Nicolas Feuillatte seeks the perfect champagne pairing

Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2026. Part of this year’s anniversary celebrations was the second edition of ‘La Battle des chefs’. In this cooking competition, first held in 2024, mixed international teams of chefs compete against one another on a shared challenge. The two-day event included a tour of the cellars, an oenology workshop and, of course, extensive tastings. Sur-la-pointe was also invited – not simply as a journalist, but also as a member of a cooking team. So not only did I get to visit the champagne house’s cellars in Chouilly for the first time, but I also made my debut as a ‘commis’, or kitchen assistant.

History

Nicolas Feuillatte was born out of the vision of the young socialist Henri Macquart, who had played a leading role in the newly founded umbrella organisation for Champagne producers in the 1940s. In the 1960s, Macquart became president of the Federation of Champagne Cooperatives (Fédération des Coopératives Champenoises), the number of which had grown to over 100 and which, by 1964, were already marketing 36 per cent of the appellation’s harvest themselves. Macquart realised “that the day was not far off when the co-operatives would gain access to the truly major distribution channels, which were open only to the very large production units”. In 1972, he took action and founded the Centre Vinicole de la Champagne (CVC), a federation of co-operatives which soon afterwards began producing its first cuvées not only for merchant houses but also under its own name. Macquart had solved the problem of scale, but the problem of image remained. That was when he met a man who was nothing less than the exact antithesis of a ‘co-operative member’: Nicolas Feuillatte.

A friend of Jackie Kennedy, he had made his fortune trading African coffee in the USA. He returned to France in 1972 after acquiring, together with his brother, a 12-hectare vineyard near Reims, where he intended to produce champagne. This proved to be a failure. And following a meeting with Macquart, he sold the company and the Nicolas Feuillatte brand in 1976. The CVC then began marketing its own production under this name. The strategy paid off: Feuillatte focused on ‘democratic’ distribution through supermarkets and spread the message of ‘Champagne for every occasion’. Today, Terroirs & Vignerons de Champagne (TEVC) – as the group has been known since 2022 – remains undeterred in its pursuit of expansion. Since 2019, Maison Henri Abelé, Champagne de Castelnau and Champagne Henriot have joined Nicolas Feuillatte. Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte is the market leader in France and ranks among the top three in the world. Cellar master Guillaume Roffiaen joined Feuillatte from Drappier in 2014.

The winery in Chouilly

TEVC, with its core brand Nicolas Feuillatte, is a company of superlatives. It comprises 82 individual cooperatives with some 6,000 winegrowers, and the area under cultivation totals 2,250 hectares. The enormous diversity of vineyards, some of which are in exquisite locations, forms the basis for the house’s great potential. “We are younger than the Grandes Marques,” notes Guillaume Roffiaen, “but thanks to our strengths in grape sourcing, we are in a position to compete with them.” In 2017, a massive, fully automated production centre, complete with a visitor centre, was inaugurated in Chouilly on the Côte des Blancs. This deliberate departure from the cellar-and-catacombs aesthetic of the classic brands baffles some Champagne enthusiasts from abroad. The tech-savvy French, however, were delighted. Today, Roffiaen and his eight oenologists produce a good 7 million bottles under the Nicolas Feuillatte label, which are exported to over 80 countries. More than double that amount is produced as ‘Champagne-as-a-Service’ for the brand’s own members, tailored to their specific requirements.

Of course, scale also implies a certain degree of standardisation. Many of the 436 large stainless-steel fermentation tanks hold between 1,600 and 2,000 hectolitres. Six enormous blending tanks can each hold the equivalent of half a million bottles. They enable the production of Feuillatte’s flagship, the Cuvée Réserve Exclusive Brut, which accounts for a good 80 per cent of the house’s total output. But that is only one side of Nicolas Feuillatte. The other comprises the more specialised cuvées, in particular the vintages and the Prestige Cuvée Palmes d’Or. For instance, there are still champagnes from the 1999 vintage in the cellar, whose bottle fermentation has not yet been completed. Fundamentally, whilst remaining committed to freshness and elegance, the house places great importance on accessibility – which is often achieved through a high proportion of Pinot Meunier. In recent years, chef de cave Guillaume Roffiaen has been working to streamline the portfolio somewhat, reduce the proportion of Meunier and produce wines with greater ageing potential.

The champagnes

With Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, it’s worth investing a few euros more. For example, it’s worth making the leap from the entry-level Réserve Exclusive Brut to the Premier Cru Extra-Brut. This contains more Chardonnay in the blend and offers astonishing value for money. Nicolas Feuillatte is also one of the few major producers to have an organic cuvée in its range. With a good 95 per cent Pinot Noir (+5 per cent Chardonnay), the (rather distinctive) Organic Extra-Brut is almost a Blanc de Noirs. Above this are the two vintages: a Blanc de Blancs and a Blanc de Noirs. I had already written about the 2015 vintage – which was also featured at the ‘Battle des chefs’ – back in 2025 (here). At the gala dinner that followed, the menu included, amongst other things, the highly remarkable 2016 Blanc de Noirs. Its grapes come entirely from Grands Crus in the Montagne de Reims, from the northern communes of Verzy and Verzenay as well as the more southerly Bouzy and Aÿ.

And then, of course, there is the Prestige Cuvée Palmes d’Or. The name does not refer to the Cannes Film Festival, but is Nicolas Feuillatte’s tribute to an opera diva who played a significant role in his life. The cuvée, made from equal proportions of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes from the finest vineyards, is aged on the lees for at least nine years. As cellar master Roffiaen explained in a joint online tasting in 2025, the aim of this cuvée is to harmonise the distinct personalities of the respective red and white grapes. This is achieved through Chardonnays from Montgueux in the south of Champagne, where soils similar to those in Sancerre predominate. These account for 7 per cent of the 50 per cent Chardonnay blend. And then, of course, alongside the Rosé Intense, there is the Chronothèque range. As I hadn’t yet seen the cellar, I was unable to take part in the parallel mini-vertical tasting of the 1999, 2000 and 2002 vintages. At the end of the dinner, however, a 2000 was opened from a magnum – displaying impressive autolytic complexity and freshness.

La Battle des chefs

Since the first edition of its ‘La Battle des chefs’ event series, Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte has been at the forefront of houses striving to pair champagne with food. This year, the event was themed ‘Fusion’, and accordingly, five mixed international teams of four competed for the ‘Grand Prix’. Specifically: two chefs, one sous-chef and one commis from France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Malta – with some of the commis being journalists (such as myself) or influencers. There were five options to choose from. Alongside “Bangkok|Copenhagen”, “Bordeaux|Abidjan”, “Seoul|Rome” and “Reims|Barcelona”, there was also “Hamburg|La Valetta”. My team (Chef Daniel Desavie and sous-chef Benjamin from Restaurant Desavie in Valbonne, as well as Chef Jean Luc Petermann from Restaurant Wullenwever in Lübeck and myself) had selected the latter as the winner of a previous ‘Escape Game’. There were also guidelines regarding the choice of specific ingredients and cooking techniques – we sourced all the components of the menu from a nearby food station.

Three hours to prepare two courses – that was the brief, while individual team members were repeatedly singled out for special challenges, such as sensory testing. The jury was hand-picked: alongside members of the Bocuse d’Or chefs’ association – highly regarded in France – were, for example, the two-star chef Philippe Mille from Reims and the journalist Philippe Toinard, who works for Gault Millau France. We opted for a ‘smoked salmon hamburger rose’ and a reinterpretation of the Maltese national dish, Stuffat tal-Fenek. No easy task, given the language barriers and the intense heat in the (well-equipped) open-air cooking stations. This made our delight at coming second all the greater! For the champagne selection, I chose, amongst others, the very wine-like Palmes d’Or Rosé Intense 2006, which we also used for the ragout. This earned us the special prize ‘Prix de l’accord met et champagne’, awarded for the best champagne pairing with the menu. A spectacular gala dinner at the Château de Sacy finally brought a magnificent two-day event to a close.