149 champagne producers were listed in the Wine Paris exhibition catalogue – a number that makes it impossible to get a complete overview. So rather than organising as many tastings as possible, the aim was to set priorities. It was important to me to get to the bottom of possible candidates for a later detailed portrait on Sur-la-pointe. Then there are tastings that are only possible at Wine Paris. I skipped houses that I will probably meet at ProWein. Unfortunately, I was already on my way to the airport when Denis Bunner held his spectacular masterclass on five vintages of Champagne Bollinger La Grande Année at the Jéroboam.
1. Champagne Fleur de Miraval ER4
The first tasting already set the bar pretty high: ER4 is the current edition of the ‘Exclusivement Rosé’ project by three partners. PPP stands for Péters-Perrin-Pitt. In other words, the champagne producer Rodolphe Péters in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The Perrin family of winegrowers from the Rhone Valley. And finally, Hollywood star Brad Pitt. I visited the house last year and described it in a portrait (here) on Sur-la-pointe. To summarise briefly: The rosés are not lifestyle sparklers, but highly complex, top-class champagnes. A quarter red wine “de saignée”, a quarter Chardonnay from the current year, a quarter from a “stable reserve” created in 2007. And a final quarter from old vintage champagnes in magnum bottles that are ‘going back into circulation’. The first edition started with base wines from the 2016 vintage. ER4 now contains the harvest from the fantastic 2019 vintage. This is just as noticeable in the champagne as the reserves, which become more complex over time. Wonderful freshness and drinking pleasure, yet multi-layered and long-lasting (95+ P.).
2. Champagne Henriot L’inattendue 2018 Grand Cru
The traditional Maison Henriot has been shaken up in recent years. It has changed hands twice. After a good 200 years in family ownership, the Négociant came into the possession of the Artémis Group of the billionaire Pinault family ( among others Château Latour) in September 2022. In March 2023, however, the house was immediately passed on again to the Terroirs & Vignerons de Champagne group (Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte). The group had recently acquired Abelé and Castelnau and is pursuing a pronounced premiumisation strategy. It is fitting that Alice Tétienne, ex-Champagne Krug, has been working as cheffe de cave at Henriot since 2020.
The house recently presented several new cuvées, such as the very successful Vintage 2015. With the Héméra 2013, which follows on from the 2008, the house is showing that it is focussing on classic, cool vintages for its prestige cuvée. Creamy, complex, with powerful autolytic power, but also a little heavy (93 p.). Surprisingly radiant from the warm 2018 vintage: the new cuvée L’inattendue (the unexpected). It is a reminder that the estate has outstanding Chardonnay vineyards (94 P.).
3. Champagne Lancelot-Pienne Chardonnay Marie Lancelot Grand Cru Cramant Extra-Brut
When a man named Lancelot marries a woman named Perceval, you might think you’ve been transferred to the world of medieval chivalric epics. At the Lancelot-Pienne champagne house, however, the current owner Gilles Lancelot-Pienne actually married Céline Perceval several decades ago. No wonder that some cuvées are named ‘Table Ronde’ (after King Arthur’s Round Table), ‘Perceval’ or ‘La Dame du Lac’ (after Viviane, the foster mother of the knight Lancelot).
Based in Cramant, high above some of the best Chardonnay vineyards in Champagne, the Maison naturally focuses on Blancs de Blancs. As high-quality Pinot Meunier vineyards have also joined the family through marriage, there are also two more fruit-orientated blends in the entry-level range. However, the top of the portfolio is the mono-cru from 55-year-old vines in Cramant, Marie Lancelot, currently from the 2018 vintage. The wine shows no sign of the heat of the vintage. White flowers, apricots and limes on the nose, dense and chalky-salty on the palate, with beautiful length (94+).
4. Champagne Penet-Chardonnet Grand Cru Les Fervins 2011
When talking about Pinot Noir in Champagne, Verzy quickly comes to mind. Less famous than Aӱ, Ambonnay or Bouzy, the commune was only declared a Grand Cru in 1985 (together with Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, among others). But the partially north-facing vineyards in the north-east of the Montagne de Reims are a winner of the climate crisis. They give the Pinot Noirs less power and density than coolness, structure and finesse. No wonder they are a core component of Champagne Roederer’s vintage champagnes.
Of the winegrowers in the village, Penet-Chardonnet is probably the most important. The Penet family has been documented here since the 17th century, champagne has been produced since the 1930s and the house has been called Penet-Chardonnet since 1967. The single-vineyard line of the best lieu-dits, including Les Fervins, Les Épinettes and Les Blanches Voies, form an important part of the portfolio. The Grand Cru Les Fervins 2011 Exra Brut is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. Harvested in the difficult year of 2011, the champagne nevertheless displays aromatic precision, complexity and length, emphasised by an invigorating acidity (thanks to blocked malo) (93 P.).
5. Champagne Franck Bonville Oger Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Les Belles Voyes 2016
Avize, Oger and Mesnil. There is no doubt that we are in the heart of the Côtes des Blancs, with the great single-varietal Chardonnay champagnes. The first vineyards came into the family in 1900. Franck Bonville founded the house named after him in the 1950s. Today it is run by his grandson Olivier, while his nephew Ferdinand Ruelle-Dudel takes care of marketing and sales.
The portfolio is divided into three parts: Two Blancs de Blancs Grands Crus Non-Millésimés are at the base. One is younger, the other (Unisson) with significantly longer bottle fermentation. This is followed by a vintage, currently 2016, a mono-cru from Avize (in excellent form: 94 P.). The Pur line brings together three different mono-cru, Avize, Oger and Mesnil, also vintage champagnes. And then there is the single vineyard Les Belles Voyes from the Grand Cru Oger, also from 2016. This cuvée is exceptionally vinified in Burgundian pièces of 228 litres. Very refined, with aromas of citrus, stone fruit, spices and pastry cream. Creamier and more playful on the palate than the other Bonville wines, but ‘très gourmande’ (95 p.).
6. Champagne Alfred Gratien Cuvée Paradis 2016
I am a great friend of Alfred Gratien’s champagnes. Although the Maison belongs to the German Henkell Group, it follows a very traditional production method. This includes blocking the malolactic, ageing in wood and avoiding mechanical processes as much as possible. The prestige cuvée of the house from Épernay is the Cuvée Paradis. The vintage year has only been mentioned on the label since 2007, although it has always been a vintage.
The latest is the Millésime 2016, which has undergone a label facelift that I’m not particularly happy with. In any case, the champagne from the very good vintage is of proven quality. No longer the ‘Old English style’, as Serena Sutcliffe once called it. But very classic, powerful and sinewy. Certainly a long-distance runner, but currently still in the embryonic stage (94 p.). The Cuvée Paradis Rosé 2008 is much more open, having been given a pink plastic sleeve in the Barbie year 2024 to protect the transparent bottle. Visually, this is not paradise, but hell! Another tasting will follow after a while, perhaps at ProWein.
7. Champagne Georges Vesselle Confidence Bouzy Grand Cru 2012
The Vesselle family can look back on five hundred years of history in Bouzy, arguably the leading Grand Cru commune in the south-east of the Montagne de Reims with Ambonnay. The eponymous founder of the Maison, Georges Veselle, was mayor of Bouzy and also worked as vineyard manager for houses such as Mumm, Perrier-Jouët and Heidsieck Monopole. Today, the house is run by his sons Eric and Bruno and cultivates 18 hectares of its own vineyards, all of which are Bouzy Grand Cru. It also buys the grapes from a further hectare. 90 per cent is made up of the village’s signature grape, Pinot Noir, and the rest is Chardonnay. There is no ageing in wood. Since the 1996 vintage, the estate has been releasing special vintages as the ‘Collection Millésimes’, and since 2008 this cuvée has been called Confidence. The 2012 vintage is still very young, but already shows much of its complexity and finesse despite all its power. A great reflection of what champagnes from Bouzy are capable of.
8. Champagne Paul Goerg Lady 2012
Champagne Paul Goerg presented two new top cuvées. The house, which emerged from the La Goutte d’Or cooperative in Vertus, has been showing remarkable momentum for several years. In 2021, I included it among the ‘100 most important maisons, winegrowers and cooperatives’ in my Champagne book. On Sur-la-pointe, I wrote extensively about their ‘Parcellaires’ (here).
With the Cuvée Solera, the house is now combining its parcel approach with the use of a (still quite young) ‘’permanent reserve‘’. This is powerful and noticeably influenced by the wood; I personally find it lacks a little finesse (91 p.). I was able to taste the house’s prestige champagne, the Cuvée Lady, for the first time – 2012 followed on from 2007 and 2009. This year seems to have gone very well for Paul Goerg, as the 2012 Vintage had already shone with a lot of class. The Cuvée Lady now impresses with a fine, almost luxurious texture (94 p.). Here it is ahead of the Vintage, although it perhaps does not achieve the latter’s salty precision.
9. Champagne Pol Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill 2002 Vinothèque (Magnum)
A lot has also happened at Pol Roger recently. In 2024, the rock of tradition among the great houses in Épernay inaugurated a new production facility, which cost the house 50 million euros. I reported on this for Meininger and Sur-la-pointe (here and here). During my visit with the German distribution partner Véritable last year in June, the house presented its Vinothèque range as a world premiere at the dinner. In addition to the Rosé Vintage 1999, the Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill from the same year was served. At Wine Paris, Pol-Roger CEO Laurent d’Harcourt and Hubert de Billy from the owner family opened a magnum of Winston Churchill Vinothèque 2002: golden yellow in colour, with a lively perlage and a vinous texture. Strongly autolytic in character, with lots of brioche and subtle herbal spice. Very long-lasting on the palate, with lively acidity and fascinating salinity (97+). Even stronger than its predecessor, pure champagne pleasure.
10.Champagne Georges Vesselle Coteaux Champenois Bouzy Rouge 2016
Still wines have a much older history in Champagne than sparkling wines. The Pinots Noirs of the region once competed with the red Burgundies for the favour of kings in France and rich merchants in Flanders. It was not until the 19th century, when the worldwide export of sparkling champagne reached its first peak, that the majority of these wines disappeared. Of the communes where the region’s still wine has survived as Coteaux Champenois, Bouzy is certainly the most famous. Today, it has its own brotherhood and an academy dedicated to Bouzy Rouge. Champagne Georges Vesselle has always produced this wine, at times accounting for a third of total production. There is currently a non-millésimé and a vintage wine. The 2016 that I tasted was an excellent Pinot Noir. Neither too lean (as is occasionally the case) nor too chubby and jammy (like some wines from Aӱ), but full of warmth and structure (91 P.).
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