Champagne under 100 euros: a vigneron tasting in eight glasses

Champagne under 100 euros is a good starting point for getting to know growers: this selection includes both the Brut wines that introduce a house’s range and wines made from grapes from a single village or a single variety. We suggest a comparative tasting of eight bottles from six producers in the Champagne under €100 collection, in three stages: first Chardonnay, then blends, and finally Meunier and Pinot Noir. It’s part of the STELT Tasting Week: a journey in the glass every day.

Grower or house Champagne: the designation on the label

The name of the person who made the wine is on the label: required information includes a two-letter designation and the producer’s registration number. A récoltant manipulant, RM, makes wine on their own premises only from grapes they have harvested themselves. A négociant manipulant, NM, buys grapes, must, or wine in addition to using grapes from their own vineyards. RC and CM refer to cooperatives and those who deliver grapes to them. According to the Comité Champagne, there are more than 16,000 vignerons, who own almost 90% of the vineyards, while the houses account for more than two-thirds of sales and 90% of exports.

The designation should be read in the context of the producer’s history. Bérêche et Fils, a house in Ludes founded in 1847, switched from RM to NM in 2013, partly to buy grapes from a few trusted growers and increase production of its Brut Réserve. Écume is a micro-négociant founded in 2024: it buys grapes from young vignerons who are friends and all farm organically. Other independent producers can be found in the Champagne grower collection; for an overview, see the article on small-production Champagne trends.

Brut, extra brut, brut nature: dosage

Dosage is the final step before corking: after disgorgement, the producer adds the liqueur de dosage, cane sugar dissolved in wine. The dosage determines the label designation, with thresholds set by European regulations: brut, below 12 grams of sugar per liter; extra brut, between 0 and 6; brut nature, pas dosé, or dosage zéro, below 3 grams and with no sugar added after the second fermentation. Over 90% of Champagne is brut.

This tasting features the three driest categories: Écume adds no dosage to any of its wines; Calsac, Grongnet, and Jérôme Blin are represented by an extra brut; Bérêche by the Brut Réserve. Dosage becomes a variable to observe alongside grape variety and village.

First stage: Chardonnay

According to the Comité Champagne, Chardonnay, the emblematic grape variety of the Côte des Blancs, brings freshness and delicate floral and citrus aromas; in the glass, green hues often indicate a predominantly Chardonnay wine or a young wine. The first comparison brings together two Blanc de Blancs from different areas. Écume's Blanc de Chardonnay comes from Mardeuil, a cold village with north- and west-facing vineyards; Jean-François Gamet makes it in a small family cellar in Fleury-la-Rivière, with indigenous yeasts and no filtration.

Alongside it is L'Échappée Belle by Etienne Calsac, pure Chardonnay in an extra brut version. The Calsac family, in Avize, used to sell grapes to the major houses; in 2010 Etienne, aged 26, took over the vineyards, now covering around three hectares, and began making Champagne on his own. Between the two glasses, the question is how much the place and dosage shift the same grape variety. There is also a comparison on the blog between Blanc de Blancs and rosé.

Second stage: the blends

Champagne is a blended wine, and reserve wines, drawn from previous harvests, help preserve the style of a house or a vigneron.

Grongnet has been working in Étoges since 1885, when Edmond Grongnet bought the first vineyards and installed the press there. Today, the family, now in its fifth generation, cultivates 18 hectares, 60% of them planted with Chardonnay and the rest equally divided between Pinot Noir and Meunier, and is a member of the Club Trésors de Champagne, the first association of producer winegrowers, founded in 1971. The Carpe Diem Extra Brut, a blend, is made from these vineyards.

Egly-Ouriet is based in Ambonnay, a grand cru village, where Francis Egly, fourth generation, took over from his father Michel in 1980 and introduced organic practices, plowing and low yields in the vineyard. Les Prémices, however, comes from a parcel in Trigny, in the Massif de Saint-Thierry: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier in equal parts, fermented and aged in stainless steel.

This pairing concludes with Brut Réserve by Bérêche et Fils, the wine that opens the range from brothers Raphaël and Vincent Bérêche: the three grape varieties in similar proportions, around 70% from the base vintage and the rest from reserve wines. The family’s nine hectares of vineyards are in Ludes and the surrounding area, in Ormes in the Petite Montagne and in Mareuil-le-Port in the Vallée de la Marne; malolactic fermentation is avoided in the cellar.

Third pairing: Meunier and Pinot Noir

Meunier accounts for 31% of the vineyard and predominates in the Vallée de la Marne, on the more clay-rich soils, giving the wine roundness and fruit. Les Vignes de Vrigny by Egly-Ouriet is a single-varietal Meunier from one parcel in Vrigny, a premier cru in the Petite Montagne de Reims, with vines over forty years old, vinified in stainless steel and aged for 36 months on the lees.

Alongside it is La Haute Cirrière by Jérôme Blin, from a single vineyard in Vincelles, on the south bank of the Marne, with vines around fifty years old and a base made mostly of Meunier. The estate has belonged to the family since 1671; Jérôme returned in 1996, converted the vineyards to organic farming in 2012 and biodynamic farming in 2018, vinifies each parcel separately with native yeasts and, depending on the cuvée, ages the wines in barrel, amphora or qvevri. Two Meuniers, two areas: the Petite Montagne and the valley.

The last glass is Blanc de Pinot Noir from Écume, from two lieux-dits in Chamery, a premier cru in the Petite Montagne with sandier soils and slopes reaching almost 200 meters. Pinot Noir is the most widely planted grape variety in Champagne, accounting for 38% of the vineyard, and brings body, power, and structure: after the two Meuniers, it shows the other side of black grapes. Like the first glass, it has no dosage.

How to set up the tasting: order, temperature, glass

The general rules for any tasting apply: from the lightest wine to the most structured, from the driest to the sweetest, from the youngest to the most evolved. Here, the dosages range from brut to zero, so the order is determined mainly by the grape variety: the Comité Champagne describes Blanc de Blancs as a Champagne of finesse and lightness, and Blanc de Noirs as powerful and vinous. The suggested sequence:

• Écume Blanc de Chardonnay;
• Etienne Calsac L'Échappée Belle;
• Grongnet Carpe Diem Extra Brut;
• Egly-Ouriet Les Prémices;
• Bérêche et Fils Brut Réserve;
• Egly-Ouriet Les Vignes de Vrigny;
• Jérôme Blin La Haute Cirrière;
• Écume Blanc de Pinot Noir.

The recommended serving temperature is around 8-10 °C, reached by chilling the bottle for 20-30 minutes in a bucket half-filled with water and ice. The recommended glass is a tulip glass, tall, broad, and narrow at the opening: for a comparative tasting, it is best to use the same model for all the wines. Pour a little, let the wine breathe, then fill the glass two-thirds full. Between glasses, have some water and a piece of bread.

The eight bottles are part of the Champagne selection at STELT, a wine shop on Via Borgo Giannotti in Lucca that also organizes tastings: themed gatherings, open events, and private experiences for small groups of enthusiasts and collectors.