Champagne releases for spring & summer 2025

La Perle is sometimes an underrated prestige offering, focused on top grand cru Chardonnay sourcing with Ayala's hallmark ultra-clean, crisp winemaking style and extended ageing on lees. The 2015 does show some of the vintage's extremities, with lots of candied citrus, quince and some leafy notes. The palate is sunny and round with yellow plum juiciness, and it's approachable in structure without losing its citric Chardonnay DNA, or its soft and cushioned mousse. This is well set for mid-term drinking.

Billecart-Salmon's sheltered walled garden of Pinot Noir in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ has really come into its own in 2009, yielding a wine with all the intensity and volume that this cuvée tends to carry, but held in a more juicy, less firmly drawn structure than the preceding vintages. Indeed the soft generosity of 2009 seems to play to this wine's strengths. The end result is the most approachable and downright enjoyable Clos St-Hilaire of recent times, effortlessly carrying all its fruit of fresh fig, dried pear, roasted red plum and apricot kernel with heady baklava notes and darker, complex aromas of sweet walnut and cocoa. There's a very welcome shot of bright, malic acidity which which pulls this expansive, warm-hearted Champagne into focus beautifully.

After the taut 2008 – a wine that leant heavily on the austerity of the year – the 2012 Nicolas François maintains an admirably frank and fat-free take on this intensely ripe, bright and concentrated vintage, further intensified by the recent move to lower dosage at the house. With its aromas of raspberry, pear and candied orange, the maturity of the year is certainly evident, although the wine carries a real squeeze of dried lemon-like maturing Chardonnay, feeling tight and racy right through to the close. Already showing some nutty maturity and brown pastry richness, it's a cuvée which has proven itself to age with aplomb over the last two decades. With a slightly finer natural balance and harmony than the 2008, the 2012 looks well set.

Bolinger's PN series has only gained in popularity, showcasing the house's expertise with Pinot Noir. For the latest edition, the house has reverted to the lesser-known Pinot Noir premier cru of Tauxières in a cool pocket of the southern face of the Montagne de Reims, comprised once more of just under half of the base year plus reserves from 2019 and 2018, and reserves from 2012 and 2008 aged in magnum. At first it's full of the exuberant pink-tinged fruit of the ultra-ripe, hot season; juicy raspberry and sweet apricots, rounded and approachable. Both the cool, chalky restraint of the village and the added shot of smoky, charry, honeyed richness of the reserve wine – not to mention the acid focus of the 2008 and 2012 – elevate it dramatically, leaving the wine with no lack of drive and refreshment factor. This is another highly imaginative, rewarding release, a little less mineral and restrained than the PN VZ 19, yet just as layered.

Charles Heidsieck's 2018 is an unusual assemblage which successfully finds some focus and energy in this generous, sometimes slightly diffuse ripe vintage. Alongside plenty of juicy stone fruit Pinot Noir and sweet, sunny tangerine there's an appealing snap of bittersweet grapefruit Chardonnay, a large part of which unusually hails from sandy Trigny just north of Reims. The stylish toasty nougat richness, set against the clean-cut precision and easy approachability of the house, is certainly on show, and both 2018s present fine mid-term drinking

Deutz's Meurtet vineyard of Pinot Noir in the grand cru of Aÿ shows a beautifully restrained, gliding quality of fruit in solar 2018, with aromas of ultra-ripe strawberry, blackberry and Comice pear. Caramelised, buttery apple tart richness lurks, and there's an appealing succulence to the palate, but the wine avoids spilling over into too much easy ripeness, as the year sometimes does. In fact the finish is dotted with ultra-fine orange peel and sage bitterness. Clearly a wine worthy of a single-vineyard focus, it's one of the house's top recent releases.

Côte Glacière is more gently structured and a little sweeter than the slightly more intense and savoury Meurtet from this pair of Deutz single-vineyard Pinot Noirs from Aÿ, although it's still a fine effort. There are flavours of sweet blackberry, honey and digestive biscuit, with a little citric bitterness on the back end. It's more a blanc de noirs of delicacy than of power, with a silky mousse and an approachable succulence.

Eric Rodez, one of the most prominent independent growers of the Montagne de Reims, tops off a fine year of releases with this single parcel of Pinot Noir in his home village, the grand cru of Ambonnay. In the solar, sometimes over-generous 2018, Rodez achieves an admirable level of concentration and energy in this highly expressive cuvée. It benefits from a natural restraint and elegance that counterbalances the estate's bold, vinous style. Juicy apricot, fresh raspberry and bitter almond meet an intense palate that finishes with delicious salty-sourdough savour and length. Deep-running, persistent fruit quality shines in this gastronomic Champagne.

Eric Rodez's charismatic multi-vintage blend is actually based on 79% reserve wines, with 21% coming from 2018 in this edition. It's accordingly a deeply characterful, broad, rewarding wine offering layered richness and vinosity. Notes of cooked apple, toasted nut and dried citrus meet some maple syrup and baking spice decadence, while the palate hangs on to a welcome vein of acidity through its savoury, searching intensity. All Ambonnay fruit, aged in barrel.

Krug's Grande Cuvée 173ème Édition is crafted around one of Champagne's most traumatic harvests of the past 20 years in 2017, where rampant rot and lack of maturity forced extreme sorting at harvest time. It's exactly the sort of year that plays to the house's strengths in its reserve wine library and pixelated, parcel-by-parcel vinification, though. Together with 31% reserve wines dating back to the 2001 harvest, it's a relatively forward Grande Cuvée, but not overly marked by the challenges of the year. There's a juicy apricot fruitiness evident up front, enlivened by some brightness of ground pepper and charred grapefruit peel, with aromatic details of green coffee and a food-friendly dried mushroom savour following in the glass. The softened, cushioned mousse is already feeling nicely settled, complementing the sense of roundness and ease. There's plenty of cooked lime Chardonnay focus pulling the palate into some length and intensity, even if the quantity of Chardonnay in the blend is not perhaps as high as might have been expected considering its relatively strong performance in the year; the reserves, too, bring a delicious length and intensity to the otherwise up-front palate. This edition may be pitched for earlier drinking than some, but will provide fine gastronomic possibilities in the meantime.

Lanson's release of Noble 2008 in 2025 shows just how long this tight, austere vintage has required ageing on lees. Like many wines of the vintage today it is accommodating both some notable maturity – marmalade, cooked limes, baked apple, toasted nut, and quince – and a great deal of acidic energy, without leaning heavily on creamy or leesy richness. With some sherry-like evolution creeping in now, its drinking window is already firmly open.

The 2016 edition of Belle Epoque is a typically pretty, approachable wine, showing the compact freshness of the year. Peach, blossom and apple macaron flavours meet a little toasted hazelnut complexity, while the palate is smooth with its sweet citrus Chardonnay energy. With a soft, delicate mousse it is already showing well, although there will be more interest on offer with two to three years further ageing.

After the 2015, the 2018 Sir Winston Churchill represents a notable return to form for this cuvée, finding an impressive level of depth and savour in a vintage sometimes marked by lack of intensity. The polish of ripe grand cru Pinot Noir shines through here, with plenty of black plum, blackberry and dark honey aromas, with brown butter and pastry richness lurking. There's certainly some fruit maturity here, and this may be a Sir Winston with a little more early-drinking charm than some, but it's a fine and true rendition of this cuvée's generous spirit.

This ambitious project based in Oger is hitting its stride with a wide range of single parcel Champagnes released in 2025, focused on the Côte des Blancs but also looking to Pinot Noir sources further afield. The style is taut, bracing and pure, with blocked malolactic fermentations and subtle oak fermentation. Along with Avize's Les Roches, it is this pink-tinged Pinot Noir from the northern face of the Montagne de Reims that charms the most, with its playful raspberry and red apple fruit, with touches of clementine and grilled almond, finishing bright and peppery. It's a straightforward picture of fragrant, ripe Pinot Noir in the hot 2020 vintage.