Champagne's Holiday Power

Global demand for sparkling wine is on the rise, accompanied by a growing diversity of styles from countries around the world. Yet the Champagne region of France endures as the world’s leading source of bubbly, retaining its pride of place with benchmark versions and across-the-board quality. Wine lovers continue to seek out Champagne’s distinctive renditions for celebration as well as casual enjoyment, with exports to the United States growing last year by more than 7 percent.

- Alison Napjus

This growth means that Champagne drinkers have more to choose from than ever before. Since my previous report (“Champagne Abundance,” Dec. 15, 2015), I have reviewed 360 Champagnes, with bottlings from more than 100 different producers. (A free alphabetical list of scores and prices for all wines tasted is available at www.winespectator.com/121516.)

Well-represented in this report are familiar names that represent the core of the U.S. market, such as Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon and Taittinger. These are among the large producers known as négociants or houses, which own vineyards yet also source grapes from multiple sites among the rolling hills around Champagne’s dual city centers of Reims and Épernay. Shipments from these large producers arrived stateside in even greater quantities in 2015 than in 2014, which was itself a strong year for Champagne.

My tastings also encompass the other end of the spectrum: Champagnes from récoltant-manipulants, or grower-producers. While the big houses rely on both estate and purchased fruit, grower-producers use only their own grapes. Although these small growers still represent only a sliver of the Champagne market (just more than 1 million cases in the U.S. versus the négociants’ 18 million cases), they are clearly on a roll. In terms of growth, grower-producers outpaced both the négociants and the region as a whole, with shipments to the U.S. climbing more than 12 percent in 2015. This success represents an increase in bottlings from growers new to the U.S., combined with greater availability from more-established growers.