The best sub-£50 Champagnes from the Montagne de Reims

The Grande Montagne de Reims has the largest concentration of grand and premier cru villages in Champagne. As such, it is not always the first place Champagne fans might think of for value.

This area runs from the premier cru village of Villers-Allerand, through the north and south-facing grand cru villages famous for Pinot Noir, and then curves round to Louvois.

The grapes grown here – and especially those grown in the grand cru villages themselves – are some of the most costly by the kilogram in all of Champagne.

They are sought after by Champagne’s maisons for vintage and prestige cuvées. When it’s easy to sell the fruits of your labour, what’s the incentive to produce entry-level Champagnes from these grapes?

Pride, more than anything. In the realms of terroir-specific Champagne, £50 may not quite bring home the calibre of wines it used to.

As our value Champagne focus highlighted last year, inflation and taxation mean that it’s only very large-scale producers and co-operatives that can afford to turn out wines under £45 in the UK any more, with only a handful of independent names faring well at that price level.

That being said, among producers with large holdings in top villages (and a real quality focus at entry level, not just on more expensive bottlings), it remains possible to track down wines that are not only fine value, but also offer a real sense of the shifting characters of Champagne’s vineyard heartland.

As our recent in-depth Champagne report highlights, the Grande Montagne can be thought of in three areas. Here is a selection of affordable options for discovering each terroir.

North-facing grands and premiers crus: Cool and restrained

Although these crus are mostly Pinot Noir, there’s also Chardonnay and Meunier here which retain the brisk freshness of these cooler slopes.

Independent family producer Duménil in Chigny-les-Roses makes graceful, delicate and accessible wines, such as the Blancs de Blancs made entirely from fruit from their home village of Chigny-les-Roses.

Looking to black grapes, the house of Cattier, based in the same village, turns out the fruit-forward, pretty and fragrant Blanc de Noirs Premier Cru, rounded out with 40% reserve wines in the blend.

For a little more chalky intensity and structure, independent domaine Michel Arnould in the grand cru village of Verzenay produces the good value, brisk Observation from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (among a number of well-priced cuvées).

While leading domaine (and producer of some of the top wines on the Montagne as a whole) Vilmart & Cie produces the superb Pinot-led entry-level Grande Réserve from Rilly-la-Montagne, boasting depth and polish from reserve wines in the blend.

The east face: Fine Chardonnay

Outside the Côte des Blancs, the villages of Trépail and Villers-Mamery are some of the finest for Chardonnay in the region.

Arnaud and Mathilde Margaine’s estate A Margaine is this area’s most celebrated independent producer, with the Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs a perfectly precise, aromatic and juicy Chardonnay that remains one of the best value Champagnes on the Montagne.

A great choice for those that tend to find blanc de blancs too light or acidic – here in Villers-Marmery, the deeper soils yield slightly fleshier wines, even with low dosage levels.

South-facing grands and premiers crus: warm and sunny

The sun-catching villages of Ambonnay and Bouzy offer up a more generous style of Champagne, although their fame means fine entry-level wines are hard to come by.

Star independent domaine Pierre Paillard offers up one of the south face’s top value Champagnes in its entry-level Les Parcelles.

It’s firm and intensely flavoured with oak-ageing complexity. It’s a perfect introduction to chalky, sunny Bouzy, one of the earliest-ripening villages in Champagne.

Six wines with a sense of the Montagne without the price tag

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