Champagne – a wine or a brand?

(JancisRobinson) - Is champagne a wine or a brand? This question preoccupied me as I tasted the offerings of five grape growers from the Champagne region in the cellars of Justerini & Brooks in St James's Street, London, recently. In the heart of gentlemen's clubland, a mere stone's throw from Hedgie Central, you can easily imagine, I'm sure, Justerini's client base and the sort of customers I was tasting with.  

These champagnes were without a shadow of a doubt wines - each one eloquently individual, the expression of particular growing seasons, personal winemaking philosophies and techniques, different villages and even different plots within the Champagne vignoble. Even the best-known name of the five, Egly-Ouriet, enjoys nothing like the brand recognition of one of the big brands, or grandes marques, of Champagne.  

Justerini's prices for these gems range from just £21.58 a bottle, for Forget-Brimont's bargain non-vintage blend from premier cru vineyards, to £82.97 for Egly-Ouriet's magnificent 2002 vintage champagne from grand cru vineyards. These growers' champagnes consistently offer so much better value than the heavily marketed grandes marques that I applaud Justerini's buyers for taking notice of the increasingly important role of grower champagnes in the great wide world of wine. But I suspect they may be a tough sell to some of their customers, accustomed as they are to the security of a well-known champagne brand.