New Champagne releases to buy this festive season as prices ease

It’s no secret that the Champagne market has continued to cool in 2025, with sales to August down 1.8% compared to the same period in 2024.

The good news for shoppers, though, is that the price hikes seen over the last two years show signs of softening as the region seeks to move some stock.

Scroll down for the latest Champagne releases tasted and rated in time for festivities

The festive period looks set to be a tempting one for buyers, with release prices of many of the grande marque prestige cuvées at least equal, but often lower, than those of last year.

Headline releases include Taittinger’s superb follow-up to the acclaimed Comtes de Champagne 2013, this time from the cool, focused, yet far from austere 2014 vintage.

This blanc de blancs, all from Chardonnay in grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs, is already starting to open up, although the blossoming of the 2013 (which is still widely available) with only a couple of years of ageing post release is a reminder that even a little patience with this most reliable of prestige cuvées can pay off.

Although major new prestige cuvée releases have proven a little slow since the spring, perhaps due to the slowing market, there have been a few headlines.

Charles Heidsieck offers the second edition of its reborn, extremely limited and imaginative Champagne Charlie, which breaks the mould for high-end Champagne by blending a top quality, relatively youthful vintage (in this case 2019) with generous helpings of top notch reserve wines, here going back all the way to a Cramant Chardonnay from 1996.

Perfectly aged

For hunters of the rare and exclusive, Pol Roger continues its Vinothèque programme of perfectly aged vintages released direct from its cellar with some striking wines, including a beautifully mature 2002 blanc de blancs.

Fans of terroir-specific Champagnes can enjoy a brilliant duo of Meuniers from Billecart-Salmon (Rendez-vous No 7 and Rendez-vous No 8) that highlight the diversity of this misunderstood grape.

Bollinger replays the concept behind its B13 – a vintage release that isn’t a Grande Année due to its atypical makeup and style, but is still offered as a unique interpretation – with the compact, complex and invitingly priced B16, while Rare Champagne tackles the warm, dry 2015 vintage.

A selection of independent Champagne releases are also reviewed here. They range from a joyful and typically approachable vintage blanc de blancs from Legras & Haas, and top grower releases from rising stars in the Côte des Blancs: La Rogerie and Agrapart Avize, as well as Penet-Chardonnet in the grands crus of the northern Montagne de Reims.

Latest Champagne releases tasted and rated

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