Vintage Champagne: Panel tasting results

Be among the first to see the results of our vintage Champagne panel tasting, just published in the Christmas issue of Decanter magazine and with scores and tasting notes currently available exclusively to Premium members on Decanter.com.

With consumers increasingly calling for local individuality and provenance, the market is moving in favour of these more exacting styles, says Michael Edwards.

 Go straight to the vintage Champagne ratings and tasting notes here

Setting the scene

The Champagne heartland, 145km east of Paris, has treacherous weather, which brings icy winters, mercurial springs and the threat of destructive frost.

Yet climate change, particularly since 2005, has often ushered in warmer, earlier harvests and higher levels of sugar in the grapes, achieving about 10% natural alcohol in the first fermentations, ideal for fine sparkling wine.

Yet warming has also brought extremes, particularly in chaotic August rainfall, as in 2010, 2011 and 2017, when the prospect of a great, warm ‘continental’ vintage like 1996 was dashed by downpours for Pinots Noir and Meunier.

Quality is variable from year to year, so blending wines from different villages, and bolstering any shortfalls in the current base wine with stronger reserve wines from earlier years, is the key to making the non-vintage cuvées that account for up to 90% or more of sales for most growers and houses.Vintage Champagnes are ideally made in an exceptional harvest when the wine has a special character that transcends the NV house style.There is a trend towards making more vintage Champagne – especially in the US, a vintage label has more marketing punch.

A classic vintage cuvée from the great houses is likely to include mainly grand cru grapes of Pinot Noir from, say, Verzenay (structure), aÿ (grace) and Bouzy (richness) and, for Chardonnay, from Avize (strength), Cramant (dynamism) and Le Mesnil (mineral longevity) – plus a dash of Pinot Meunier. Dosage levels are coming down to between 5-8 grams per litre of wine.

Sense of place

A welcome phenomenon in recent years has been the rise of grower Champagnes. These domaines, a better word, take their inspiration from Burgundy: they want to express a sense of their locale in their mono-crus and single-vineyard Champagnes, often with extra brut dosage or barely any sugar at all, as in brut nature.

Whether this drive for extreme dryness, intended to show the wines pure and unadulterated, will gain in traction or stall is open to question, as some leading winemakers think that at least moderate dosage is important for the long life of Champagne. Nevertheless, the best of these domaines have a justified following.

Certified biodynamic cultivation represents less than 2% of Champagne production, but this could rise slowly if the warming trend accelerates, inspired by the largest exponent of biodynamics Louis Roederer, which significantly does not have certification – a wise move, especially in complicated harvests.

Champagne: the facts

Total surface area 34,306ha, of which 33,805ha is in production

Grapes Pinot Noir 38% (13,800ha, more than in all of Côte d’Or, Chalonnais and Sancerrois); Pinot Meunier 32%; Chardonnay 29.9%; there are also 100ha of Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc and Arbane

Certifications Viticulture Durable en Champagne (sustainable viticulture): 12% Organic (‘bio’) and biodynamic: 1.5% Haute Valeur Environnementale (high environmental Value) and Terra Vitis: 1.5%

The scores

78 wines tasted

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their latest UK-available releases of white, brut and extra brut vintage Champagnes, not including prestige cuvées

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 1

Highly Recommended 21

Recommended 40

Commended 13

Fair 3

Poor 0

Faulty 0

The results

With its yearly variations and food-matching potential, vintage Champagne offers fizz lovers real insight into the region’s true character, as Christelle Guibert reports

Champagne is the world’s most iconic beverage, mostly consumed during festive periods, at celebrations or simply as an indulgent drink. But given the choice of styles (NV, vintage, deluxe cuvée, library, recently disgorged…), buying Champagne can be a minefield.

During a wide-ranging discussion, Simon Field MW noted that ‘this tasting proves there is vintage variation, but to what extent is the consumer going to buy into that when they can buy deluxe cuvées or complex NVs?’

Xavier Rousset MS argued: ‘When buying a vintage Champagne, I’m after the butteriness, the creaminess, the fizz to be more settled and complex, but you can get that regardless of whether or not it’s vintage.’

Field added: ‘The Champenois are trying to sell more vintage, but if you want complexity you go across vintage, not just cross-regional. Or if you are going to do a single site, then you have to have the luxury of blending more than one vintage, otherwise you are too restricted.’

For Michael Edwards, blending is fundamental to Champagne: ‘There is a trend toward single vineyards and there are some outstanding wines. But the great producers usually blend from contiguous vineyards, and not just from one vintage.’

Whether or not this category offers any added value to consumers was hotly debated. according to Field, if consumers are buying Champagne to impress, they will go for the deluxe.

Rousset felt that the Champagne houses should only make a vintage in the best years: ‘They should keep them a little longer and then release them as a “mini” deluxe.’

On paper this may sound like a good plan, but Field had reservations. ‘The deluxe cuvées are being released earlier and earlier, and they can’t release the vintage after the deluxe.’

Edwards felt that collectors will not want to pay over the odds and will look at vintage Champagne. But overall our panel concluded that there is a tendency for the vintage category to get squeezed between NV and deluxe.

As for individual vintage performance, it’s clear from the results how well the 2008s performed.

The judges praised the best wines, which stood out clearly for their energy, panache and vibrancy, despite them being far too young at present. They felt the 2012 vintage had potential, though Rousset found the wines too hard to judge now.

The 2009s were described by Field as ‘generous, pleasant and more approachable’, though Edwards felt it to be a vintage in the shadow of 2008.

Edwards and Field were impressed with the 2007s for their delicacy and vibrant, powerful acidity, revealing more classic structure than 2006.

Where the panel was unanimous was that 2011 was to be avoided, Edwards describing it as a ‘problematic vintage, with the acidity and sugar completely out of balance’.

Overall, our experts found the tasting agreeable but hard work, with few wow-factors. Field admitted: ‘a lot of wines have gastronomic potential because of the extra weight and acidity. But they still need time, because the power came via the acidity, which made it difficult.’

Rousset went as far as pondering whether the vintage category may disappear, while deluxe may expand.

For him the future is in longer ageing on lees: ‘When I taste Champagne, what I care about is the time on lees, the yeasty flavour and complexity. And we are now seeing a shift, with some Champagne houses releasing extra old – I think this is the future.’

Champagne: know your vintages

• 2012 Small but outstanding Pinot Noir year. also excellent for Meunier and, if chosen carefully, Chardonnay.
• 2010 Warm summer but torrential August rain hit Pinot Noir vines, spoiling any chance of vintage quality. Chardonnay is the best grape in robust, structured wines.
• 2009 Sumptuous wines for all three varieties. Later-picked Chardonnay made complex wines.
• 2008 One of the two great vintages of the decade. The Pinots have awesome power and the Chardonnays austere majesty. Wines need more time.
• 2007 Cold August. Those who waited produced powerful Pinots and mineral Chardonnay. A year for the grands terroirs.
• 2006 Warm; wines of succulent ripeness but acidity was low for Pinot Noir. The best are stylish and ready now.

 See all of the vintage Champagne ratings here.