Stars of Champagne’s Côte des Bar

Champagne’s Côte des Bar has been one of the hotspots for independent producers over the last 20 years, with a seemingly constant roll call of new names releasing their first wines, as well as established producers handing over the keys to the next generation.

Here are five key producers, both celebrated and under-the-radar, whose wines shone in this year’s report on the region.

Scroll down for notes and scores from the five stars of the Côte des Bar

Drappier

Drappier is the original family house of the Côte des Bar, and its most celebrated name. Beneath the surface, though, it’s a property as forward-looking and imaginative as ever.

Michel Drappier’s son Hugo continues to push the vineyards and cellar into ever more vivid, creative and expressive wines, without losing any of the playful, juicy approachability the house is known for.

It’s a house that really celebrates the identity of the region. ‘Troyes used to be the capital of Champagne, and the seat of the comtes [the counts] of Champagne – not Reims!’ Michel jokes.

All the house’s own vineyards are certified organic, and 2025 sees a full decade of carbon neutrality certified by Ecoact.

Key wines: Blanc de Noirs, Rosé de Saignée, Clarevallis, Grande Sendrée

Robert Barbichon

Thomas Barbichon’s wines are vivid, transparent and expressive. Working nine certified-biodynamic hectares around the village of Gyé-sur-Seine, this domaine is slowly – and somewhat quietly – turning out some of the most refined wines of the region, working against the current of bold oak usage, overtness and oxidative stylings that the younger generation are toying with.

The result is wines that transmit these beautiful vineyards with rare lucidity in the glass; not least with one of the region’s most impressive all-Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs.

Key wines: Blanc de Noirs, Blanc de Blancs, Rosé de Saignée

Domaine Alexandre Bonnet

Bonnet is a well-known name in the region, but the property – now split between the grower Domaine Alexandre Bonnet and the larger négociant house now called Ferdinand Bonnet – is firmly on the march as the champion of the trio of medieval villages known as Les Riceys in the Bar Séquannais.

With an enviable 47ha of organic holdings across the village’s stunning, steep contrées (hillsides), famous for perfumed, silky and elegant Pinot Noir, Domaine Alexandre Bonnet not only produces some of the region’s most accomplished Champagnes but is also the largest exponent of still Rosé des Riceys, a unique dark, vibrant and original still rosé made from Pinot Noir.

Key wines: Blanc de Noirs, Les Contrées Rosé, Les Contrées 7 Cépages, Rosé des Riceys

Rémi Leroy

Most of the Côte des Bar’s great grower-producers are located in the Westerly Bar Séquannais, but Rémi Leroy’s home is, like nearby Drappier’s, in the Bar-sur-Aubois.

The vineyards here are naturally low-yielding, and Leroy’s style is accordingly ultra-ripe, vinous and gastronomic, but there’s a sensitivity here when it comes to oak and a certain lightness of touch, too.

Key wines: Extra Brut, Blanc de Noirs, Rosé de Saignée Les Crots

Etienne Sandrin

Etienne Sandrin is a true garagiste, vinifying just 2ha hectares of his 10ha estate in Celles-sur-Ource.

If you can find his wines they are every bit as exciting as some of the more celebrated boutique producers nearby, made with fruit that is both stunningly ripe and intense yet presented with impeccable vivacity, drive and precision, allowing Sandrin’s clear delineation between plots to emerge.

If you want to taste the subtle shifts that soils, expositions and settings can have on Pinot Noir in this celebrated village, Sandrin’s wines are some of the best ways to do it.

Key wines: Beaux Regards, Mouille-Brant, A Travers Celles

Wines from the five stars of the Côte des Bar

Wines are listed by producer, then score.

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