel aged + 48months on lees + low dosag
$205
$198ea in any 3+
$191ea in any 6+
Seriously outstanding fizz!
Museum Release Cellared for an Extra 5 Years! The perfect way to see how bottle age changes quality fizz! Grab a current release at the same time! Grand Cru powerhouse! When Champagne has gone flat & is still delicious you know you're onto something good! I can feel a When Harry Met Sally Moment coming on! Not a fake one! This is the kind of bubble you propose with! Personality+ The ingredients: 100% Grand Cru Vineyards + 100% Chardonnay + 50% Reserve Wine, 50% barrel aged + 48months o
$210
$200ea in any 3+
$190ea in any 6+

JM Sélèque Solessence MAGNUM (2018) NV

Champagne | Champagne, France

Brut Nature wines by default have nothing to hide behind so the fruit has to do the talking ... JM's is positively SHOUTING! Based on the 2018 vintage and disgorged in November 2020 with two grams per liter dosage, Sélèque's latest NV Extra Brut Solessence is showing very well, bursting with aromas of white flowers, pear, crisp stone fruits and almond paste. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's lively and saline, with a pillowy mousse and chalky grip on the finish. William Kelley
$219
$212ea in any 3+
$205ea in any 6+
The Fabrice Session 🎧 & 🎥 Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Chataignieres’ Extra Brut 2015

Blend | Vallée de la Marne, Champagne

Hanging to do a side by side with Pouillon's Meunier and Prévost's. To excellent makers two different styles! 100% Pinot Meunier from a site in Fesigny.  My Note from the 2012: Like all of Pouillon's wines, this is superb. Fine, delicious, so together with incredible harmony. Not as Oxy as Prévost's, it still has an oxidative note. The core of fruit is there, easily carrying it. Excellent vinosity, pure, fine, long red berry fruits. The texture dances across your palate. Beautifully lay
$230
$220ea in any 3+
$210ea in any 6+

Egly-Ouriet 1er Cru ‘Les Vignes de Bisseuil’ Base 17 NV

Blend | Vallée de la Marne, Bisseuil

Egly easily sits in my list of top 5 Champagne Houses This is only the second release of Egly’s Chardonnay dominant cuvée. It comes from a plot of vines on the south-facing slopes of Bisseuil, a village just to the east of the famous Grand Cru communes of Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. While these villages are more renowned for Pinot Noir, Bisseuil is the only village in the area that has more Chardonnay than Pinot Noir in its vineyards. That’s why the blend here is 70% Chardonnay with 15%
$245
$235ea in any 3+
$225ea in any 6+

Egly-Ouriet 1er Cru ‘Les Vignes de Bisseuil’ Base 18 NV

Blend | Vallée de la Marne, Bisseuil

Egly easily sits in my list of top 5 Champagne Houses This is only the second release of Egly’s Chardonnay dominant cuvée. It comes from a plot of vines on the south-facing slopes of Bisseuil, a village just to the east of the famous Grand Cru communes of Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. While these villages are more renowned for Pinot Noir, Bisseuil is the only village in the area that has more Chardonnay than Pinot Noir in its vineyards. That’s why the blend here is 70% Chardonnay with 15%
Insane flavour!
There's a purity & intensity about this wine that combined with the juicy acid is so so satisfying! The Côte des Blancs is home to all the great Chardonnay vineyards in Champagne. The Grand Cru vineyards are the best of these. When I worked at Legras et Haas, the Grand Cru Chardonnay was exceptional. I was blown away just tasting the juice. The quality of this wine reminds me of that oh so delicious juice! Péters' flagship Champagne is a blend of 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay spanning more than
$250
$240ea in any 3+
$230ea in any 6+
The 2012 vintage is the second to be bottled from la Grande Ruelle by Benoît Marguet and it is outstanding. This is composed entirely of pinot noir and was finished non-dosé and disgorged in September of 2017. The wine is beautiful on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet offering up scents of white peach, patissière, a touch of tangerine, complex soil tones, a touch of hazelnut and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, complex and plenty deep at the core, with fine soi
$250
$240ea in any 3+
$230ea in any 6+
Disgorged in April 2020, the 2015 La Grande Ruelle Grand Cru is lovely, mingling scents of pear and orange oil with hints of honeyed toast. Medium to full-bodied, layered and muscular, it's a concentrated, chiseled wine from vines planted in 1967 on alluvial soils. William Kelley 
$250
$240ea in any 3+
$230ea in any 6+
Fruit from 'Les Crayères' makes its way into some of Champagnes very best wines. It's the source of Egly-Ouriets Blanc de Noir! A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir this year, Marguet's 2015 Ambonnay Grand Cru Les Crayères is showing especially well, mingling aromas of pear and waxy citrus rind with notions of vanilla pod and toasted almonds. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's chiseled and penetrating, with a pearly mousse and a saline, mineral finish. Only two lieux-dits were produc
$250
$240ea in any 3+
$230ea in any 6+
The Fabrice Session 🎧 & 🎥 Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Solera’ 1997-2016 NV II

Blend | Vallée de la Marne, Champagne

When I was making wine at Yarra Yering we used a Solera barrel of Chardonnay in the liqueur d'expedition for the fizz. The depth, length, and, complexity of this wine with those Oxy notes was a great foil to the richness in the base wines. Fascinating to see what happend to wines made of quality fruit when you age them for extended periods in wood.
$250
$240ea in any 3+
$230ea in any 6+
Disgorged June 2023. Complantée comes from a single parcel in Avize that Agrapart co-planted (complantée) with six varieties: Pinot Noir, Meunier, Chardonnay and the heirloom Champagne varieties of Arbane, Petit Meslier and Pinot Blanc. Chardonnay accounts for one-quarter of the blend, with the remainder split equally between the other five varieties. The vines are all in the Fosse vineyard, the same site that gives us the great Vénus cuvée (the name of the specific vineyard parcel w
$254
$247ea in any 3+
$240ea in any 6+
The Fabrice Session 🎧 & 🎥 Inside!

R.Pouillon Reserve Brut MAGNUM NV

Blend | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Avenay-Val-d'Or

The perfect introduction to Pouillon's wines, yet, far from an entry level. The gives you a peak into just how much personality and vitality his wines have. Balancing a hint of oxidative character with delicious fruit with great length and depth. The Reserve Brut represents a little splash of fruit across most of Pouillon's holdings. The blend of Pinot, Meunier and Chardonnay is expertly integrated. Fabrice truly gets élévage. This is an incredibly complex, layered and beautiful Champagne. Suc
$259
$252ea in any 3+
$245ea in any 6+
The Fizz Master at Work!

Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Tradition Base 18 NV

Blend | Verzenay, Ambonnay

Egly easily sits in my list of top 5 Champagne Houses The top end of the Champgne spectrum is often perceived (due to a lot of marketing) to be the Super Cuvées like Dom Perignon and Krug. Don’t get me wrong these are great wines. The thing is when you get the chance and taste the top wines from Grower Champagne houses like Egly-Ouriet you find yourself taking things to an all new level. Their vineyards are immaculate, the fruit comes in with so much intensity you could happily drink the fini
The Fabrice Session 🎧 & 🎥 Inside!

R.Pouillon ‘Les Blanchiens’ Brut Nature 2013

Blend | Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, France

Notes on the 2012: This is superb. So fine and delicious. Such harmony is not common, the Pinot and Chardonnay are playing together beautifully. It has just the right level of oxidative vinosity, so well supported by a core of fruit that has great length and depth. I keep coming back the the harmony, layers of complexity and balance. Will the Pinot seems to be the dominant, as would be expected in the front and mid-palate, the line and length from the Chardonnay and the mineral nature to this
$280
$270ea in any 3+
$260ea in any 6+