Champagne Barons de Rothschild: 20 years of patience and a brand new winery

Champagne’s Côte des Blancs saw a significant arrival in 2025. Champagne Barons de Rothschild opened the doors of a new winery and cellar complex in an imposing, recently renovated 1874 building, complete with its own vineyard clos.

The winery may be new, but the house is not. Its opening in fact marks the 20th anniversary of the coming together of three branches of the Rothschild family in 2005.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for six Barons de Rothschild Champagnes

Time to ease in

Rather than rushing out of the gates, though, this has been a project born of patience.

‘When I joined in 2011, we only bottled 5ha,’ says cellar master Guillaume Lété, ‘we were just trying to learn about the terroir, about which villages we would use, how we would do vinification’.

It is therefore somewhat of an unusual achievement to have already reached today’s production of 600,000 bottles, in a region where true startups on this scale are rare.

It’s rare because buying vineyards is extremely hard. What’s more, signing grape contracts – especially for sought-after Chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs, which forms the backbone of the house’s style – is fought out in an environment of steep competition with other houses.

Fortunately Barons de Rothschild has at its helm a true Champagne native in Lété, who grew up in nearby Avize in a vine-growing family.

Lété has overseen the shift from the early days, when the wines were made under his guidance at the nearby co-operative, to the first vintage processed in the new winery in 2024.

Here he stores an impressive selection of reserve wines and a perpetual reserve system which lends considerable character to the non-vintage wines.

Consistent improvement

With impressive results in both Decanter panel tastings and the Decanter World Wine Awards 2025, there’s plenty of evidence to back up Lété’s belief that the wines have gained in precision over the last five years, too.

‘There was a big change with the wines based on 2018 for me,’ says Lété, whose local connections have proven important for grape sourcing.

Grapes are sourced from 90ha (8ha of which the house owns), and 90% is from grand and premier cru villages.

‘I prefer to work with growers who also make their own wine,’ he says, believing they have the right ‘philosophy’ to reach the maturity in the grapes Lété is searching for.

With the focus on Chardonnay, the style leans into cleanliness and purity, yet with approachability always in mind.

Even with the range entirely in extra brut, Lété says the ‘natural sucrosity’ of the grapes yields balanced wines that have shifted away from some of the more overt buttery/pastry notes encountered in earlier releases, to more purity today.

Partial oak vinification, too, plays a part in the complexity in blends of two of the high points of the portfolio: Brut Nature and Rare Collection.

Crème de la crème

The new project closest to the house’s heart, though, is also the one closest to home – the 0.52ha Grand Clos vineyard, situated outside the new winery.

Released for the first time with the 2019 vintage, it displays the decadent aromatics of ripe fruit of this grand Champagne vintage, bolstered by 100% vinification in oak.

‘Built like a Burgundy wine,’ says Lété.

Twenty years on, the excitement of a startup mentality still feels palpable among the small team here as they work on a highly promising 2025 vintage.

While patience will continue to be a theme behind the cellar doors, though, the wait to taste a clear vision of this young house’s ambition is over.

The Barons de Rothschild range:

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