Why the champagne shortage is actually good news for fizz – and the best alternative bubbles
We are now drinking a broader variety of sparkling wines than ever before
An awful lot happened in 2020, so it may have passed you by, but that summer, Jean-Marie Barillère, then president of the Comité Champagne (CIVC), announced Champagne was 'going through a serious crisis of a scale unprecedented since the Second World War'. Put simply, with hospitality closed around the world and no one feeling very celebratory, sales had fallen off a cliff.
The CIVC, attentive to the economics of supply and demand, each year sets a maximum that grape growers in the Champagne region are permitted to pick. Accordingly, in 2020 it was set unusually low. But shortly after the harvest we all started drinking Champagne again. Sales surged. Then came 2021 - a growing season plagued by frost and mildew, so the harvest was naturally small. By last autumn, all the talk was of a Champagne shortage.
The consequence has been a shift in the way we drink, adding to the groundswell of appreciation for unfamiliar growers, cooperatives and smaller houses; lesser-known cuvées from bigger houses; and even home-grown sparkling wine - bringing a medley of the best dancing out into the much-deserved limelight.
New connections
Charles Lea of wine merchant Lea & Sandeman was one of those who, faced with scant supplies from his existing (and excellent) brands and growers, took decisive action. 'After much research, he jumped into his car and drove off to France to hunt out new producers,' says the company's head of retail, David Porter.
'He came back with eight super new growers and made some great connections which we hope will mean further additions soon. These join the wonders from [growers] Gonet-Médeville, Barnaut, R&L Legras and the very in-demand Egly-Ouriet and Larmandier-Bernier on our list.'
English wine, too, has benefited from the roving eye of those managing tight Champagne stocks. At Decorum Vintners, which ran through this year's entire allocation of one particular Champagne brand by May, Mark Roberts added East Sussex's Mountfield Winery to the portfolio.
'We'd been looking at English sparkling wine for at least a couple of years, but hadn't quite found our sweet spot,' he says. 'We felt we could bide our time, but the shortage of Champagne forced us to speed up the process. A glass of Mountfield, served blind at a dinner, was just the ticket.'
At the same time, online shops specialising in Champagne have blossomed. Sandia Chang, sommelier and co-founder of the former Champagne and hot-dog restaurant Bubbledogs, launched Bubbleshoplondon.com; Xavier Rousset, a former sommelier and restaurateur, started the ecommerce site pinotandchardo.co.uk; while Daniel Blatchford and Peter Crawford, formerly a tech worker and a physiotherapist respectively, set up sipchampagnes.com, an online shop, importer and subscription service that has already won awards for its list of Champagnes from more than 50 artisan producers.
Blatchford says some of the site's new growers - 'the cool producers of tomorrow' - make wine in such small quantities and have such a keen following that 'they often sell out before the bottles even reach the warehouse. Gaspard Brochet [who released his first wine in 2020] would be one of those. Georges Remy is another. Domaine Vincey is another.'
Not for everyone
He adds that Sip's subscription services are also performing strongly: Champagne-heads can sign up to receive one or more bottles a month, for a monthly fee of £50, £100, £250 or £500. 'The £100 is the most popular.' What I enjoy about the website is that it's easy to navigate, drawing you in and helping you to choose a wine you might like.
The thrill of a beautiful wine that few know isn't for everyone, though. On superyachts and in certain dining rooms, the power of the big brand still rules. 'The difference between the top cuvée of an unknown producer and the known cuvée of a big house is like the difference between a horse and a bus,' is the blunt summary of one who counts a couple of hedge-funders among those he advises on wine purchases. 'I'm sure many of the unknown wines are very good but that's not the decision point [for my clients]. The decision point is that the name of the Champagne is reassuring and confident.'
Nick Baker, founder of online Champagne specialist The Finest Bubble, makes a similar case. 'We do a lot of gifting, and for that the reassurance of the bigger brands has a perceived value - Dom Pérignon, Taittinger Comtes, Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill, Krug and Louis Roederer Cristal are names that people come back to when sending Champagne as a present.'
Global demand for such prestige Champagnes - together with Salon, which is adored by oenophiles and collectors - has been so hot that the Liv-ex Champagne 50 index, which measures price changes on the secondary market, rose by 52 per cent in 12 months, according to a report published in September.
Nonetheless, Baker also notes that a lot of The Finest Bubble's sales are to 'individuals buying a case of their favourite wine, which is often from a smaller brand or producer. We hold a lot of tasting events, and that has really helped people move around [the wines]. There's certainly more experimentation in England.'
In restaurants, simply for the joy of it, sommeliers are scattering different Champagnes through their lists like jewels and encouraging customers to explore. I'm not just talking about the lists at Shoreditch hangouts, where grower Champagnes (when whoever grows the grapes makes the wine, rather than buying them in) have always been as essential as a bottle of Cristal on a Saint-Tropez yacht.
Overhaul
At Claridge's, the approach to Champagne changed as part of an overhaul of the wine list following the hotel's spectacular makeover. Guests are now introduced to Champagnes they might not know via the by-the-glass menu, which currently features Laurent-Perrier's multi-vintage deluxe cuvée Grand Siècle No 25 (£55 for a 175ml flute), a critically lauded Champagne - yes, from a Grande Marque, but one that flies under the radar of many drinkers. Head sommelier Edoardo Lucaroni has also been listing grower Champagnes.
'At Comptoir Café [in Mayfair] we sell more and more grower Champagnes,' says the restaurant's founder, Xavier Rousset. 'We usually have three or four by the glass. It's risk free and people want to explore.'
The boutique producers whose wines you find only in a certain place, or that feel special because not everyone is drinking them, have a draw and desirability of their own. 'Sommeliers are looking for something unique, Champagnes with a story,' says Louie-Joe Findlater, the UK director of Frerejean Frères, a Champagne house founded in 2005 by the three Frerejean-Taittinger brothers (Rodolphe, Richard and Guillaume, who are cousins of the Taittinger Champagne family).
Made by chef de cave Didier Pierson, the Frerejean Frères Champagnes are sublime; no wonder one cuvée goes into hampers at Harrods, while the VV26 Grand Cru NV is listed by the glass at Michelin-starred Hide restaurant on Piccadilly.
Back at Lea & Sandeman I ask David Porter how the new grower Champagnes have been received. 'More and more customers are open-minded enough to take our recommendations.
Quality, interest and value are all winning them over. Inevitably, for some people and for some occasions only a known chateau will do - and that's fine. We really like some of the big-name Champagnes too.'
Bubbles to discover
Champagnes
Gonet Médeville Rosé Extra Brut 1er Cru NV
Lea & Sandeman, £43.95
Intense rosé Champagne that's good with sushi or fish pie.
Bérêche & Fils Brut NV
thewhiskyexchange.com, £52.95; thegoodwineshop.co.uk, £54.50
Intricate blend of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier from one of the best-known grower Champagnes.
Frerejean Frères Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru NV
honestgrapes.co.uk, £65; hedonism.co.uk, £64.20
Ample yet finely detailed with flavours of brioche, oyster shells, wildflower honey, cool earth and minerals. Superb.
Collard-Picard Cuvée Racines Extra Brut NV
swig.co.uk, £67
An intense and dense Champagne made entirely from the pinot meunier grape: spicy and broad yet also controlled, all toasted hazelnut, incense and black cherry. Good with food.
Domaine Vincey Oger Chardonnay Grand Cru Extra Brut 2017
sipchampagnes.com, £75
Made from old vines, this blanc de blancs spends a year in oak and has all the gravity, might and finesse of a good white Burgundy, with bubbles.
Legras & Haas Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2012
Private Cellar, £111 for a magnum
From a beautiful vintage, a blanc de blancs that is all fresh cream, lemon zest, fresh-baked croissants and a hint of brandy snap.
English sparkling wines
Coates & Seely Brut NV
Lea & Sandeman, £32.95
Coates & Seely gets tastier and tastier every year; the Brut NV is beautifully perfumed, with a waft of toasted panettone.
Langham Estate Blanc de Blancs 2018
langhamwine.co.uk, £38.50; Lea & Sandeman, £38.95
More and more people are talking about the excellent wines made in Dorset by Tommy Grimshaw.
Sugrue Cuvée Boz Blanc de Blancs 2015
sugruesouthdowns.com, £59
Dermot Sugrue is one of England's star winemakers, and Sugrue South Downs is his own, excellent, label.