About The Pack
Champagne is a region dominated by the big name brands, huge houses with bottomless marketing budgets where what outside the bottle is more important than what's on the inside.
Here are three cuvees from producers who show just why Champagne has become the drink of choice for the best moments of one's life.
These wines are all grown lovingly, raised slowly and presented beautifully. It's a collection of three of the most important Champagne labels of the grower movement.
This is a treat of a pack for yourself or someone you love.
NV Champagne Agrapart Grand Cru Terroirs Blanc de Blancs
"Some of the best value wines in Champagne."
Michael Edwards (The Finest Wines of Champagne)
The Grand Cru Terroirs Blanc de Blancs is Agrapart's main cuvee, blending fruit from four Grand Cru villages; Avize, Cramant, Oger, and Oiry.
Roughly half of the blend is made up of reserve wine, and it spends four years on lees before disgorgement, making for a blisteringly-good Champagne of quiet complexity and power.
This is not a rich, yeasty style though; it is a Champagne of pure Chardonnay freshness and zest, with a stunning, chalky intensity.
If you're in the market for an elite Blanc de Blancs, you'll find no better value than this offering from Pascal - it beats prestige large house wines into a grapey pulp!
Read more about NV Champagne Agrapart Grand Cru Terroirs Blanc de BlancsNV Val Frison Goustan Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature
Valerie Frison's family has grown grapes around the village of Ville-Sur-Arce in the Cote des Bar, supplying co-ops and negociants for many years.
She switched all of their 6ha of vineyards to organic viticulture in 2000 and progressed to producing her own wines from 2007. She makes Champagne with a natural approach, opting for wild barrel ferments and malolactic to preserve the truest picture of her terroirs. A grapes first approach is at the core of her micro production cuvees.
The Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature is a dry, piercing, mineral-driven wine. It's aged for six months in old Chablis barrels, then 19 months aged in the cellar before release.
A dazzling display of the energy and power that can be attained in 100% Pinot Noir cuveés, this is for lovers of the tighter, more tense examples of Champagne.
Read more about NV Val Frison Goustan Blanc de Noirs Brut NatureNV Champagne Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte Anne Brut
Alexandre Chartogne is regarded amongst the top ranks of Champagne's younger generation of artisanal grower producers.
Inspired by his time with the legendary Anselme Selosse (whom he describes as his, "Wine Father"), Alexandre has experimented with multiple modes of production during his tenure in control of his family's plantings just north of Reims. Since 2006, he has managed his sites on the southern slopes of the Massif de Saint-Thierry with organic practices (uncertified), and believes that in the traditions of his ancestors lies plenty of wisdom. He now makes the wines as they did - with the wines aged in barrel and handled with care.
Decanter dubbed him, "One of Champagne’s brightest rising stars." His wines are richly flavoured yet precise and offer a clear reflection of the terroir he farms.
The Sainte Anne is his excellent value NV cuveé. It is comprised of predominantly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the family vineyards dotted around Merfy. Consistently, this offers great depth and character for a Champagne of this price point. Great buying if you're exploring the next generation producers of Champagne.
Read more about NV Champagne Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Sainte Anne Brut