Following a blind tasting of almost 200 samples for db’s Champagne Masters earlier this year, we bring you the top-scoring cuvées of 2021, taking in illustrious names and little-known labels, as well as all styles from brut nature to blanc de blancs.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 34%, Chardonnay 33%, Meunier 33%
- Style: Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £36
This entry point to a slightly under the radar Champagne house is a fine example of Brut NV in a dry but fruity style. Using equal parts of Champagne’s three major grapes, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier, it has plenty of flavour, from ripe apple to strawberry and citrus, with some appealing notes of honey and brioche, before finishing with a zesty, cleaning edge.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 34%, Chardonnay 33%, Meunier 33%
- Style: Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £38
The world’s biggest Brut NV Champagne is also one of the best, gaining some of the highest scores of its category in this year’s competition. Praised for its fresh fruit flavours, from apple to raspberry and lemon, and gently bready and chalky notes, it was deemed a textbook taste of Champagne at a relatively accessible price.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Chardonnay 55%, Pinot Noir 35%, Meunier 10%
- Style: Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £35
Taking its name from the first pressing in Champagne, called La Cuvée, this Brut NV from Laurent-Perrier is a fine example of its category, clean and fresh, but with plenty of bready characters from ageing in contact with the wine’s lees. Flavours range from a smoky toasty note to grapefruit and lemon zest, along with chalk dust and cream, in what is a lively, refined style of fizz.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Chardonnay 40%, Pinot Noir 30%, Meunier 30%
- Style: Extra Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £35
Here’s an excellent example of very dry Champagne for those on a budget. Costing around £35, it’s a relatively affordable entry-point to a non-vintage extra brut – which means that it contains less than 6g/l of sugar. In terms of taste, the Champagne is not harsh, but clean, bright and precise, with a tangy citric edge, along with some ripe apple fruit to compensate for the freshness, and lingering nutty notes.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 55%, Chardonnay 45%
- Style: Vintage Brut
- Price (approximate UK retail): £60
The latest vintage release from Piper-Heidsieck is another stunner. Hailing from the 2014 harvest – a good if not outstanding year in Champagne – it has the hallmark traits of this producer, mixing a zesty, lively character with masses of moreish smoky, nutty and toasty notes from extended cellaring. So, expect plenty of grilled halzenut, to make for a richly flavoured but wonderfully refreshing glass of fizz.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 52%, Chardonnay 48%
- Style: Vintage Brut
- Price (approximate UK retail): £60
For those who love Piper-Heidsieck’s vintage expressions as much as we do, it will come as a welcome relief to know that its Champagne from the exceptional 2012 harvest is still on the market. One of the highest scoring cuvées of this year’s Masters, it’s a delicious combination of gun-smoke and toast, grilled nuts and lemon zest, with a persistent chalky edge to dry the palate ready for another sip.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Chardonnay 50%, Pinot Noir 45%, Meunier 5%
- Style: Vintage Brut
- Price (approximate UK retail): £60
As anyone who works in the Champagne trade will tell you, Palmer – which is a cooperative uniting a selection of first-rate growers – produces some of the regions best-value cuvées, with this magnificent 2012 vintage very much included. The characters here are complementary and moreish, with ripe red apple, fresh grapefruit, cream and bread, and then a smoky edge, like grilled toast, adding a yet further layer of interest.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Chardonnay 100%
- Style: Extra Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £90
This, the latest release from relatively new house Champagne Frerejean Frères, is a pure Chardonnay from grand cru vineyards in the Côte de Blancs, and while it seems expensive at £90 a bottle, it is made from some of the most prized grapes in the region, and has spent at least seven years ageing in the producer’s cellars before release. Stylistically, it is fresh and extremely dry, but has plenty of richness from ripe fruit, from pear and pineapple, to pink grapefruit, and a creamy coffee character too, before finishing with a lingering chalky sensation – it even seems to grip the palate.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Chardonnay 100%
- Style: Blanc de Blancs, Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £50
This pure Chardonnay Champagne takes fruit from grand cru sites in the prized Côte des Blancs, so it’s little surprise that the result is excellent. Made by relatively little-known producer Albert Lebrun, it has the hallmarks of delicious Blanc de Blancs, with notes of pineapple and lemon, a touch of butter, cream, hazelnut and chalk.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 100%
- Style: Vintage, Blanc de Noirs, Brut Nature
- Price (approximate UK retail): £75
This is a fascinating and first-rate specialist Champagne from the fine house of Joseph Perrier. Using only Pinot Noir, this blanc de noirs takes grapes from a premier cru plot in the village of Cumières. It’s also a vintage expression – from the great harvest that was 2012 – and a brut nature, which means there’s no added sugar. In terms of taste, the Champagne is a brilliant example of pure Pinot Champagne, with notes of raspberry and ripe apple, with a touch of freshly-baked pastry and a chalky sensation on the very dry finish.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 60%, Chardonnay 20%, Meunier 20%,
- Style: Brut NV rosé
- Price (approximate UK retail): £40
Champagne serves up a broad range of Brut NV rosé styles today, but a benchmark for quality is Piper-Heidsieck. With its Rosé Sauvage you get a hint of red berry and cherry fruit from the Pinot-based wine used to give this wine its fairly deep pink appearance, but after that comes all the delicious flavours of fine Champagne, from fresh apple and citrus zest to toast and hazelnut, and then a lingering chalky, dry finish.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 37%, Chardonnay 32%, Meunier 31%
- Style: Brut NV rosé
- Price (approximate UK retail): £50
This pale salmon coloured fizz from Pommery offers a refreshing and pretty take on pink Champagne, offering notes of wild strawberry, fresh apple and just-baked baguette, making for a delicate, and very drinkable style of rosé.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Chardonnay 100%
- Style: Prestige cuvée, Blanc de Blancs, Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £105
If you like your Champagne full of flavour, with a richness and character not unlike fine white Burgundy, then this is the prestige cuvée for you. It comprises wines from the great 2008 and 2009 vintages, which were made using fruit from grand cru Côtes des Blancs Chardonnay vines dating back to 1926 – hence the name VV26 (Vieilles Vignes from 1926). As a result, this is a fizz with plenty of fruit and character, and, because the base wines underwent seven months ageing in oak barrels, there’s a creamy complexity too. Put all this together, and this is a layered and structured Champagne, with notes of yellow fruit, chalk and citrus, follows by nuts and brioche, along with vanilla and beeswax, before finishing dry and zesty, as well as gently tannic – an attractive trait that helps to refresh the palate.
- Medal: Master
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 50%, Chardonnay 50%
- Style: Prestige cuvée, Brut NV
- Price (approximate UK retail): £80
One of the stand-out discoveries from this year’s blind tasting was the brilliance of GH Mumm’s prestige cuvée expression, the vintage Cuvée Lalou. Currently from the 2006 harvest, it’s a magnificent and mature glass of serious fizz, using seven grand cru wines to produce a Champagne with flavours ranging from honey and dried apricot, to freshly-baked croissants, wood smoke and a touch of zest citrus on the finish. And, at £80, it is the best-value ‘Master’ winner of this year’s competition.
- Medal: Gold
- Grapes: Pinot Noir 50%, Chardonnay 45%, Meunier 5%
- Style: Prestige cuvée, Brut Vintage
- Price (approximate UK retail): £175
The top expression from Perrier-Jouët – the wonderfully-named and beautifully-packaged Belle Epoque – is always a great glass of fizz, but this year it tasted especially good, perhaps because it was made using the finest grapes from a particularly fine vintage: 2012. The result is a Champagne with plenty to excite the palate, from candied lemon, to dried apple, a touch of honey, and then lingering notes of toast and hazelnut, even a touch of roasted coffee, followed by citrus zest and chalk on the finish.
- Medal: Master
- Grapes: Chardonnay 70%, Pinot Noir 30%
- Style: Prestige cuvée, Brut Vintage
- Price (approximate UK retail): £200
There are few better bottles of fizz than Rare, and the 2008 vintage release is right up there with the best. This, the latest expression from the prestige cuvée-only offshoot from Piper-Heidsieck is still quite taut in style, despite its age, showing notes of freshly struck match, lemon zest and chalk, but there’s also depth to the Champagne, with addition flavours of creamy coffee, hazlenuts and a touch of yellow fruit. A deliciously complex and yet refreshing glass of very fine fizz.
