GROWERS AND SHOWERS!

1. GROWERS AND SHOWERS!

2. Bubbles.  Bubbles are good.  Sparkling wine, even better.  Better still, Champagne.  So, then, what exactly is Grower Champagne?

3. To best answer that, let’s start with a brief bubbly tutorial.  Feel free to skip this part if you’re one of those people who feel obligated to correct the server if they don’t open the Champagne bottle the way you were taught (we know who we are). 

4. All Grower Champagne is Champagne; all Champagne is sparkling wine; all sparkling wine, however, is not Champagne.  To be true Champagne, wine must A) originate from the Champagne region of France, B) contain only the legally approved grape varietals, and C) be produced through the method champenoise, a difficult and scientific way to make wine that includes secondary fermentation, bottle racking, and an inordinate amount of lab geek stuff well beyond the normal wine geek stuff.

5. Legalities aside (my motto, you can’t have it!), Champagne has a status edge over all other sparkling wines, and for once a blindly accepted reputation is well-earned.  Certain other parts of the globe (Oregon, Italy, Spain, especially Austria) are making quality strides, but it’s tough to rival Champagne. 

6. The vast majority of Champagne production (over 80%) falls to negociants – those who buy grapes others have grown.  Small and large companies alike that do so follow such strict guidelines that they produce uniformly consistent sparkling wines of excellent quality.

7. Grower Champagne differs in that the people who own the vineyards and grow the actual grapes also produce the wine and take it to market.  While it’s a small amount of overall Champagne production, it’s a category growing in size, stature and public opinion. 

8. Or at least privately held public opinion.  Grower Champagne retains the elegance, balance, vivacity and joy generally associated with Champagne, but adds a level of deep soul to the process.  More grip, more gravitas, more juice to the juice.

10. Valerie Masten, National Sales Manager for Michael Skurnik Imports, has the good fortune to represent the Grower Champagnes from the Terry Theise portfolio.  Consequently, when she hosts a Grower Champagne tasting symposium, flacks flock from miles around…sometimes, even other Winemakers interrupt harvest activities to attend!  At just such a recent affair, Valerie shared several new releases, multiple astute observations, and palpable excitement equal to many of the Champagnes she shared.

11. Observation #1) In Champagne, growers are paid by tonnage, and with younger vines showing more vigor of volume, old vine (vieillesvignes en Française) selections are quite rare.

13. Jean Milan primarily utilizes chardonnay vines that are 70+ years of age.  Combined with the soil of the Ogerviticultural zone (heavy chalk, low PH), the wines display bracing acidity, extensive minerality, and, in my own personal experience, a marked propensity for diverse complexity with extended bottle age. 

14. Another producer with a cadre of older vines, Marc Hébrart, happens to also be Valerie’s favorite.  Guess what?  She chose well.  The standard non-vintage Hébrart is comprised of 80% pinot noir and 20% chardonnay, which creates a dramatic tension of red fruit versus white chalk that Val finds “electrifying”.

15. Observation #2) The Ampelos Charter is gaining traction with Grower Champagne.  At its essence, the trend toward sustainable / organic / biodynamic methods for grapegrowing and winemaking is a definitive force in virtually every wine region on the planet, Old World and New World alike.  In Champagne, a region known for conformity of ‘House Style’ that’s consistently dependable and more about science than art, such an individualistic bent seems quite counter-intuitive in general, yet plays directly to the strengths of Grower Champagne.

17. René Geoffroy is an effusive proponent of Ampelos principles.  His meticulous attention to detail includes the use of a rare Coquard wine press, in turn resulting in delicate Champagne of cerebral expression and hot-wire energy.  Another strong Ampelos enthusiast is Cedric Moussé, whose winery is 100% geothermal energy-driven, featuring underground springs and solar powered equipment.  The non-vintage Mousséblanc de noirs is entirely from red grapes (85% pinot meunier, 15% pinot noir), and it’s a gusher, full of beautiful berries and compelling complexity (not to mention fabulously frothy mousse) (come on, you didn’t see that coming?).

18. Observation #3) Champagne was all about pinot noir and chardonnay, with pinot meunier playing a supporting role, for seemingly centuries, until recently.  Certain Grower Champagnes have reverted to ancient history and revived the inclusion of other legally allowed but rarely seen varietals, including petit meslier, arbanne and fromenteau. 

20. Twin brothers Pierre and Philippe Aubry are the most prolific practitioners of this micro-trend, farming over a third of all the Champagne acreage of these obscure varietals (as well as always including pinot meunier in their end blends).  The unique singularity of the AubryChampagne lineup is remarkable – intense, intriguing, exhilarating. 

21. Their revolutionary approach pays off with sparklers that put the AMP in Champagne (but, conversely, they leave out the PAIN; while availing oneself of a bottle of Aubry is not an inexpensive endeavor, they could easily triple their prices and no one would blink) (or maybe they’d blink, but then they’d taste, and then they’d do some rapid-fire eye-twitching when comparing it to a whole slew of big name negociantChampagnes charging a good deal more and delivering a great deal less) (which, technically speaking, is the polar opposite of a great deal).

22. All Grower Champagnes can be identified by the initials RM on the bottle, signifying Récoltant-Manipulant (essentially Grower Produced).  My suggestion?  Not to burst your bubble, but Champagne isn’t only for celebration, it’s what’s for dinner – and lunch, and brunch, and happy hour – and I say, next time you pop that cork, go Grower.      

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