Thanks for the plug Wine for Newbies!

Good point, doc. The “RM” does insure that the wine is definitiely a Grower Champagne, however just as Dee suggested above it doesn’t always tell the whole story. There are growers who buy grapes for their standard cuvees such as Drapier, but everything else they produce is from their own grapes. Since the designation is for the entire producer and not for each wine, they have “NM” which is the same designation as the giant houses like Moet. It always seems to happen that good intentioned labeling laws somehow get muddled and drift away from making things clearer.

The makers of microbrew beers in the US would no doubt love to have such a truth claim on the label to differentiate themselves at a glance from “craft beers” produced by Anhueser-Busch.

Excellent comments, Vee.

The reason I included Moet Brut Imperial was for contrast, to illustrate the point. It definitely isn’t Grower Champagne. Imperial here in the UK is the entry level cuvee from Moet just like White Star in the USA. It may be a little sweeter but otherwise probably extremely difficult to discern a difference. These are million bottle ++ champagnes made for consistancy. Thanks for pointing out the confusion – I’ve added some titles to help make it more clear.

It’s sad to hear that Grower Champagne is becoming a catch phrase, but that’s how things tend to go. Just like anything in the wine world it pays to look at things on a producer by producer level – Charles Ellner is an excellent example. I just hope some of the worst bulk Champagne negociants don’t start touting their no-name plonk as grower champagne. They make the entry level Moets and the Clicquots seem like Krug.

I find it odd you chose to mention Moet’s Brut Imperial in tasting notes for two reasons. One, the most obvious, is that I didn’t realize that this was considered grower champagne. Two, to my knowledge, that wine is no longer sold on US shores.

One more comment: “Grower champagne”, like organic, is in the process of becoming a catch phrase that is in danger of losing it’s true meaning at some point. Actually, there are some producers who don’t grow as much as 95% of their requirement themselves, so can’t be classed as grower champagnes, but they are very selective with the growers they work with and so their champagnes are artisanal just the same. My favorite example is Charles Ellner, imported by Willette Wines in New York.

Cheers!