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Grape Varieties & Styles of Champagne Defined

Champagne is an extremely complex blended wine — not only a blend of grape varieties but also a blend of wines from different vintages and different vineyards throughout the Champagne region of France. The blend, called the cuvée, combines the strengths of each vineyard. Which grapes are included in the blend, and their proportion is one of the key factors determining the style of the Champagne.

Champagne is usually made using three grapes – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier

There are various types of Champagne that can differ widely in terms of both taste and price.
The most widely available style of Champagne is non-vintage (NV) accounting for nearly as much as 90% of all Champagnes produced.
The list below summarises the various types of Champagne.

The Pinot Noir Grape

grapes

It is the predominant grape variety on the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Bar where the cool, chalky terrain suit it perfectly. It is the Pinot Noir that adds backbone and body to the blend, producing wines with distinctive aromas of red berries and good structure. Pinot Noir, often described as delicate, also adds lovely aromatics to the blend.

A fashionable red grape variety, the Pinot Noir grape produces divinely scented and gorgeously fruity wines. A Pinot Noir reaches its highest peaks of fruit expression in cool climates where the weather allows the grape to intensify in flavour and colour which makes it perfect for France and the Champagne Region.

The Meunier Grape

pinot meunier grapes

Pinot Meunier has become a star in its own right in recent years, with Meunier Champagnes becoming increasingly more popular. This robust grape variety shows better cold-weather resistance than the pinot noir and is particularly well suited to the more argillaceous soils of the Marne Valley. The Meunier adds roundness to the blend, producing supple, fruity wines that tend to age more quickly than wines made with the other two varieties.

The Chardonnay Grape

With the amount of Blanc de Blancs Champagnes found in wine shops and on restaurant menus, the chardonnay is king on the Côte des Blancs, yielding delicately fragrant wines with characteristic notes of flowers and citrus. Being slower to develop than the other two varieties, chardonnay produces wines that are built to age.

Pinot Gris, Arbane & Petit Meslier Grapes

These grapes are part of the grape varieties that one finds in Champagne but they are rare and often forgotten. They now represent only 90 hectares of the Champagne region.

Pinot Gris grapes are susceptible to spring frosts but are the first to ripen.

Arbane fears bad weather and is difficult to squeeze so only a few growers grow the Arbane

Petit Meslier develops an incomparable organoleptic richness but is subject to botrytis a fungus that attacks tender parts of the plant.

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Sourcing from top producers we pride ourselves on the quality, taste and smoothness of our Champagne.
Our prestige award-winning Grand Reserve Champagne is shipped directly from France and we supply this to customers under their own brands.
We also supply Champagnes from many of the major Champagne Houses and each gift is beautifully presented and comes with its own gift message card.
Read more about our Champagnes

Our Prestige Champagne Collection

Trusted by some of the world's leading organisations we provide an exceptional corporate Champagne gift service

Whether you are looking for a corporate business gift, birthday gift, anniversary gift, wedding gift or for any other occasion, you can be assured that we will have the perfect solution. We source our Champagne in France from top producers and quality growers and pride ourselves on the quality and smoothness of our Champagnes.

We have a number of Champagne Houses that are exclusive to us in the UK. Christophe Bertin with its chic contemporary packaging oozing style and sophistication only product Vintage Champagne. Comtes de Dampierre is a wonderful small Champagne house and their Champagne is made solely from grapes from top selected vineyards. They produce only the highest quality and Dampierre is served in the Spanish royal court, 42 French embassies and many other prestigious institutions.

For our personalised gifts, we primarily use Gold Award-Winning Baron Fuente Grande Reserve. Appealing to both your taste and smell, combined with its elegant looks it really is the perfect gifting Champagne. We offer our Signature Grande Reserve in half bottle, standard size bottle and magnum size and for something a little different, we also offer personalised miniature Champagne and a Jeroboam of Champagne.