"Great Growers": Locating the "finest" artisanal grower-producers in the Champagne region

Robert Walters "is a wine merchant, writer and vineyard owner with over 25 years of experience in the wine trade. His obsessive search for great grower wines has led him to work closely with many important producers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand as well as many of Champagne's finest artisans ..." (Back cover flap of Bursting Bubbles). Robert leveraged his experience and knowledge into production of a number of Champagne-related articles for The World of Fine Wine and then used that knowledge base as the core of his book Bursting Bubbles: A Secret History of Champagne and the Rise of the Great Growers.

Robert takes two journeys in his book: (i) one through the history of the Champagne region and (ii) a physical journey through the region to "... visit many of the finest of these 'grower producers' -- the artisans who are producing Champagne's most exciting and authentic  wines." I have covered each of these "finest" growers individually on this blog and will use this post to compare and contrast them across a number of relevant characteristics.

The figure, and immediately following table, show the population and geographic distribution of the growers identified as the "finest" by Walters.

Table 1: Regions and communes of the Great Growers

Producer	Sub-region	Growing Zone	Home Commune	Other Communes
Agrapart et Fils	Côte des Blancs	Côte des Blancs	Avize	Ogier, Cramant, Oiry
Anselme Selosse	do.	do.	Avize	Cramant, Le Mesnil, Aÿ, Ambonnay, Mareuil-sur- Aÿ
Larmandier-Bernier	do.	do.	Vertus	Cramant, Chouilly, Oger, Avize,
Ulysse Collin	do.	Val du Petit Morin, Côte de Sezanne	Congy
Jacques Lassaigne	do.	Montgueux	Montgueux
La Closerie (Jérôme Prévost)	Montaigne de Reims	Petite Montaigne	Gueux
Chartogne-Taillet	do.	Massif de St. Thierry	Merfy	Chenay, St. Thierry
Egly-Ouriet	do.	Grand Montaigne, Petite Montaigne	Ambonnay	Bouzy, Verzenay, Vrigny
Vouette et Sorbée (Bernard Gautherot)	Côte des Bar		Buxières-sur-Arce	Ville-sur-Arce
Roses de Jeanne (Cédric Bouchard)	do.		Celles-sur-Ource

Grand Cru, Premier Cru, Autre Cru.

Some points of note on the above data:

• Vineyard sizes range between 1.5 and 12 hectares
• Almost half of the producers have been influenced in one way or the other by Jacques Selosse
• A majority of the producers had served a stint away from the estate before returning and taking up the reigns
• Four of the 10 producers have access to Grand and/or Premier Cru vineyards.

In order to be officially classed as a grower-producer, the producer has to vinify and age estate-grown fruit. Use of non-estate fruit causes the producer to be classed as a negociant-producer; and two of our identified producers have crossed over into that territory:

(i) Jérôme Prévost came by way of his 2.2-ha vineyard -- Les Béguines -- as a result of his mother inheriting the property. According to Tyson Stelzer (Champagne Grower-producers: the beginning of the end, Decanter, 7/7/2018), while the 13,000-bottle annual production is well-regarded, and sells for respectable prices, "such a small production is insufficient to sustain his livelihood. In order to grow production by purchasing fruit, Prévost recently relinquished his récoltant-manipulant credentials to be reincarnated as a négociant-manipulant."

(ii) Jacques Laissagne's estate holding is a single 3.5-ha block in the Le Cotet vineyard. In an effort to tap into all of the terroir opportunities on Montgueux, Emmanuel supplements the estate fruit with grapes purchased from a few small growers. In order to ensure that the purchased product approaches the level of quality of his grapes, Emmanuel's requirements are as follows:

• The source vineyard must be located in Montgueux
• The source vineyard must have a south or southeast exposure
• The source vineyard must rest on chalky soils
• The vineyard must be managed by a good grower who works effectively in the vineyard
• The fruit must issue from old vines (45 - 60 years old).

As a result of purchasing fruit, Jacques Lassaigne is classed as a négociant-manipulant.

The table below captures selected critical perspectives of the Great-Grower wines. The shared

Table 2: The wines of the "Finest" producers

Producer	Wine
Agrapart et Fils	… pillowy textures from ripe Chardonnay … married to a racy, saline, mineral freshness … mouth-filling and relatively full-bodied wines, yet they are never heavy; rather, they are always refreshing, energetic and racy. They are without doubt some of the very finest wines being produced today in Champagne
Jacques Selosse	"outstanding for their arresting tang and vinosity combined with what I can only call a gorgeous finesse of mousse ..." (Tom Hall, scalawine.com)
Larmandier-Bernier	“… wines of great purity, monuments of restraint that are one more nod to the monastic" Peter Liem (Champagne)
Ulysse Collin	“… ripe, richly expressive single-vineyard wines
Jacques Lassaigne	Les Vignes de Montgueux – a racy, salty, iodine noted wine, at once deliciously refreshing yet having good depth and some exotic notes. Le Cotet – a racy, mineral, citrusy, complex wine (Walters)
La Closerie (Jerome Prévost)	“Saline, savory undertones and sleek, tense build. Its energy and vibrancy is unlike any other Meunier in Champagne and his wine always needs several years after its release to reveal its depth and complexity of flavor” (Peter Liem)
Chartogne-Taillet	"… each distinct, complex and terroir-driven and yet they share a minerality and vinosity that can be attributed to Alexandre's hard work in the vineyard" (closcru.com)
Egly-Ouriet	Power, purity, intensity of fruit
Vouette et Sorbée (Bernard Gautherot)	“… uncompromisingly original, possessing deep, vinous aromas and assertive personalities. These are wines before they are Champagnes, and their intensity of character makes them more suitable for contemplative drinking or to accompanying food than to casual sipping” (Peter Liem)
Roses de Jeanne (Cédric Bouchard)	“… some of the most spectacular wines being made anywhere in the world …” (Antonio galloni

objective of these producers is to craft wines reflective of the grape sources -- terroir wines -- and they accomplish that goal by harvesting ripe fruit and vinifying and aging them with the minimum of intervention. Ripe grapes result from a combination of the right soils, right exposition, and best farming practices.

I will elaborate on the viticultural and vinicultural experiences of these Great Growers in a subsequent post. If, in the meantime, you would like to read the individual posts on each of these estates, please click on any one of the links below.

Agrapart et fils
Jacques Selosse
Larmandier-Bernier
Ulysse Collin
Jacques Lassaigne
La Closerie (Jérôme Prévost)
Chartogne-Taillet
Egly-Ouriet
Vouette et Sorbee (Bernard Gautherot)
Roses de Jeanne (Cédric Bouchard)


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