Tom Hewson: My top Champagnes of 2023

I’m often asked what my favourite Champagne is. These days I tend to try and answer a subtly different one: what’s my favourite style of Champagne?

The answer tends to be something along the lines of: long-aged blanc de blancs, preferably in magnum. Wines with austere DNA, chipped away at and mellowed by time. Wines that take a bit of work to prise apart, but reward you for doing so. Champagne has many natural advantages over other sparkling wines in its ability to ripen grapes to the rare specifications required for extended ageing, but seldom are they felt as keenly as in those moments.

It was a surprise, then, when hunting back through a year’s worth of tasting notes, scores, Instagram posts and Decanter reviews, to find I didn’t recognise my own answer. Where were these monumental blanc de blancs?

Scroll down to see notes and scores for Tom Hewson’s Champagne highlights of 2023

The wines that came out on top were monuments, yes, but often to Pinot Noir (and Meunier), regularly with oak in the picture and, in a few cases, the concentrated character of single-vineyard plots. Was this really my list?

Covering Champagne for Decanter, though, is a constant reason to go out and actively look for surprises. With that in mind, these are not simply my highest-scoring wines of the year, but wines that set themselves difficult challenges, and meet them – with more left in the tank. They are both the ones I want to talk about and the ones that have something to say for themselves.

A producer is only as good as its entry-level offering, and the greatest challenge a Champagne can set itself is to excel without asking too much of our wallets. Louis Roederer’s relentless work in its Collection series was matched in quality by only a few other wines at this level: Vilmart & Cie’s brilliant Grand Cellier, based on the 2019 vintage, was one of them (and a few more can be found in my piece in the November 2023 magazine’s focus on non-vintage Champagne).

Another puzzle is turning single plots into rewarding, balanced Champagnes without the aid of blending.

Philipponnat’s imposing Le Léon from 2014 showcases a historic vineyard of Pinot Noir in Aÿ to brilliant effect. Clos des Goisses is better known, but this is a vintage where Le Léon is equally rewarding. Top terroir-specific Pinots (both Noir and Meunier) also feature in the list, from independent producers Pierre Paillard and Benoît Déhu.

Included, too, is a remarkable wine from Henri Giraud, called Argonne, borne of a long-running project in the Argonne forest to tend and select specific oak trees, manufacture barrels from them and put them to use with fruit from the house’s grand cru vineyards in Aÿ.

Argonne may be a Champagne that divides a room with its sheer potency and build, but after a memorable day in the forest with Henri Giraud’s cellarmaster Sébastien le Golvet (and at the Tonnellerie de Champagne, where the barrels are toasted), I came away with many of my preconceptions about Champagne and new oak crumbling away.

Moët & Chandon’s rarer cuvées are often overlooked, but the 2006 Grand Vintage Collection, a late-disgorged release, is a stunning, svelte and nuanced take on this sometimes dull year.

This summer’s Decanter feature on the late-rallying 2013 vintage saw Charles Heidsieck’s finest vintage release of recent times, while Dom Ruinart 2010 held the corner for blanc de blancs this year, coming out as a personal top-scorer in the blanc de blancs Champagne panel tasting in the December issue.

Sometimes, drinking very, very old Champagne is more about the experience than the flavour; Henriot’s magnificently vivid and fresh 1964 Mémoires late-disgorged release, tasted in the Champagne village of Pierry this summer, though, was one of those moments when Champagne appears to freeze time. An unforgettable tribute to Champagne’s ability to live by its own rules.

See notes and scores for Tom Hewson’s best Champagnes of 2023

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