Grower Champagne -
The Young Guns

Paul Girard's domaine burst onto the scene just a few years ago, when he took over family vines from both his mother and father, and started making the wines under his own label. He has already cemented his place in the league table of hot new things, with his enviable 12 hectares, the majority of which are divided between the two Grand Cru villages of Les Mesnil sur-Oger and Oger. He set out from the start with organic and biodynmaic aspirations, when he achieved in 2022 and 2023. He combines traditional tending in his historic vineyards with a high tech winery and cellar. The wines have texture and character in abundance. He's definitely one to watch.

Clandestin is a joint venture by the young Benoît Doussot, who graduated from Beaune in just 2015, and Bertrant Gautherot of Vouette et Sorbée. Strictly speaking, it is technically a micro-négociant, but with all the detail and quality of a grower, with a very promising future. Having grown up, studied, and trained in Burgundy, Benoît is a dab hand at oak élevage. This young project has received praise from both fellow growers and critics alike. Watch this space.

Pierre Gerbais is a name you'll want to note down. It's in the hands of talented young Aurélien Gerbais, whose wines are showing all the promise one would hope to find in a close neighbour and friend of Cédric Bouchard, whose pioneering work changed the way we think about low pressure, gentle wines from this southerly region of Champagne. Add to that his Burgundian philosophies, and his pursuit of the purity engendered in the wines of mentor and friend Olivier Lamy in St Aubin, and you'll soon realise these wines are not to be missed.

Guillaume Sergent is a rising star in the Grower Champagne circle, and definitely one to watch. With just 1.5 hectares of vines in the villages of Vrigny and Coulommes (Montage de Reims), he is able to lavish extreme attention to detail on his wines. He uses oak sensitively, and carries out vinification in 3-7 year old barrels, but resists long ageing in oak. This wine is unfined and unfiltered, and has spent a year and a half on its lees in bottle before disgorgement.

Aurélien Laherte is the seventh generation of his family to grow vines in the village of Chavot-Courcourt, just to the south of Épernay in between the Côte des Blancs and Vallée de la Marne, in a sub-region known as Côteaux Sud d’Épernay. He and his family work 10 hectares across 75 parcels here, and his distinctive wines have earned him a strong following. Aurélien is one of a group of dynamic young growers, along with his friend Raphaël Bérèche, who are bent on natural methods and achieving exquisite terroir expression.

Aurélien Suenen might be young, but making Champagne is already a second career for him - his first was as a professional basketball player. He is a disciple of both Pascal Agrapart and Anselme Selosse, whose advice has much bearing on this promising young grower in Cramant. He farms just 3 hectares across the Côte des Blancs Grand Gru villages of Chouilly, Oiry and Cramant. Aurélien's wines have already made a major impression on Grower Champagne followers, and are already incredibly hard to get hold of. He is one to watch.

Alexandre is a young member of the grower set, with natural wine leanings. He comes frome ancient Champagne stock: his family date their winemaking origins back to the seventeenth century. He makes most of what he grows under his own label, but sells a little fruit to friends, like Pinot Meunier to Jérôme Prévost at La Closerie. Everything is small scale here: he farms just 3.5 hectares, and it's not an exaggeration to say he tends to every vine personally, concentrating on keeping yields low. His first release was only in 2019 (though the project, by necessity, had started many years before). Already he has garnered praise for his delicious wines.