There were plenty of familiar faces among the Maisons and co-operatives – in contrast, the line-up of winemakers was completely different, and perhaps lacked some of the sparkle of the previous year. That, in a nutshell, sums up this year’s Meininger Champagne Fair. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I was only able to attend on Monday, which is why my overview is incomplete. This also applies to the Chef’s Tables, on which I am reporting for Meininger, as I did last year. However, I can only report on Monday’s sessions with the Maisons Bollinger and Roederer. The publisher has already announced that the event will move to Austria in 2027, before returning to Munich in 2028.
In making my selection, I have not included cuvées that Sur-la-pointe has already covered. Good to see that a number of winemakers were also in attendance who have been the subject of detailed profiles published here (Valentin Leflaive, François Sécondé, Alexandre Bonnet, Philippe Gonet). They have confirmed their calibre with their current cuvées – but I have given preference to some ‘new faces’.
1. Champagne Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale Vintage 2018
The only champagne house remaining in Châlons-en-Champagne celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. Stemming from a family with the name Perrier – a name popular in Champagne (Perrier-Jouët, Laurent-Perrier) – the house now belongs to the Thiénot family’s Arvitis Group. A great deal has happened to mark the anniversary. Not only at the historic estate but also with regard to the cuvées. The Cuvée Royale has been around for a very long time, available both as various non-vintage cuvées and as a classic vintage.
The 2018 vintage, with 84 months of bottle ageing, is currently on sale. With 81 per cent Chardonnay and 19 per cent Pinot Noir – and just 2 grams of dosage – the cuvée boasts a rather unusual blend. The provenance is also unusual, particularly for the Chardonnays. Here, the house draws not only on renowned Grands Crus such as Avize and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, but also on Bassuet in the Vitryat region. The champagne displays both citrus and exotic notes. On the palate, it is ripe, yet at the same time pure and elegant (92p.). A house to keep an eye on.
2. Champagne Paul Launois Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut nature Illustration #6
The Launois family are long-established winemakers in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Consequently, the Launois name features in several different champagne houses. The youngest of these is Champagne Paul Launois, run by Julien Launois. Admittedly, he initially followed in the footsteps of his father, Jean-Pierre, who, as a member of the cooperative, also produced a number of champagnes under his own name. Together with his wife Sarah, Julien Launois then produced his first vintage in 2015, in his own premises. Alongside a single-barrel concept, he centres his range particularly around special lines. Pure Blancs de Blancs are ‘Composition’ (from Mesnil and Villeneuve) and ‘Monchrome’ (a single-cru from Mesnil). ‘Contraste’, on the other hand, is a single-varietal Meunier. And ‘Portrait’, as a vintage champagne, bears the year in its name, whilst the other ranges are identified by a hashtag and a sequence number.
Illustration #6, the graphic designed by his wife Sarah, is a non-vintage Grand Cru from Le Mesnil. For this version, one-third of the base wines from 2022 were aged in wood, whilst two-thirds of the reserve wines were. The tirage took place in late June, and the secondary fermentation lasts a good two years. Disgorgement took place in July 2025 without dosage. It is a mature, complex and very vinous champagne from a very hot year, to which the oak lends a considerable amount of creamy smoothness (92p.).
3. Champagne Christian Gosset Aӱ Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs Croix-Courcelles Extra-brut 2020
The name Gosset is, of course, inextricably linked to the history of Champagne. After all, the Aӱ-based Maison, founded by Pierre Gosset in 1584, is the region’s oldest surviving wine merchant. It was, however, sold by the Gosset family to the Cointreu family in 1993 and moved to Épernay in 2009. Hailing from the same family, a branch had founded the House of Gosset-Brabant in Aӱ, which produced its first champagnes in 1930.
Christian Gosset had run this house alongside his brother until 2015, before deciding to strike out on his own. His finest champagnes naturally come from the Grand Cru village of Aÿ. And, unsurprisingly, my favourite is a single-varietal Pinot Noir from a single vineyard. But Christian Gosset also produces remarkable Chardonnay lieu-dits from the commune. The old vines of Croix-Courcelles, at any rate, lie quite far down the slope of Aÿ and border the D1. However, this vineyard is flanked by plots that form the backbone of Roederer’s Cristal Rosé. The wine, from 2020 – another hot year – was vinified in barriques. The result is vinous, complex and quite dense – a fine accompaniment to food (92–93p.).
4. Champagne Bollinger B16 Extra-brut
Bollinger has cleverly positioned its ‘classic’ vintage champagnes under the ‘La Grande Année’ label as prestige cuvées. After all, they have largely remained true to the promise implied in the name: to bottle only truly ‘great’ vintages. However, with its penchant for Pinot Noirs aged in wooden barrels, the house from Aÿ could not resist the temptation to make a few exceptions now and then. Examples include the Limited Edition Vintage Rosé 2006, the 007 Limited Edition Millésime 2011 or the B13 from the 2013 vintage. With the B16, the house has revisited the concept of this special cuvée outside its standard portfolio. Originally conceived as a Grande Année (73 per cent Pinot Noir and 27 per cent Chardonnay), the necessary wines from Bollinger’s flagship village of Aӱ were ultimately lacking in the difficult, mildew-stricken year of 2016. However, the low yield combined with good acidity produced a concentrated, precise champagne, with a pleasantly low dosage of 4 grams per litre – a surprise (93p.)!
5. Champagne Mallol Blanc de Blancs Chouilly Parcellaire Mont Aigu 2014 Extra-brut
One of the most remarkable new discoveries this year was Champagne Mallol from Cramant. This commune on the Côte des Blancs is, alongside Avize, one of the two ‘historic’ Grands Crus. Even Le Mesnil-sur-Oger was only ‘promoted’ from Premier Cru to Grand Cru in 1985. The Mallol house traces its origins back to a business founded in 1981 under the name Mallol-Gantois. Its roots lie in Cramant and Chouilly (the Gantois family) as well as Mareuil-sur-Aÿ (the Mallol family). In 2015, Grégory Mallol took over the business from his parents and relaunched it in 2023 under the name Champagne Mallol. The range now comprises two distinct lines. Firstly, four cuvées under the name Signature Maison. And finally, the two single-varietal Chardonnays from individual Grand Cru vineyards under the name Collection Or Blanc, meaning ‘White Gold’.
The house presented both Les Gouttes d’Or (from Cramant, 2015 vintage) and Mont Aigu (from Chouilly, 2014 vintage). The latter was my favourite. Chouilly is sometimes underestimated because it is a very large and somewhat inconsistent Grand Cru. However, the Mont Aigu vineyard, situated below the mighty 160-metre-high hilltop, is absolutely first-class. Furthermore, the wine hails from the relatively cool year of 2014 and boasts crisp acidity. This, combined with ageing in stainless steel, 120 months’ bottle ageing and a dosage of 3 grams, results in a classically elegant Champagne that remains remarkably lively despite its age. The combination of the terroir’s salinity and the distinctive autolysis is exactly what I look for in a top-class Champagne (93p.).
6. C17 – Assemblage des 17 Grands Crus de Champagne Extra-brut (Magnum)
This year, the Association des Grands Crus d’Exception de Champagne also made an appearance in Munich, with six of its 15 members. Two of them (Franck Bonville and François Sécondé) have already been profiled on Sur-la-pointe. Two others (Paul Launois, Mallol) are mentioned in this article. As well as presenting their wines together, the winemakers have produced, for the first time, a joint cuvée from the 2017 vintage comprising all 17 Grand Cru communes of Champagne.
In Munich, they presented the 2018 vintage, which is available only in magnum format. In this case, ‘Grand Cru only’ means: exclusively Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs (35 per cent) and Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Grande Vallée de la Marne (65 per cent). Exactly 235 kilograms of grapes from each Grand Cru were gently pressed and vinified in wooden vats of varying sizes at Champagne Paul Launois. Once malolactic fermentation was complete, the base wines were transferred to 1,600 magnums in early April 2019. Disgorgement took place in October 2023 with a dosage of just 4 grams. It is a mature, complex cuvée, particularly due to its diversity of fruit expression and multi-faceted precision. It is a distinctively (expensive) collector’s edition that should definitely be allowed to mature for a long time in the cellar (94p.).
7. Champagne Franck Bonville Blanc de Blancs Oger Grand Cru Les Belles Voyes 2019
At this family-run business based in Avize, with roots in Oger, everything revolves around Chardonnays from the central Côtes des Blancs. Following the arrival in 2020 of son-in-law Ferdinand Ruelle-Dudel at the business led by Olivier Bonville, the portfolio was streamlined and the bottles were given a contemporary design. Complexity over tension – that is how one might summarise the philosophy. This applies, for instance, to the timing of the grape harvest: ‘Ripeness is more important than acidity’ is the motto here. Furthermore, there is an increasing preference for oak over stainless steel, as this yields more complex cuvées.
The estate takes this approach to its furthest with the single-vineyard cuvée Les Belles Voyes, which is aged entirely in oak. The vines on the upper slope of Oger are the estate’s oldest and form part of the historic family holding. For my portrait on Sur-la-pointe, I had tasted the ‘dark’, challenging 2016 vintage. The 2019 (with a new label design) comes from a stronger year. Like its predecessor, it is powerful and creamy, with citrus, stone fruit and vanilla on the nose, but perhaps a touch more focused (94p.).
8. Champagne Frerejean Frères Premier Cru Cuvée des Hussards 2013 Extra-brut
The Taittinger family is what one might call a veritable dynasty. Originally from Lorraine, the family first settled in France and rose to prominence in Paris before. After 1945, under Jean Taittinger, they made a name for themselves – particularly in Reims – with the Champagne brand of the same name. The brothers Guillaume, Richard and Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger come from a different branch of the family, which had amassed a fortune in Paris through department stores and hotels. In 2005, as part of the sale of Maison Taittinger to the US investment firm Starwood Capital, they received vineyards on the Côte des Blancs. The brothers joined forces with the winemaker Didier Pierson from Avize (now the cellar master) and founded the Frerejean Frères champagne house. Incidentally, Guillaume’s wife, Magie Frerejean-Taittinger, co-founded French Bloom in 2019, France’s leading premium non-alcoholic sparkling wine, where Guillaume is now CEO.
The brothers aimed high from the beginning, and the proportion of exports (primarily to the USA, Japan and Australia) is very high at 80 per cent. Alongside the classic portfolio, there is a whole range of rather expensive cuvées on offer. The young champagne house had brought two of its top cuvées, amongst others, to Munich, and both were truly impressive. VV 26 NV is made from Chardonnay vines, some of which are 100 years old, predominantly from Cramant. Specifically, the current vintage is from 2016 (aged in wood for 12 months) and includes 30 per cent reserve wines from 2015 and 2014. It tastes vinous and powerful. Even more impressive is the 2013 Cuvée des Hussards. Here, 10 per cent Pinot Noir from Vertus complements the 90 per cent Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs. With a lower dosage and the electrifying acidity of the 2013 vintage, it is already a real delight (95p.).
9. Champagne Bruno Paillard Nec Plus Ultra 2012 (Sample)
Alice Paillard is a welcome guest at ‘100 per cent Champagne’. Her Chef’s Table featuring the Nec Plus Ultra from last year remains unforgettable. On that occasion, six of the nine vintages ever produced of Bruno Paillard’s top cuvée – first produced in 1990 – were available for tasting. This time in Munich, the focus was initially on the new 2015 vintage of the Blanc de Blancs. However, I had already tasted this at Wine Paris in February as part of a masterclass with Alice Paillard.
The managing director of the Reims-based house founded by her father certainly has a special motto: “Champagne producers love sharing special bottles with others. But they need the right context to do so.” That is why she also brought along a bottle of the latest 2012 vintage of the N.P.U., which had not yet been released and was still unlabelled. One of the guiding principles of this rare cuvée is its transparency regarding the vintage. Accordingly, the 2012, with its rich, autolytic character, is more in line with its predecessor, the 2009, than with the acidity-driven, saline 2008. But that was merely a brief impression of a Champagne in its embryonic stage (currently 95p+).
10. Champagne Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Louis Salmon 2012 Extra-Brut
Champagne Billecart-Salmon had even brought along a pair from 2012. The house from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ is actually rather reserved when it comes to presenting its rare top cuvées. But as there was a Chef’s Table dedicated to the house in Munich this year, visitors were treated to two of the champagne house’s four prestige cuvées. Billecart-Salmon is not only a historical pioneer of rosé champagne; in the 1970s, it also completely redefined the style, with a pale colour, low tannins and distinctive notes of red berries. Elisabeth Salmon, the vintage version (made without Meunier and with a small proportion aged in wood), is exceptionally well-crafted in the 2012 vintage.
However, it is outshone by its counterpart, the Louis Salmon from the same year. The Blanc de Blancs is made from 100 per cent Chardonnay grapes from the Grands Crus of the Côte de Blancs, with grapes from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger accounting for 60 per cent of the blend. The ageing of a quarter of the wine in oak creates a silky texture, yet is subtle enough that the vintage’s generosity does not turn into heaviness. On the contrary: despite 115 months of bottle ageing, the impression of elegance and freshness prevails. For me: the best champagne on show (96p.).
Image credits
Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
