It’s a bit of a part II to last month’s rundown of Champagne arrivals (ICYMI, peek here for Lefevre, La Rogerie, Suenen, Nowack, Bérêche!)

As icon after icon swiftly fills the Champagne section, it’s feeling real that the holidays are almost upon us (gulp) – now is the time to get ahead of releases from our favorite grower producers.

RUPPERT-LEROY

These biodynamic, no-sulfur wines were already rare birds; and sadly, the extreme hail seen in 2021 had a devastating impact to boot. We’re feeling especially reverent about this release, which includes fruit from the family’s organic grower friends in the Côte de Bars.

A new cuvée, ‘Puzzle,’ speaks to this: it includes what fruit they were able to harvest (which normally goes into the single-vineyard wines) plus their friends’ contributions. With zero dosage, it's a pensive, taut bottle of wine.

And! Solera-style ‘11, 12, 13…' which hits a milestone with this bottling: the perpetual reserve includes a full decade of juice spanning 2011-2021, from every parcel of the domaine.

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ÉTIENNE CALSAC

Truly a staff favorite among our grower Champagnes, Étienne’s wines seem to just keep getting better and better. Pushing 15 years since he took over his grandparents’ 3 hectares in Avize, the estate is now fully organic as of ‘21. We can't not share his photo of an absolutely massive wall of chalk in his Bisseuil Premier Cru:

Plots are all vinified separately, with a perpetual reserve maintained for both of the sparkling cuvées currently in stock:

'L’Echappée Belle' Blanc de Blancs (a steal for $55, plus mags, too!)
'Les Rocheforts' Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Extra Brut
And, for something a little more cerebral: ‘22 ‘Photogramme’ Coteaux Champenois 🔥

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CÉDRIC BOUCHARD

If you don't already know, for the last 2+ decades Cédric has been one of the most heralded names in Champagne. His extremely limited, zero dosage Roses de Jeanne bottlings are singular in every way: single site, single variety, single vintage – each an unrepeatable moment in time.

This time, it’s 'La Haute Lemblee': a BdB Brut of five different Chardonnay clones from an extraordinary (.12 hectare) lieu-dit.

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CHRISTOPHE MIGNON

It’s a vinous lineup of visually – and aromatically – stunning Pinot Meunier. Christophe is *the* specialist of the grape, and the 4th generation to be farming his family’s vines planted south of the Marne where the variety thrives. Not to settle, though, he’s a constant innovator in techniques biodynamic et. al. (phytotherapy, homeopathy, geobiology!)

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OUDIETTE X FILLES

We’re so charmed by this relative newcomer, a tribute to the women of Champagne 🫶 (note the "filles!")

Just outside the village of Beaunay (south of Épernay), third-gen Margot Laurent (along with sister Charlotte) took her family's 2.5 hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay into her care almost a decade ago. The only problem: from a family of growers, she needed a place to make wine.

Enter the coopérative in nearby Vert-Toulon, where she not only had the opportunity to make her wine with state of the art equipment but learned and shared with other young growers.

Like Bouchard, she's focused on wines with singular elements (vineyard, vintage, variety) and farming organically. These are joyful wines: delicious, pure-fruited, mineral.

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AGRAPART

We've probably said it a lot: it’s a set of wines we look forward to every year, from the original grower Champagne. (You can bone up here.)

'Terroirs', 'Les 7 Crus', 'Mineral' and the terroir-specific bottlings (magnums, too!) all in stock now (while they last…)

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