Want to pop the cork and revel with some bubbly?  It couldn’t be easier to do.  The Champenois (a.k.a. people from Champagne) are slaking the world’s thrist for ‘real’ champagne by happily producing high-volumes of reliably consistent, non-vintage bubbly, year in and year out. 

Thanks to global brand marketing it’s easy than ever to find a familiar-looking label.  Take your pick from big name brand champagnes, or Grands Marques as the French say, that line your grocer’s shelves.   From Moët and Mumm to Henroit, Heidseick and Veuve Cliquot, there is bound to be a label that you’ve tried, or that you feel confident about purchasing.

But what about that champagne label that isn’t so familiar and seems to be priced below the well-known brands? It must be second tier wine from second rate Domain, right?

Not exactly.

Those unfamiliar labels may well be what are called, “grower champagnes.” To sum them up in one sentence, grower champagnes are artisanal wines made in mom & pop type-style vineyards where the same people who grow the grapes also make and bottle the wine.



Facts to consider

Most of the grapes in Champagne are grown by 19,000 independent small-scale vignerons in the Champagne region. The big champagne houses, négoçiants and cooperatives (over 260 of them) that collectively own 12% of the vineyards, grow the rest of the grapes. Yet the big houses account for 80% of the total output in Champagne (and 97% of exports)! No wonder that is all that you can find on store shelves!

Here’s another figure. A typical grower usually tend to two hectares of vineyards and if the grapes are not sold they can produce around15,000 bottles. In comparison, Moët & Chandon’s production alone is estimated at 24,000,000 bottles. The math is pretty simple; grower-producer champages comprise a mere fraction of the total champagne market.

From this we can surmise that grower champagnes are boutique. More importantly though the grower wines reflect terroir, that all-important ingredient in fine wine that can only be derived from specific parcels of land. This is because unlike the big houses, the growers’ approach to production is necessarily unique to their specific terroir. Big houses blend grapes from lots of different parcels and different vineyards to make a base wine that will achieve a house style and taste that is consistent year in and year out, regardless of vintage. Growers blend too, only they are blending base wines from current and previous vintages from the very same vineyard parcels each year. Using fruit from the same vines adds a vineyard site ‘typicity’ to their champagnes.

Don’t get me wrong though. I would not turn my nose up at a vintage Moët or an aged Perrier-Jouët or many other big house Champagnes. These Domaines have the ability to turn out some of the best Champagnes – after all they have the pick of the crop each year and huge cellars to cellar and vintage their wines (a significant process in the making of fine Champagnes).

Why buy grower Champagne then? The reason is simple…it’s boutique stuff! These champagnes are rare and people can’t help but sit up and take notice when you uncork them, especially at parties where everyone is jaded with the NV bubbly of the Grands Marques houses. Moreover it’s not the fact that the label is different, it’s the fact that the bubbly inside the bottle is different that makes them boutique.

There’s also another really good reason to buy grower Champagnes…they’re affordable. Because the growers don’t have huge marketing budgets like the big houses and brands do, their champagne is often less expensive and a really good deal, especially champagne from a grower in a top-rated Grand Cru village.

How to identify a grower Champagne: Read the fine print!

Most of the big, well-known brands of Champagne carry in fine print, a N.M. or ‘Negociant Manipulant’ marking on the label which means it was made by a ‘blender with grapes purchased from other producers (growers and cooperatives). However, mass-market producers also carry this marking. Hence, quality ranges from excellent to mediocre if you are just using fine print to choose your wines here.

The key to spotting a grower-Champagnes is to look for the letters R.M. on the label. This means récoltant-manipulant, which translates loosely to "grower maker." It identifies a Champagne that is made (vinified) by a producer who actually grew the grapes rather than one who just blended grapes from elsewhere. But don’t confuse it with Marque d'Acheteur (MA) or Buyer's Own Brand (BOB). The producer’s name appears on the bottle but the Brand name belongs to a client (wholesale buyer, supermarket, restaurant, etc). Need we say more?

A few more pointers...

Small is beautiful – Market statistics as of a few years ago indicate that there are over 3,700 brands of grower Champagnes available for purchase within France. Some small growers produce inferior stuff that is thin and acidic, but certainly not all. The small production runs of the best growers allow them to devote that much more attention to each bottle. For the wine collector who likes to discover unknow treasures the fun has just begun.

Small grower Champagnes make for interesting drinking because they often reflect the basic styles of the five Champagne growing areas of Montagne de Reims (good for smooth Pinot Noir based Champagne), L’Aube (good for full bodied Champagne from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier), Valley Marne (good for easy drinking Champagne), Côte de Blancs (good for creamy yet delicate and silky Chardonnay based Champagne) and Côte de Sèzanne (good for fruity Chardonnay based Champagnes). For the aficionado it is also amusing to compare the subtle differences of wine made from the various villages.

Not only that, there are 300-odd villages in Champagne with many wines coming from them considered Grand Crus or Premier Crus (top quality). So amongst the band of small growers that have not sold their wines to the Grandes Marques houses, you will find individualistic, and interesting champagnes, some may even be single vineyard wines.

Please note that grower Champagnes are often released younger than their large house counterparts due, in part, to the greater financial resources that would be needed for long term aging and storage. To truly enjoy, be prepared to put them away for at least a couple of years …(say the English who like their Champagnes on the side of mature) but there’s nothing stopping you from popping the bottle and enjoying them young as the French are fond of doing.

Some growers, a few cooperatives and medium sized producer labels to be on the look out for are Abelle, Bagnost, Bardoux, Barnaut, Baron Albert, Beaufort, Bijotat, Bourgeois, Gaston Chiquet, De Sousa, Desbordes-Amiaud, Dumont et fils, Diebolt-Vallois, Forget-Chemin, Gatinois, Henri Giraud, Pierre Gobillard, , Godme, Huguenot-Tassin, R & L Legras, Lilbert, Lang-Biemont, Yves Louvet, Margaine, Marie Demetz, Marguet-Bonnerave, Moutard et Fils, Francois Seconde, Sanger, Jean Velut and Waris Larmandier (Larmandier-Bernier). Most produce around 30,000 bottles per annum and whilst difficult to find, some can be purchased in Singapore. In fact, several are available from The Local Nose….meaning there’s no excuse not to try a few recommended ones!

By Ed Soon - a.k.a. Broad Nose