RAISE YOUR GLASS: Great Champagne buys for 2020

Champagne is so well known as a symbol of celebration that we can forget it is, above all, a wine produced under special conditions, rich in diversity and singularity. And it’s never been better. For years, Champagne viticulture was oriented more towards high production quantities than haute-couture viticulture with lower volumes. With global warming (see box) and the emergence of cult wine-growers (Selosse, Egly-Ouriet and others), winemaking and viticultural techniques are evolving, and site-specific wines are gaining attention. A sense of place is now highlighted by many winegrowers, as well as by an increasing number of Champagne houses, making Champagne one of France’s most dynamic regions.

That said, it is the ‘house style’ philosophy – the interpretation of the wine-growers or chefs de cave (cellar managers) – that is the soul of Champagne. All Champagnes have their own identities, based on the decisions made about the blend of grapes, the addition of reserve wines, whether to vinify in oak, the level of dosage, the length of ageing... The list goes on.

Champagne houses tend to promote their personal styles as interpreted by their chef de cave using a set framework depending on the year, while the smaller wine-grower will prefer to produce distinct cuvées from a single terroir or a single grape variety. The fascination of Champagne comes from these multiple philosophies, resulting in varied and sometimes completely original wines.

Vintage highlights

Non-vintage Champagnes are, by definition, the expression of a house style. Produced by blending several vintages together, they are unlike vintage Champagnes, in which styles are more dependent on the year’s weather.

The 2013 vintage (rated 4/5 by Decanter), a challenging year in the vineyard, produced beautiful Chardonnay and Pinot Noir thanks to sunny weather during harvest. The 2013 vintage Champagnes are delicious to drink now, and are very different from those of 2012 (5/5), which produced ample, dense and fleshy wines due to low yields. The 2012 vintage Champagnes have good ageing potential.

The 2011 vintage (1/5), which suffered from diseases such as mildew, is evolving well, thanks to the quality of the Chardonnay. The wine-growers