On paper, the grower Champagne world is shrinking, with the number of producing domaines in constant decline. Increasingly, the new generation is attracted to the proposition of either growing grapes or renting out their vineyards instead of having to perform the all-encompassing role of récoltant-manipulant. After all, it is a job that requires the skills of a near-renaissance man: from carrying out the hardy fieldwork to mastering chemistry, dealing with administration and building a global brand and commercial presence.
Luckily, these numbers don’t tell the whole story. The full picture is much brighter, with passionate small domaines collectively transforming grower Champagne at an ever-increasing pace. The individuals who now choose the grower-producer path are better equipped than ever before; resourceful, well-educated, widely travelled and connected. I am sensing an ever-stronger feeling of community, with like-minded small-scale producers bonding over the shared aspirations of improved quality and sustainability.
Read more: The Grower Champagne Report 2024
At many estates, it is no longer about continuing the work of generations before but instead about revolutionising practices. The new generation is fighting the prevailing industrial image of Champagne. Standardisation has become a dirty word in the wine world: individuality and character are now cherished. Thus, efforts are directed towards the vineyard, production is increasingly organic (despite testing weather conditions in Champagne, as witnessed in the 2024 growing season) and winemaking is decisively non-interventionist.
Premature oxidation and overly oaky styles – wine’s modern-day outlaws – are avoided in favour of encouraging the terroir to speak. The best wines are able to attain pristine fruitiness and even boast a capacity for ageing despite very low levels of added sulphites – or the use of none at all. The champenois are increasingly eschewing sugar additions in the name of authenticity. Making grower Champagne without the must-enriching chaptalisation or sweetening dosage is easily doable in today’s climate but some producers even carry out the second fermentation in bottle with the natural sugars of the grape juice, in the fashion of, for example, Roger Pouillon.
At many estates, it is no longer about continuing the work of generations before but instead about revolutionising practices
Admittedly, it is easier to make great wines on Champagne’s very best terroirs but I am thrilled that there is still so much more to discover and champion in the region. The Marne Valley has already gone through a Meunier renaissance and things are moving fast in the Côte des Bar. I am personally waiting for new top-notch names to surface from such exciting sub-areas as Montgueux, Vitryat and Coteaux du Petit Morin. We are living through exciting times in Champagne.
Below, I have selected five newly established grower Champagne domaines (many of which have generations and generations of grower history), whose early results I have been hugely impressed by and who epitomise the new wave of grower-producers in Champagne.
Five names to watch on the grower Champagne scene
Girard-Bonnet
There was no need to start from scratch for Paul Girard when he established his instantly impressive Le Mesnil-sur-Oger domaine. Both of his parents, Philippe Girard and Dominique Bonnet, possessed significant vineyard holdings in the Côte des Blancs. On his father’s side, grapes were being delivered to the local cooperative but equally, on his mother’s side, there had been no production since 1988 when the family brand F. Bonnet was given up on and the vineyards leased out.
To have an estate of 12 hectares, largely Grand Cru, on the Côte des Blancs is a starting point one can only dream of but young Paul Girard has been sure to maximise on what he’s been given. After his viticulture and enology studies in Avize and armed with a master’s degree in wine management and business from Bordeaux, Paul returned home in 2018 to establish his dream domaine. First, the vineyards were converted to organic and biodynamic production, and now a new state-of-the-art winery is being built.
Despite his young age (he was born in 1995), Paul Girard has a clear vision for his wines. He plays around comfortably with different fermentation vessels from inox containers to amphora, and especially oak barrels. Large, relatively new 600-litre barrels are gaining further foothold in Girard’s winemaking, which relies on indigenous yeasts and plenty of lees work. With meticulously crafted, technically perfect, seamless and expressive Champagnes, it is easy to predict a rocketing future for Girard-Bonnet.
Try this wine: Girard-Bonnet Mon Village Chardonnay du Mesnil-sur-Oger
Domaine Vincey
Domaine Vincey’s story bears much resemblance to that of Girard-Bonnet. Grape growers in Champagne for eight generations, the crop from Vincey’s family vineyards long went to the local Oger cooperative. In 2014, when Quentin Vincey returned to the family domaine, and following the purchase of a traditional wooden coquard press, production on the estate commenced.
The Vincey vineyards comprise around seven hectares, a good bulk of which are located in premium sites in the Côte des Blancs. Altogether, they grow grapes in ten villages spanning from the Marne valley all the way to the Aube. Such distant locations are tricky when practicing organic and biodynamic farming, ‘requiring both proactiveness and reactiveness from the team’, as Vincey says. The domaine continues to sell grapes too, but their own production focuses on premium Grand Cru terroirs with the intention of getting to know them thoroughly.
For the project, Quentin is joined by his wife Marine, who carries a key role in the winemaking and business side of activities. The duo say they have now refined their style. It is laudably ambitious, focusing on vinification exclusively in oak, bottling under cork for tirage followed by prolonged ageing on lees. To further realise their dream of a holistic approach, the couple have established a working farm at the nearby Château de Renneville, where many of the biodynamic preparations are made and where they have a chance to experiment and exchange ideas with like-minded growers.
Try this wine: Domaine Vincey Le Grand Jardin Chardonnay d’Oger Grand Cru 2019
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Cazé-Thibault
Fabien Cazé is a tenth generation vigneron in Châtillon-sur-Marne on the right bank of the river Marne. Part of the bright young talent in the neighbourhood, alongside Cédric Moussé in Cuisles and Domaine Nowack in Vandières, Fabien is working with his now-4.5 hectares and taking a perfectionist’s approach. Following in his grandfather Roger’s footsteps – who established the family winery in 1953 – as a récoltant-manipulant, Fabien produced his own first cuvées in 2013. An attentive approach to farming led to organic certification in 2018 and the modern gravity-flow winery comes equipped with the Rolls Royce of Champagne presses, the Coquard PAI.
Fabien Cazé seems to have the same thirst for innovation and a level of attention to detail similar to Cédric Moussé, adopting the use of small, 15-kilogram picking crates for the delicate Meunier grapes. Equally, he is buying in mined sulphur and converting it to suphur dioxide himself, to protect his wines in a more efficient and ecological way. The resulting wines are beautifully transparent, speaking to their origins and expressing a polished seamlessness thanks to the low-key but meticulous winemaking. Meuniers from these limestone soils with sand and seashell remnants come with rare finesse. However, as wonderful as Cazé-Thibault’s vintage Meunier blend is, Fabien is keen to isolate many of his sites for release as single-vineyard Champagnes.
Try this wine: Cazé-Thibault Millésime 2018
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Jules Brochet
Champagne Jules Brochet is Pierric Brochet’s homage to his great-grandfather Jules, who is also the forefather of some of the other famous Brochets in Champagne. Pierric felt an unease launching a Champagne brand under his own name, opting to use his ancestor’s name instead. ‘You never come from nowhere,’ he says.
After studies at the Avize Viti Campus and an internship at Jacques Selosse, Pierric Brochet returned to a vast family estate of some 20 hectares of vines. While he didn’t share the same philosophies as his father, Pierric was able to commence his own small-scale production in 2015 with the help of some family vineyards and a few plots he was able to purchase for himself on the Montagne de Reims.
One of his most interesting sites is Le Mont-Ferré in Taissy in the outskirts of Reims, where the soft chalky soils are home to his characterful Chardonnay cuvée Albane. Autochtone is a perpetual reserve cuvée from Les Champs aux Buissons lieu-dit in Mailly-Champagne, where Pierric aims to eradicate the vintage effect but keep the site typicity. Jules Brochet has no Meunier in production. The vines are organically cultivated with the intention of letting the vines find their natural balance. Pierric Brochet usually picks late, prioritising full phenolic maturity. In the cellar he opts for a low-intervention approach as he feels that ‘the more you interfere, the more you standardise’.
Try this wine: Jules Brochet Autochtone NV (base 2018)
La Rogerie
La Rogerie joins together the Alsace and Champagne wine traditions of Justine Boxler from Niedermorschwihr and François Petit from Avize. With winemaking also in Alsace, their Champagne operation based on François’ family vineyards was commenced in 2015 with the first vintage taking place in 2018. The couple created a wonderful farm and winery in Flavigny near their 2.2 hectares of Côte des Blancs vineyards. It is all old-vine Chardonnay here on a domaine whose organically tended vineyards lie predominantly in Avize with Oger and Cramant occupying minute surfaces.
Curiously, neither Justine nor François possess a formal winemaking education but come with generations of heritage in the subject (in the case of Justine Boxler, spanning all the way back to 1672). Furthermore, they share a thirst to taste and experiment. One gets the feeling of intuitive winemaking with their use of oak vessels of differing sizes. Not shy of showing character, the wines come with flamboyant profundity and soulfulness. Here, too, ancestors are remembered. La Rogerie is a name created in homage to François’ grandfather Roger Petit, whose old-vine vineyards keep on contributing to the new chapter in the family saga.
Try this wine: La Rogerie Champ Bouton Grand Cru Avize Blanc de Blancs 2019
