Brut Champagne
Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine.
Learn more about Brut Champagne
Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé.
Non-vintage Champagnes can improve with short-term ageing (typically two to three years), while vintages can develop over much longer periods (five to 30 years). The most exquisite and often top-priced expression of a house’s style is referred to as Prestige Cuvée. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Recommended Producers : Krug, Billecart Salmon, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Salon, Gosset, Pierre Péters, Ruinart
Prices:
H/Bottle
£16.75
H/Bottle 12 x 37.5cl185cs
Bottle
£28.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl2,640cs
Magnum
£61.00
Magnum 3 x 150cl291cs
D. Magnum
£150.00
D. Magnum 1 x 300cl41cs
This is without doubt one of the finest, yet least known, Grande Marque Champagnes, made with mainly Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. This Champagne is lively, elegantly textured and fresh, with a very long finish.
H/Bottle
£22.00
H/Bottle 12 x 37.5cl14cs
Bottle
£39.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl26cs
Bottle
£27.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl20cs
This is a classic apéritif Champagne. Deliciously light, crisp citrus and apple orchard flavours mingle with sundry red-berried fruit. It is beautifully plumped out in the middle, courtesy of Premier Cru Pinot Noir fruit from the evocatively named village of Dizy, ending with delicate toasty notes.
Bottle
£28.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl127cs
Gardet Brut Reserve showcases the character of aged reserve wines, as well as the ‘prestige' style of this Champagne house. This is two-thirds Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier with one-third Chardonnay, 25% reserve wine added, aged on lees 5 years, the dosage being 5 g/L. Dark straw-yellow colour with some golden hues. The bouquet is full, rich, with strong toasty overtones, backed by layers of creamy notes. This is a robust wine with intense flavours, quite open in expression.
Bottle
£32.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl4cs
The reputation of Bouzy resides in the quality and style of its Pinot Noirs, generally ripe, rich and very expressive. All three of these adjectives apply to this, the signature wine from Champagne Bara: a charming, forward Champagne, with a nose evocative of nectarine, plum and spice, then delicious flavours in the mouth which combine ripe fruity notes, a very fine mousse and an elegant, finely sculpted finish.
Paul Bara is a legend in Champagne. He took over the firm as a teenager 60 years ago and remembers every vintage in perfect detail. He belongs to the sixth generation to run the company since it was founded in 1833. Many major champagne houses have approached Bara over the years to try to buy the 30 exceptional locations he controls in the village...Despite the traditional methods, Bara's wines have a very elegant fruitiness, which is unique in Bouzy.
Juhlin's Champagne Guide, 2008
Bottle
£32.00
Simon Field MW, Champagne Buyer
Bottle
£34.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl6cs
Moët et Chandon’s Brut Impérial, the House’s non-vintage cuvée, is still the number one best-selling non-vintage Champagne. Enticing with green apple and citrus fruit notes, it has an impressive depth and elegance.
Bottle
£34.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl57cs
From the best plots amongst Bonniare’s impressive (and I suspect unprecedented, for a grower at least) 17 hectares of Grand Cru vineyards in the village of Cramant, this is prestigious indeed. With ripe aromas, hinting at honeysuckle and quince, then a palate with plenty of autolytic depth, the wine has a rich buttery core and a fine stone-fruit personality, which drives on to a powerful finish.
Bottle
£35.95
Simon Field, MW - Wine Buyer
Bottle
£36.00
Magnum 3 x 150cl2cs
The 2008 vintage was outstanding in Champagne and Mailly has crafted a typically complex wine, dominated by toasty and savoury Pinot Noir with the balancing Chardonnay providing just that; a joyful and harmonious balance. The wine’s fruit-stone core cedes to a long refreshing finish, while its impressive concentration bodes well for the future.
Bottle
£36.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl174cs
Magnum
£75.00
Magnum 3 x 150cl59cs
Benoît and Valérie Lahaye registered their property as fully biodynamic in 2003, quite a big decision in such a marginal climate. The seriousness of their intent is demonstrated in their Champagnes; real vins de terroir of astonishing complexity and depth. The wines are rich and perfectly balanced, their good levels of acidity harmoniously matched by impressive extract and maturity of fruit.
Vinified in fût, this is a blend of 90 percent Pinot Noir and 10 percent Chardonnay. The wine has an astonishing purity of flavour, showing its full biodynamic pedigree and a real gout de terroir, its vinous quality in no way overshadowing the pinprick acuity of its attack. Notes of mandarin and quince are also evidenced. One for fruits de mer.
Bottle
£38.00
With only four grams of residual sugar but appropriately enough, four years of lees’ ageing, this superb new cuvée takes Legras to new heights of excellence. Julien Barbier, the winemaker, extols its purity, power and its precision on the mid-palate, sentiments with which we fully concur.
Bottle
£38.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl4cs
From four parcels in four villages, Pierre Peters’ Extra Brut is far from foursquare, stretching its modest two grams of residual sugar into a symphony of stone fruit and flowers. The wine is incredibly complex; the putative austerity of an Extra Brut all but forgotten in this maze of flavours, where one is just as likely to fall upon liquorice and cinnamon as the more usual descriptors of plums and other orchard fruit.
Bottle
£42.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
This wine is without doubt one of the very top non-vintage Champagnes. Its elegant complexities come from the barrel-ageing of a high proportion of the blend, together with at least four years' maturation in bottle before disgorging.
The quintessence of the House style, Brut Premier offers quality and glamour as well as excellent value. A structured, elegant wine, it is deliciously creamy with almond and toast characteristics alongside the complexity and roundness that are the hallmarks of this House.
Bottle
£42.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl30cs
Magnum
£80.00
Magnum 3 x 150cl2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
This has a truly wide appeal and is perfect for lovers of exuberantly styled Champagnes. Feminine and fruity in its youth, it takes on a fuller flavour with age. The added reserve wines are specially selected to achieve the requisite elegance, balance and harmony. It’s perfect for the cellar as well as current drinking, which is an excellent excuse to buy more than one case!
Bottle
£42.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl61cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
With its famous yellow label, this non-vintage Champagne is recognised as Veuve's flagship wine. It is a blend of around 50 Cru village and reserve wines from different vintages. Exhibiting fruit, finesse and style, this is a rich, classic Champagne with a yeasty bouquet that truly deserves its status as a Grande Marque.
Bottle
£44.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl46cs
Until 3rd July 2017 we are offering a discount of 25% on Bollinger Special Cuvée when purchased by the 6-bottle case. Usual case price £40.45.
Bollinger was established in 1829 by Jacques Bollinger and Paul Renaudin. The House has a reputation for producing muscular Champagnes with body, depth and power; these are classic, complex, Pinot-Noir dominated Champagnes with the ability to age gracefully for many years.
A blend par excellence; Special Cuvée is the purest expression of Bollinger's house style. Its biscuity nose is endowed with hints of white fruit and the rich, full-bodied palate is perfectly balanced by fresh acidity and a soft, delicate mousse. A stylish Champagne that is ideal to drink now or in the next two or three years.
Bottle
£44.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl93cs
Made from 40 percent Chardonnay and 60 percent Pinot Noir, R de Ruinart makes use of 40 percent reserve wine and is aged on its lees for three years. The wine is elegant with floral notes to the fore and hints of white peach and acacia on the palate. An excellent apéritif wine, this is a splendid introduction to the delights from this most ancient of Champagne Houses.
Bottle
£45.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl26cs
Bottle
£46.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl18cs
The key seems to be to stick with the winning formula, namely a third each of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, but to select from specific vineyards and to age it a little longer, thereby engendering a natural softening. Spicy, with notes of crushed apple, broiche and peach stones, this is a very successful wine. Suitably cerebral to accompany any lively debate over a plate of 12 Fine de Claire Oysters.
Bottle
£48.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl10cs
From 50-year-old Chardonnay vines, this blanc de blancs is fermented in oak. One of the few Champagnes that will benefit from decanting and aeration, the Caudalies is an eloquent testament to the quality of the Chardonnay grape, its personality informed by notes of white pepper, citrus, hazelnut, herbs, chalk, honey and stone fruits. Textured and powerful, this vinous Champagne will work well in the company of sole, turbot, lobster or even duck’s liver.
Textured and powerful, this vinous Champagne has the density that only comes from oak fermentation and will work well in the company of sole, turbot, lobster or even duck’s liver.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)
Bottle
£56.00
The distinctive clear bottle for Ruinart’s Blanc de Blancs is based on an 18th century original. Its elegant Chardonnay persona is harmonious and elegant, capturing the House style. It is one of the finest blanc de blancs on the market, luminous of hue, rounded of form and lengthy in the memory.
Bottle
£57.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl26cs
Fruits of exceptional, mainly Grand Cru, villages, the wine is vinified half in concrete and half in fifth-fill barrels and is then matured with the addition of a little less liqueur de tirage than usual. The result has an astonishing ethereal elegance, its aromas of orange zest, brioche and hawthorn so subtle that the use of oak is far from discernible. In the mouth, the wood is equally discreet, perhaps adding hints of clove and soft spice to the delicate minuet.
Bottle
£60.00
Bottle
£80.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl9cs
Until 3rd July 2017 we are offering a discount of 20% on 2007 Champagne Bollinger La Grande Année when purchased by the 6-bottle case. Usual case price £69.20.
The 2007 vintage was cool-ish (spring’s warm weather was halted by a relatively cold August, common in Atlantic-influenced vintages) which is a departure from the other vintages of this warm decade. There is a certain gravitas that engendered a reserved character when the wine was first released, but it is now opening up.
You can almost nose the coolness, with white flowers and citrus to the fore. Gentle swirling releases bolder berried fruit, that classic Bollinger Morello cherry note with kirsch liqueur adding succulence. The finish adds soft oak spice and I’m sure I detected a hint of truffle sous-bois, a foretaste of its future perhaps? And with similarities to the 1988 vintage, I predict a long and assured future ahead.
Bottle
£82.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl4cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Drink 2017-2025.
Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate. 4th March 2016.
Bottle
£128.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
This is tightly wound at the moment, with small, crunchy red berries and lemon pith on the nose. Taut across the palate as well, with a very delicate mousse and saline, mineral finish and some stone-fruit fleshiness. Very complete and recognisably Dom Pérignon, this will benefit from a couple of years in the cellar to fatten up. A hybrid of the 2002 and 2004, this sits very neatly in the line-up of recent releases from this esteemed brand. Drink now to 2030.
Bottle
£132.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl14cs
Magnum
£375.00
Magnum 3 x 150cl31cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl5cs
Magnum 3 x 150cl1cs
Henri, Rémi and Olivier Krug, who supervise every step of production, tasting and blending, represent the fifth and sixth generations.
Indisputably the most majestic non-vintage cuvée, this is blended from 10 different vintages and 47 wines from 25 villages, then aged for five to seven years on the lees. The palate is dominated by honey and nuts, with graceful acidity and a long finish.
Bottle
£140.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl21cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Winston Churchill is the ultimate expression of what the Pol Roger House can achieve. The 2004 has not disappointed and is very much typical of the Pol style. The palate is packed full of citrus, stone fruit and fresh flowers with hints of roasted nut and toasted brioche on the finish. There is a lot of substance there but all the while very approachable and extremely refreshing. This is vibrant and truly drinkable already, but with so much potential for the future. This is really very good.
Bottle
£148.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl96cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
All the hallmarks of Grand Cru are here, with brioche and flowers on the nose and an elegant palate which marries notes of lemon grass, gingerbread and honeysuckle. The wine effortlessly combines structure and finesse, and reverberates with a really authoritative Grand Cru crescendo on the finish.