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The best blanc de blancs from The Champagne Masters 2023
We bring you the best blanc de blancs from this year’s Champagne Masters, featuring a range of fine sparkling Chardonnays from under £40 to over £400.
Champagne Henriot Blanc de Blancs
- Producer: Champagne Henriot
- Vintage: NV
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12.5%
- Residual sugar: 7g/l
- Approx. retail price: £52
- Medal: Gold
A brilliant blanc de blancs that reliably delivers the wonderful characters of fine Chardonnay in Champagne. That means plenty of fresh fruit flavours from pear to nectarine and juicy lemon, allied to notes of crushed chalk and then lees-aged characters from toast to grilled hazelnuts. Lovely and refreshing in a gently smoky, reductive style. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Ayala, Le Blanc de Blancs
- Producer: Champagne Ayala (Groupe Bollinger)
- Vintage: 2016
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12%
- Residual sugar: 6g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £72
- Medal: Gold
This Groupe Bollinger-owned Champagne house has made Chardonnay its specialism – in contrast to Bollinger’s focus on Pinot Noir – and this vintage expression is a certainly proof that such an emphasis is paying off. Using Chardonnay from the 2016 harvest, there are some aged characters to the Champagne, albeit subtle ones, with a touch of honey and brioche, but the dominant flavours are fresh and youthful, and comprise a core of pineapple and a finish of salt, bitter lemon and chalk. In short, it’s an intense, maturing, bright and near bone-dry blanc de blancs. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Champagne Château de Bligny, Blanc de Blancs
- Producer: Champagne Château de Bligny
- Vintage: NV
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12%
- Residual sugar: 9g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £35
- Medal: Gold
A first-rate pure Chardonnay fizz from the only house in Champagne to feature the word château in its title, this Rapineau-owned brand is both memorable and high-quality. Featuring flavours of smoky toast and grilled nuts, along with a touch of vanilla pod, pineapple and lemon zest, it’s a textbook blanc de blancs in a pleasingly reductive style. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Vieille France Blanc de Blancs
- Producer: Champagne Charles de Cazanove
- Vintage: NV
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12%
- Residual sugar: 4g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £38
- Medal: Master
A really impressive and relatively affordable blanc de blancs using mostly grand and premier crus grapes from the Côte des Blancs, the Vieille France label is a brand from the Rapineau family that’s packaged in a distinctive pear-shaped bottle. Featuring the key characters of fine pure Chardonnay Champagne, it’s loaded with pear and pineapple fruit, citrus and quince, complemented by hazelnut and brioche, and a zesty, chalky, gently bitter finish. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Pommery Apanage Blanc de Blancs
- Producer: Pommery
- Vintage: NV
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12%
- Residual sugar: 8g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £54
- Medal: Gold
A fine, fresh blanc de blancs from Pommery, with a core of ripe yellow fruit, and a finish with an appealing bitter-lemon bite. Also featuring are notes of baked apple, bread dough and grapefruit pith as well as a dry character of chalk dust. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Champagne Delamotte Blanc de Blancs, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger
- Producer: Delamotte
- Vintage: NV
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12%
- Residual sugar: 8g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £57
- Medal: Master
A benchmark blanc de blancs made using grapes from the famous Chardonnay village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, this Brut NV from Delamotte was one of the top performing bottles of the Champagne Masters 2023. While a little quiet aromatically, the palate is full of lovely flavours, from pear and peach to toast and praline, along with a hint of freshly-struck match. In terms of texture, this has a mouth-filling creaminess, but also a pristine zesty edge. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Albert Lebrun, Collection Terroir Grand Cru
- Producer: Albert Lebrun
- Vintage: NV
- Grape variety: Chardonnay 100%
- ABV: 12%
- Residual sugar: 6g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approximate retail price: £40
- Medal: Gold
Mid-gold colour with a vibrant mousse. A clean and fresh nose, with hints of grassy herbs and buttery raspberry brioche. It has bright freshness mid-palate, with luscious yet delicate millefeuille sensation. Taut and bright and lovely on the off-dry finish. (Siobhan Turner MW)
Noble Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2004
- Producer: Champagne Lanson
- Vintage: 2004
- Grape variety: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12.5%
- Residual sugar: 6g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £150
- Medal: Gold
A fully mature blanc de blancs that benefits from Lanson’s decision to block the malo-lactic conversion, lending the Champagne a firm, zesty acidity, even after almost 20 years of cellaring. Mingling with the citrus-fresh characters are aged notes of old furniture, beeswax, apple skin and caramel, along with a pleasantly bitter pithy flavour on the finish. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
Champagne Castelnau, Blanc de Blancs, 2008
- Producer: Champagne Castelnau
- Grape variety: 100% Chardonnay
- Vintage: 2008
- Residual Sugar: 8g/l
- Approx. retail price: £55.00
- Medal: Gold
Champagne Castelnau, located in the centre of Reims, holds 900 ha of vineyards across over 150 crus. The grapes give exceptional opportunities for creating excellent wines. This Blanc de Blancs is a superb example of how well the focus on Chardonnay works for the wines of this maison, crafted by long-time Chef de Caves, Elisabeth Sarcelet. Pale lemon-yellow in colour with a very tight cordon, the wine exhibits yellow plum fruit with creamy and nutty accents. Brut-style and richly flavoured with light body, lively acidity and brittle mousse texture showing tension. Good definition of flavours and a long finish suggest that this wine will pair well with ementhal cheese soufflé in a tarragon cream sauce, or Southern shrimp-and-grit with lemon and gentle creole spices. (Patricia Stefanowicz MW)
Perrier-Jouët, Belle Epoque, Blanc de Blancs, 2012
- Producer: Champagne Perrier-Jouët (Pernod Ricard)
- Vintage: 2012
- Grape varieties: 100% Chardonnay
- ABV: 12.5%
- Residual sugar: 8g/l
- Closure: Cork
- Approx. retail price: £425
- Medal: Gold
Produced in tiny quantities inn the best vintages, Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs is crafted using Chardonnay from the Grand Cru village of Cramant in the Côte des Blancs, and more specifically from two historic Perrier-Jouët plots with limestone-rich soils and ideal sunlight exposure: Bouron Leroi and Bouron du Midi.
The result, particularly in the wonderful 2012 harvest, is a Champagne with much depth and complexity, combined with a cleansing freshness. There are notes of vanilla pod, citrus zest, while flowers and baked apple, along with hazelnuts and grapefruit pith, and while the core is creamy, the finish is bone dry and chalky, with a surprising youth too. A delicious pure Chardonnay Champagne that’s showing wonderfully right now. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
And finally… one Blanc de Gris
Champagne Drappier Trop m’en Faut
- Producer: Champagne Drappier
- Grape variety: 100% Fromenteau (Pinot Beurot)
- Abv: 12%
- Vintage: NV
- Closure: Champagne Cork
- Approx. retail price: £70.00
- Medal: Gold – Champagne Masters 2023
Quite a bit of history, Chez Drappier. Gallo-Romans planted vines in the area of Urville around 2,000 years ago and Saint Bernard, founder of the Clairvaux Abbey, established the cellars and an abbey in Urville in 1656. Drappier founded the family estate in 1808, and the wonderfully preserved Abbey is used to age and store the excellent wines produced by this estate. Besides looking after Pinot Noir, Michel Drappier is the care-taker of ‘heirloom varieties’, and this beautiful wine is the product of one of them: Fromenteau, a.k.a. Pinot Beurot, an ancestor of the more familiar Pinot Gris. Mid-lemon in colour with tight bubbles, the wine shows red and yellow fruit character and lovely croissant overtones. Just about Brut in style with nicely integrated dosage, the pear, pineapple and red apple fruits are nicely defined, supported by crisp acidity and velvet mousse texture, and lead to a lingering finish with a hint of forest honey. Delicious wine that would pair with poulet rôti or a selection of local cheeses. (Patricia Stefanowicz MW)
Read more
All the medallists from The Champagne Masters 2023
The best vintage wines from The Champagne Masters 2023
The best Brut NVs from The Champagne Masters 2023
The best prestige cuvées from The Champagne Masters 2023
The best rosés from The Champagne Masters 2023
About The Champagne Masters
The Champagne Masters is a competition created and run by the drinks business, and is an extension of its successful Masters series for grape varieties, such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as regions like Rioja and Tuscany. The competition is exclusively for Champagne, and the entries were judged using Schott Zwiesel Cru Classic glasses supplied by Sensible Wine Services. The top wines were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze medals according to their result, and those expressions that stood out as being outstanding received the ultimate accolade – the title of Champagne Master.
The Champagnes were judged on 14 March at The COMO at London’s Halkin Hotel by Patrick Schmitt MW, Patricia Stefanowicz MW, Jonathan Pedley MW, Siobhan Turner MW, Demetri Walters MW, Neil Sommerfelt MW, Adam Porter MW, Andrea Briccarello and Matthieu Longuere MS.
Please visit The Global Wine Masters website for more information, or, to enter future competitions – giving you the chance to feature online and in print – please call +44 (0) 20 7803 2420 or email Sophie Raichura at: sophie@thedrinksbusiness.com
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