Champagne 2.0: Re-Writing the Constitution of Non-Vintage Champagnes

Champagne has enjoyed much of its success on a vertically integrated blend of varietals, crus and years to create a unique wine of consistency and predictability. But with changes to the climate, and modern ideas, non-vintage champagnes are fast evolving into something very different. Here we discuss the emerging era of Champagne 2.0.

“Today, everything is vintage quality so non-vintage doesn’t make sense,” says Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon the Chef de Caves of Louis Roederer during our vertical tasting of the Maison’s transformational ‘Collection’ series of champagnes, at their historical cellars in Reims.

Roederer turned the champagne world on its head with the launch of their Collection 242, three years’ ago, replacing their much-loved Brut Premier non-vintage. Notwithstanding the fact that it was an audacious move to swap out their popular flagship for something completely different, it delivered a compelling message that champagne is evolving as a wine of climate change.

“We have two ways of looking at it – as a threat or an opportunity,” he says referring to the region’s response to ‘new conditions’ where warmer days and accelerated harvests have produced fruit that is more phenolically ripe and tasty but with less acidity. “We need to be like a chef and adapt cooking to our ingredients, switching elements and making the best of the fruit - not trying to control it as we once did. We can no longer follow a recipe!”

Much of champagne’s historical success has been based on the non-vintage style; a grand recipe of some kind by adding older and more mature ‘reserve’ wines to those from the current harvest and finished off with a ‘brut’ dosage, up to 12g/L. In doing so, they have brought consistency, harmony and drinkability to a base that is otherwise undrinkable, in a region that has largely struggled for ripeness. Non-vintages have also been important signatures of House style which wine lovers can easily reach for with confidence and sommeliers can readily sell.

But with new climatic conditions (which have correlated with a 1.3 degree increase in temperature over 30 years), and changing fruit, Champagne is making the very best wines in its history – almost every year - and producers are now moving to embrace the future.

So what does this mean for the most popular and emblematic of all champagnes? For some producers, it involves a complete overhaul in their marketed style or annual reinventions, but also options for special blends and ‘premium’ non-vintage champagnes. Most significantly, it is now a feasible option to have dramatically less or no dosage, which is also shifting the dial on champagne non-vintage style.

Roederer’s inaugural ‘Collection 242’ (and subsequently 243, 244 and so on) is referred to as a multi-vintage because it highlights the vagaries of each year instead of blending them away. The new blend amplifies freshness, precision and deliciousness in what Lécaillon calls the ‘pursuit of taste’. There’s also less dosage thanks to riper fruit. At its heart, a re-worked approach to vineyard management, adoption of a stainless steel perpétuelle reserves and reduced age of oak reserves has boosted overall quality in the face of warmer conditions.

But they’re not the first to draw attention to the base wine in a non-vintage blend. Charles Heidsieck’s mis en cave system, in the 1990s, allowed champagne lovers to readily identify each base vintage on the back labels of its Brut Resérve. Boutique producers, Jacquesson, were also arguably front-runners with their 700 series, commencing in 1999, redefining the role of blending as a ‘multi-vintage’ designed to highlight the difference in taste from year to year. Krug did too, by numbering its multi-vintage Grande Cuvée blends, and in doing so appealed more broadly to collectors. But it’s been Roederer’s environmental message around ‘Collection’ that has made everyone from wine lovers to winemakers take notice that changes, in Champagne, are afoot and it’s never been a more exciting time.

Ruinart is another planning for the future with a shift in their emblematic style. Blanc Singulier was released last year as a kind of experimental Blanc de Blancs with aromatics skewed toward gourmand notes at the polar opposite of its celebrated Blanc de Blancs non-vintage. There are notes like candied citrus, honeyed florals and savoury spice coming from the warm 2018 vintage. It’s also weightier and rounder on the palate.

“Instead of blending and making more aromatic profiles disappear, we are going to work with them,” says chef de caves Frédéric Panaiotis when I visited their experimental vineyards in Taissy, from the northern cooler climes of the Montagne de Reims. It also means significantly less or no dosage when compared with their current Blanc de Blancs NV which is supported by 7g/L. “I imagine that in 25 years, things will be reversed. Blanc Singulier will be our signature and what we have today will be the exception.”

Warmer years produce riper fruit and more delicious wines that can be enjoyed with greater singularity instead of being blended away.

For example, champagnes from the celebrated trilogy of 2018, 2019 and 2020 have produced some special one-off multi-vintage releases and even premium multi-vintage blends that command prices as high as prestige champagnes. What’s more, they present all of the fruitiness, power, intensity and finesse of the finest champagnes. Piper-Heidseick and Bollinger have been producing compelling and exciting champagnes that have propelled the non-vintage category forward along these lines.

Bollinger’s innovative ‘PN’ series has inspired a whole new following around the lesser appreciated blanc de noirs style which has been difficult to achieve in cooler years. PN has a base year constituting more than 50 percent of the blend and a significant portion from a single village. Annual releases highlighting specific terroir, such as Verzenay, Tauxières and Aÿ, embody the Maison’s stylistic DNA, centred on pinot noir, in a way that is refreshingly modern but also allows the cuvée to be reinvented each year. The idea leverages the character of the year, and terroir, into wines that are fresh and pure, with tension, but also delicious, and teeming with finesse. A super low dosage of just 4g/L is also possible.

Another Maison redefining its take on non-vintage is Piper-Heidsieck. The Maison launched its ‘Essentiel’ range in 2017, based loosely on its Cuvée Brut NV, but with considerably more time on lees and extra brut dosage, each bottle flanked with excellent label information. They have since gone on to release the superb Essentiel Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs, the latter being a big deal for the Maison because it was their first sustainably farmed champagne also with greater scrutiny around parcel selection. It too came with an overriding message around ripeness and freshness in the era of climate change. Essentiel leads an exciting new era for Piper-Heidsieck, which has always represented value for money, by stepping-up into a premium multi-vintage blend intended for gastronomy.

The days of consistently cool, underripe and acidic years in Champagne may be all but over but with climate change pushing ripeness, the region’s producers must find ways to constantly adapt their ‘grand recipe’ whilst remaining true to the delicacy, precision and finesse that underscores champagne’s unmistakeable style. Those who leverage the power of their soils and microclimates will redefine the resilience of their fruit and open-up greater choices in the cellar to make even greater wines. In doing so, they are re-writing champagne’s constitution as a blended wine.

Words by Sara Underdown