Read more: The Grower Champagne Report 2024

We didn’t specifically ask for still wine submissions when compiling tastings for The Grower Champagne Report 2024, but we received a good number of samples. Even if the pool of wines tasted was far from representative, I was pleasantly surprised by the offering – with Coteaux Champenois vintages between 2018 and 2021 performing well. I was especially thrilled by the many up-and-coming producers taking to the style, embracing original concepts and carefully considered winemaking methods.

The lion’s share, some 90% of Coteaux Champenois, is red. The heartland for these wines is in the Montagne de Reims villages of Bouzy and Ambonnay, where the sunny South-facing slopes have long managed to ripen grapes for red wine, if carefully cultivated. Egly-Ouriet’s Ambonnay Rouge is a celebrated classic but is not alone in excelling in these terroirs. I have been particularly impressed by Pierre Paillard’s Bouzy Rouge, which combines the terroir’s hallmark deep dark fruitiness with a charming silky freshness. Paul Bara is another reliable Bouzy Rouge producer, with its 2018 showing fine concentration and age-worthiness. One can also taste the relentless vineyard work and craftsmanship in Georges Remy’s Les Vaudayants Bouzy Rouge 2020, which comes with supple tannins and a velvety richness.

Yet, the highest scoring red wine in the Grower Champagne Report came from another celebrated Pinot Noir hillside of Champagne, Aÿ in the Vallée de la Marne. Doyard may be best known for its Côte des Blancs Chardonnays, but Guillaume Doyard is showing a special passion for still wines, both red and white, and the famed Bonottes plot yields impressive results in his hands.

In addition to the classic terroirs, we should increasingly be looking south towards the Côte des Bar due to the region’s mental and physical closeness to Burgundy and its resulting dynamism. Inspired by his studies in Burgundy, Simon Normand of Domaine La Borderie crafts his red Coteaux Champenois from Merrey-sur-Arce’s Les Devoix plot managing to equip it with a fine juicy suppleness that makes for sheer drinking pleasure. Similarly, Domaine Alexandre Bonnet, which has recently become a full récoltant-manipulant, is exposing us to the various terroirs of the famous Les Riceys village. In addition to still red wines, this is the most prolific producer of the one-time favourite of the Sun King Louis XIV, Rosé des Riceys. As Domaine Alexandre Bonnet’s single-site rosé La Forêt shows, the wine is more a light red wine than a typical rosé. There is indeed some discussion among its producers around a name change to better reflect the style and eschew any negative connotations the word ‘rosé’ may still bear today. Time will tell if this historical wine will one day exist as Pinot des Riceys or under some other guise.

A big chunk of Champagne’s white Coteaux Champenois wines logically originate in the Côte des Blancs. Yet there is potential beyond, as Champagne’s still white wines have a tendency to be too lean, lacking in richness and texture, and better suited to the role of base wine. As such, more and more producers are championing a fine, reductive and oak-enhanced Burgundian style, found for example in the wines of Domaine Vincey and Stéphane Regnault. But some dare look beyond the role model of Burgundy. The 2022 vintage of Etienne Calsac’s recipe-free Coteaux Champenois blanc, whose blend recipe can vary drastically from year to year, features the unique tones of the region’s heritage variety Petit Meslier.

With so much of the tradition and knowhow of Coteaux Champenois lost over time, still wine gives a carte blanche to the many growers in the region who are free to experiment and innovate with the style. Even if the weather may now be on Coteaux Champenois’ side, it will take time to master the terroirs, planting material and associated winemaking methods; it is still early days for the still wines of Champagne. But signs surely point to exciting times ahead.