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Every year, buying Champagne follows the same pattern. Shelves are full in October. By the middle of December, the bottles people actually want, the small-production grower wines, the allocated prestige cuvées, the magnums, have gone, and what remains is whatever the big houses shipped in volume.
That is the case for buying Champagne now. It is not about price. Large retailers often promote the major non-vintage brands heavily through November and December, and if a familiar house Champagne for a party is all you need, waiting can pay; our guide to stocking a winter cellar names three reliable choices. But for anything made in small quantities, or anything you would like to rest for a few weeks after delivery, October is the month.
Grower Champagne: look for “RM”
The most interesting change in Champagne over the past three decades has come from growers who stopped selling their grapes to the houses and began making their own wine. On the label, look for the small code before the registration number: RM (récoltant-manipulant) means the wine was made by the grower from their own vineyards. NM (négociant-manipulant) indicates a house that buys grapes.
Grower wines tend to speak of a single village or a handful of plots rather than a consistent house style. They are also made in small volumes, which is exactly why they sell out first.
- Pierre Péters Cuvée de Réserve Blanc de Blancs: Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Chardonnay, built on a perpetual reserve. Chalky, saline, exact. Shop it at Wine.com
- Larmandier-Bernier Latitude: biodynamic Chardonnay from Vertus, low in dosage and generous in fruit. Shop it at Wine.com
- Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition: Pinot Noir from Ambonnay, long-aged and vinous, a Champagne for the dinner table. Shop it at Wine.com
- Chartogne-Taillet Sainte Anne: from Merfy, north-west of Reims, an area the houses long overlooked. Shop it at Wine.com
- Vilmart & Cie Grande Réserve: Rilly-la-Montagne Pinot Noir, fermented in large oak. Shop it at Wine.com
Buying Champagne by style: non-vintage, vintage, prestige
Non-vintage (often labelled simply Brut) is a blend of years. The point is consistency: reserve wines from earlier harvests smooth out the weather of the base year. Many houses now print the base year or disgorgement date on the back label; Krug goes further and numbers each Grande Cuvée as an Édition.
Vintage Champagne comes from a single year, made only when the house judges the harvest worthy, and is aged longer on its lees. It should express the character of that year.
Prestige cuvée is the house’s top wine, usually vintage, made from its best sites and given the longest ageing. Prices rise steeply. The quality gap between a great vintage Champagne and a prestige cuvée is often smaller than the price gap.
The new releases worth knowing
Several major houses have released new vintages over the past year.
- Dom Pérignon 2017, launched in March. It was a fraught vintage: fine weather until mid-August, then rain and rot. Cellar master Vincent Chaperon told The Drinks Business it was “the smallest blend we ever did,” and the house skipped 2016 altogether. The result leans unusually heavily on Chardonnay. Shop it at Wine.com
- Louis Roederer Cristal 2018, released in the house’s 250th year. A warm, generous vintage held in check by Roederer’s characteristic precision. Shop it at Wine.com
- Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2014, released last autumn after a decade on the lees: grand cru Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, focused and citric, with years ahead of it. Shop it at Wine.com
- Bollinger La Grande Année 2015: Pinot-dominated and barrel-fermented, the vintage counterpart to Bollinger’s famously vinous style. Shop it at Wine.com
- Krug Grande Cuvée 173ème Édition: technically non-vintage but in a class of its own, built around the 2017 harvest and drawing on reserve wines back to 2001. Shop it at Wine.com
Prestige cuvées are allocated, and the new vintage often moves quickly through retail. If you want one for the holidays, this is the month to order it.
Storage: Champagne is more fragile than you think
Champagne is sensitive to light and heat. Clear-glass bottles, Cristal among them, are wrapped for a reason. Keep bottles in their boxes or in the dark, at a steady cellar temperature, lying down if they will be stored for more than a few weeks.
Non-vintage Champagne is generally made to be drunk within a couple of years of release, although many gain richness with a year or two of rest. Vintage and prestige cuvées can age for decades, turning from citrus and brioche towards hazelnut, honey and mushroom. Magnums age more slowly and more gracefully than standard bottles.
Bottles that have just travelled from a merchant also benefit from a few weeks of rest. That alone is a reason not to leave buying Champagne until December 23.
Serving
- Temperature: 8–10°C for non-vintage; a degree or two warmer for vintage and prestige wines, which show more as they warm. An ice bucket half filled with water chills a bottle in 20 minutes.
- Glass: a tulip-shaped white wine glass shows the aromas far better than a narrow flute. Coupes are for cocktails.
- Opening: hold the cork, turn the bottle, and release the pressure with a sigh rather than a pop.
- Food: blanc de blancs with oysters and raw fish; Pinot-led and vintage wines with roast poultry, mushrooms and aged Comté.
For the history, geography and grape varieties behind the region, see our C Is for Champagne in the Wine A-to-Z series on Substack.
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