Champagne

Small-production Champagne from family domaines who farm their own vines.

About the Champagne on our list

The Champagne most people know is made by large houses — blended across hundreds of villages, produced in millions of bottles, consistent year to year by design. It is a reliable and often excellent product. It is also a completely different thing from what we carry.

Grower Champagne comes from producers who farm their own vines, make their own wine, and bottle under their own name. The scale is small — measured in hundreds or low thousands of bottles rather than millions. The philosophy is the same as in Burgundy: specific plots, specific villages, minimal intervention, the terroir doing the work.

Every Champagne on the Amitié list comes from a producer we visit personally. All are zero or low dosage. All use indigenous yeasts. All are organically farmed. The production on some cuvées is under 1,500 bottles. Several sell out before they arrive.

The villages

Verzy — Montagne de Reims

Verzy is one of a handful of villages on the Montagne de Reims classified at Grand Cru level. Its chalk-rich slopes on the forested eastern edge of the mountain produce Pinot Noir of unusual restraint and mineral tension — more precise and more site-specific than the more famous Grand Cru villages of Aÿ and Ambonnay. Two of the producers on the Amitié Champagne list farm here.

Champagne Pierre Deville — fourth generation, biodynamic farming, every wine fermented and aged in old oak barrels. The most cellar-intensive Champagne on the list. 1,300 bottles per cuvée.

Adrien Renoir — fourth generation, 100% Grand Cru Verzy fruit, barrel-fermented, zero or low dosage.

Mareuil-sur-Aÿ — Vallée de la Marne

Mareuil-sur-Aÿ sits on the left bank of the Marne — a village classified at Premier Cru level, known primarily for Pinot Noir from chalky limestone soils. Antoine Bouvet and Hélène Charbaut both farm here, often alongside each other in the same parcels.

Antoine Bouvet — fifth generation, biodynamic farming, extended barrel ageing. Some wines rest in oak for four years before release. Three villages: Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Bisseuil, and Avenay Val d’Or. Sells out with every release.

Hélène Charbaut — fourth generation. Five cuvées, each a single grape variety, a single expression of terroir. Next allocation expected spring 2027.

Coteaux Sud d’Épernay

The Coteaux Sud d’Épernay covers the south-facing slopes of the left bank of the Marne — a distinct terroir from the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs, with a particular freshness and texture that reflects the clay, silt, and marl limestone soils. Meunier plays a more significant role here than in most of Champagne.

Champagne Pascal Lejeune — family domaine in Moussy. Among the first producers in Champagne to plant cover crops between vine rows. 4.4 hectares across three villages. HVE certified.

Understanding grower Champagne

Dosage — the small addition of sugar made to Champagne after disgorgement. Most of the wines on the Amitié list are zero dosage (0g/L) or extra brut (0–6g/L). No added sugar means the terroir is the only thing in the glass.

Barrel fermentation — Pierre Deville and Antoine Bouvet both ferment and age their wines entirely in old oak barrels rather than stainless steel. The oak adds texture and depth without imposing flavour — it is a different kind of Champagne from the clean, neutral styles most buyers are used to.

Vintage vs non-vintage — most Champagne is a blend of multiple years, designed for consistency. Several wines on the Amitié list are single-vintage — one year, one harvest, expressing exactly what that season produced.

Available now

Also available — Champagne magnums

The Amitié list includes magnums from Antoine Bouvet — Les Monts de la Vallée Blanc de Noirs and Les Monts de la Vallée Rosé, both 2022, arriving December 2026.