Champagne's Fresh Future

It's a good time to be celebrating, with the quality of wines from the northern French region higher than ever on the strength of two superb vintages - 2018 and 2019 - and a third, 2020, showing promise.

- Words: CLAIRE NESBITT and JAMES SUCKLING

It was Bastille Day, the national holiday celebrating the start of the French Revolution, and Avenue de Champagne, the main street of the town of Épernay, was filled with several hundred people dressed in white, holding champagne flutes and drinking from late afternoon until the early hours of the following morning.

At the office building of Champagne de Venoge, a DJ perched on a balcony of the majestic house slowly turned up the volume, pausing for the fireworks at 11 pm. By midnight, you might have mistaken the centuries-old courtyard for an open-air nightclub.

It's a good time to be celebrating with a glass of champagne. Despite the downturn in the wine market, the quality of wines from the region is higher than ever, and our tastings of hundreds of bottles of champagne alongside three dozen winery visits in mid-July highlighted this. With two superb vintages – 2018 and 2019 – coming to the market, there's no shortage of great bottles. In total this year, we rated nearly 1,000 champagnes, our largest amount ever.

However, producers we met and interviewed during our trip did not seem to be celebrating. At best, they seemed cautiously optimistic. According to figures from the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (CIVC), champagne shipments from the region were down by 9 per cent in 2024, and dropped again by 1.2 per cent in the first half of 2025. It's difficult for Champagne producers to forget good years like 2021 and 2022, when shipments grew to around 330 million bottles.

Yet they know they're making one of the most exciting wines in the world - and they have an edge on other wines. Champagne encompasses not only wine and vineyards, it also embodies a great way of life and celebration.