The Grower Champagne Club
For some time we’ve been contemplating starting a wine club and none better than Champagne to launch our new initiative. Our purpose is to help you discover out-of-this-world grower Champagne at prices so reasonable, you might start drinking it every day, like we do! But also, we want to get these bottles in your hands so that you have an opportunity to taste what we did on our last tour through the Champagne region, but also to learn! There is a lot of confusion around the grower Champagne revolution. Our STORY below, takes us back to the seminal moments of this complex movement in a very dynamic region.
As for the club, we will start initially with a 3-month trial, during which time we’d like to get your feedback. No obligation of course. For three months in a row, you’ll receive 2-bottles covered for a blind tasting. If you enjoy challenging your palate, leave the cover on (honor system) and join us for a Zoom tasting party where we will learn about the Champagne that arrived in your package; who is the producer, what is the region, which of the 7 grapes used in Champagne went into them and we’ll learn more about the producer’s individual winemaking process. Truly, some exciting new techniques and grape varieties are being used. We promise you’ll be surprised!! Don’t worry, if you can’t make the video-tasting, we’ll record it and send to members.
Feel free to invite friends and family to your tasting. They will thank you for the introduction!
A SMALL WINDOW INTO THE HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION: In 1974, Anselme Selosse took over his father’s Champagne production and his label, Jacques Selosse. “I just asked myself when I started, what should I do? What is champagne? The answer for me was being able to transmit the full identity of the place. I try to understand and copy nature, I am not the boss of my vines, I am the butler.”
Widely considered to be a pioneer in what can be called a revolution in the champagne world, Selosse has led the way for a generation of grower producers who understand the champagne region like any other region in France, as a “terroir”.
To make sense out of all of this, we must go back in time, and more specifically, let’s go back to the 60s. “The Kings’ Wine,” aka champagne, is entering its golden age after two wars and heavy bombardments during WWII. Demand has never been higher, so the big houses dramatically increase their volumes and bring champagne production to a whole other scale.
Increasing production brought industrialization to the industry. And with industrialization, came an overuse of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals in the vineyards and the Champagne region’s soils markedly impoverished. The notion of terroir disappeared. Champagne was now hors-sol, a French expression meaning out of soil, but also out of touch.
Lending itself to the notion of being out of touch is the fact that historically, Champagne has been all about blends: a mix of different juices, of different places, different grapes and different years, a
phenomenon quite unique to this region.
As time passed, and houses and wines were passed from one generation to the next, as is the tradition in Champagne, younger generations found themselves grappling with the decisions made by their forefathers. When Anselme Selosse took over the family label, it was his feeling “we massacred our region”, and his instinct took him back to nature.
What Selosse, Égly-Ouriet, Savart or Agrapart have in common, is that they made Champagnes as wines, more than as blends. Frédéric Savart, another star of the champagne grower producer world, describes it this way: “my vision is to transcribe a soil, a subsoil, a village, and a grape variety”. Indigenous yeasts, no limit to the time and care brought to the plant, natural and spontaneous fermentation, minimal dosage, some even brought back horses to the vines. Most of them are organic or biodynamic, but it’s not about the ideology. Anselme Selosse, who has now transmitted the label to his son, Guillaume, used to say: “Man is not the Creator”.
Much like a flourishing plant, the renewal of champagne brought the wine closer to their terroir: to their villages, their geology, their climate and their makers.
Of course, this new philosophy has also meant shifting away from the festive marketing of the big labels, to bring champagne wines closer to gastronomy. Over the last decade, Champagne has seduced the chefs, and now the homes, pairing nicely with cheese, fish and white meats, conquering all sommeliers with Asian cuisine, surprising all by its variety and its freshness. Grower producer champagnes are more than a round bubble, as Anselme Selosse famously said, “our bubble is square”.
The swing back to artisanal, terroir driven Champagne, grown in organic or even biodynamic methods can be found across the board with growers of all sizes and there seem to be as many new growers as the stars! A unique, talented winemaker is around every corner, eager to share the story of the earth and vines of their region with every sip of their Champagne..
Please join us as we begin to introduce you to The Growers!
