Tom Hewson’s top Champagnes of 2025

A list of the top 10 scores of the year and a list of the year’s most memorable Champagnes will always be slightly different.

While scanning through memories of the year, though, it wasn’t just the wines that I expected to be great – and were – whose flavours come rushing back, but wines that went a little against the grain.

Wines that reminded me that, whilst we learn easy-to-grasp takes on good and bad vintages, or winemaking techniques, or the style of certain producers, some bottles stick in the memory because they don’t quite fit the story.

A surprise from an underrated vintage

During a stunning vertical tasting of Rare that took place in Versailles in October 2025, a magnum of 1999 – not reputed as a fine vintage, and one whose wines today are almost without fail rather heavy – astonished not only the professional tasters present, but even the winemaker Émilien Boutillat.

No, it wasn’t the top wine of the tasting. But it was a great reminder that great bottles – and especially great magnums – can come out of the blue, and that writing off any single vintage in its entirety is always a mistake.

Aged rosé and hidden gems

Aged vintage rosé Champagne is one of the secret passions of bubble aficionados, and I had my itch scratched at Laurent-Perrier this year when a bottle of the rare ‘Cuvée Alexandra’ was brought out from the rather austere 2007 vintage (which was notoriously difficult for Pinot Noir).

On the same day, I drove over to Adrien Dhondt of Dhondt-Grellet and tasted a range of wines which included not only superb renditions of the very difficult 2021 harvest, but also a stunning 2019 from ‘Les Nogers’ in the lesser-known village of Cuis – a reminder that not all great blanc de blancs from Champagne is from the famous grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs.

Late-disgorged delights from 2002

Going back in time, late-disgorged 2002s have provided some high points despite some original releases starting to tire.

Philipponnat’s 1522 ‘L.V.’ 2002 was a deep, complex star at a terrific vertical of this underrated cuvée at the estate this summer, whilst Pol Roger’s Vinothèque Blanc de Blancs 2002 is creamy, mature, immersive Chardonnay of pure hedonistic delight.

Innovation and southern discoveries

This was also the year of discovering the finest zero sulphite Champagne I have ever tasted in Nicolas Maillart’s swaggering, enveloping and complex ‘Les Loges’ Blanc de Noirs based on the 2019 vintage which topped our blind panel tasting in the December issue.

Heading to the south of Champagne for a regional report on the Côte des Bar was a highlight of 2025, with Etienne Sandrin’s incredibly vivid, sapid and elegant Pinot Noir making quite an impression across the range. His ‘Beauregard’ from 2020 was one of the most striking wines of the trip.

Potential ‘best ever’ releases

Two wines which vie for the titles of ‘best ever releases’ of their respective cuvées had to be featured, too – the imperious Dom Pérignon P2 2008, the late-released edition of one of the great Dom Pérignon vintages of modern times, and the most refined release to date of Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne Rosé from the fabulous 2012 vintage.

Finally, the year in Champagne was marked by the sudden passing of one its best-loved figures in Frédéric Panaïotis, Chef de Cave of Ruinart.

His 2013 Dom Ruinart epitomises all the work undertaken to raise this cuvée to the very heights of blanc de blancs – I was lucky enough to taste this with Panaïotis, and was left in no doubt that it is a wine Champagne lovers will be enjoying for decades to come.

Tom’s Champagne highlights of 2025: 12 wines to try

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