![Bottle of Champagne Guiborat, Blanc de Blancs Prisme Extra Brut Grand Cru [base 2019] ), NV - Sparkling Wine - Flatiron Wines & Spirits - New York](http://nyc.flatiron-wines.com/cdn/shop/files/Champagne-Guiborat-Blanc-de-Blancs-Prisme-Extra-Brut-Grand-Cru-NV-base-2019-Sparkling-Wine-Flatiron-Wines-Spirits-New-York_{width}x.jpg?v=1735915100)
JANUARY 2025
A Rising Star and a Guiding Light: Discovering Two Generations of Champagne Excellence
Dear Extra Brut Friends,
Discovery is one of the great joys of wine.There’s a thrill to getting to know a new producer, or terroir or style. And today we have the most exciting new discovery we’ve made in Champagne in ages, in Gaston Collard.
But there’s another at least equally profound thrill in checking in on a pioneer who has become an established superstar. A role model even. Which is what we have in Guiborat.
This month’s selections are two very different wines from very different parts of Champagne that represent the two opposite points on a grower’s journey: Gaston Collard is a for-now-unknown grower in Bouzy, while Richard Fouquet’s Guiborat, once a pathbreaking iconoclast, is today a model for young vignerons hoping to make terroir-focused Champagnes that can stand alongside the classics.
What makes these wines so exciting to taste together is how they show two different paths to the same goal. Both producers are obsessed with the pure expression of terroir. Both work with minimal intervention (including low dosages) to let the terroir speak clearly.
But what they're expressing is quite different: Collard shows us the muscular grace of Bouzy Pinot Noir (with just a touch of Chardonnay for lift), while Guiborat reveals the electric intensity of pure Côte des Blancs Chardonnay. On one level they are cut from the same cloth; on another they are singing totally different songs.
You don’t need to taste them side by side, but if you have the chance it may be particularly fun. You could start an evening with the Guiborat – it's the perfect aperitif and will sing with light appetizers (raw seafood is a particular treat). Move to the Collard as your meal progresses; its richness and power will carry it through to the main course. But make sure to save some Guiborat to go back to: watching the layers of fruit and stone evolve in the glass, you'll make discoveries of your own - which, after all, is what great wine is all about.
Cheers,
Your Friends at Flatiron Wines
P.S. Have a question or comment you'd like to share?
EXTRA BRUT PICK NO. 1
Our thoughts on this selection
Every now and then we hear whispers about a producer who's about to break out. When those whispers come from one of Champagne's most revered vignerons, we pay very close attention. In this case, it was the legendary Benoit Lahaye who tipped off his importer about Cyril Collard, a neighbor and mentee, who Benoit said might soon be making wines that surpass even Lahaye's own highly coveted bottles.
The Collard story begins like many in Champagne: a family working their land, selling grapes to the big houses. When Cyril's father Michel and uncle Jackie began estate-bottling in 1982, they were part of the first wave of growers taking control of their destiny. But it was when Cyril, a trained sommelier, and his sister took over in 2012 that things got really interesting.
Cyril took a page out of Lahaye’s book, looking to move the farming and winemaking in a more natural direction. Fewer interventions, including lower or, in this case, zero dosage (the sugar traditionally added to Champagnes to balance the naturally high acidity). But this isn’t the story of a new generation doing battle with an older one; the family was supportive and the transition actually began even before they officially took over.
It’s obvious at first taste why Lahaye is so excited about these wines. The Collard vines are on the iconic south facing slopes of the prestigious Grand Cru village of Bouzy, where Pinot Noir gets plenty of sun. With Collard’s careful farming, he fine-tunes the vines to achieve an ideal balance of natural ripeness, acidity and crisp minerality that allows the finished wine to feel harmonious without the need for any additions. The wine is intensely transparent and bone-dry without being austere.
We’ve only just discovered Collard and we’re thrilled to be able to share this producer with our Extra Brut club before anyone else. We don’t know where exactly Collard’s wines will go from here, but we (like Benoit) expect great things. And we think the Guiborat Champagne shows us a possible path forward.
![Bottle of Champagne Guiborat, Blanc de Blancs Prisme Extra Brut Grand Cru [base 2019] ), NV - Sparkling Wine - Flatiron Wines & Spirits - New York](http://nyc.flatiron-wines.com/cdn/shop/files/Champagne-Guiborat-Blanc-de-Blancs-Prisme-Extra-Brut-Grand-Cru-NV-base-2019-Sparkling-Wine-Flatiron-Wines-Spirits-New-York.jpg?v=1735915100)
EXTRA BRUT PICK NO. 2
Our thoughts on this selection
Today, stories like Collard’s are far from unheard of: a new generation takes over a small family estate in Champagne and decides to risk it all by moving farming and winemaking towards fewer interventions. But it must have seemed crazy when Richard Fouquet did it in 1996 (at age 21!). What’s more, he decided to carve a micro-domaine of just three super-special hectares out of the family holdings to focus on the highest quality wines he could possibly make. There was no net, no margin for error. Turns out though, it was just crazy enough to work!
Those three hectares – grand cru sites in Cramant, Chouilly, and Oiry, where pure chalk gives Chardonnay an almost electric intensity – were magic. And Fouquet’s plan to let that incredible terroir sing worked: the wines were stellar, found an audience, and proved to many that Champagne is every bit as suited to small-scale vignerons as Burgundy (or any of France’s great regions). If Cyril’s family wasn’t terrified of his proposed new direction, it is no doubt in part thanks to Fouquet’s success.
Fouquet was a pioneer. But today,in addition to being a role model, he is also a bit of a traditionalist. Many of the new wave growers we love today focus on single-vineyard bottlings. But Fouquet takes a more classical approach, preserving the traditional art of assemblage (“assembling,” or blending, a wine from various plots). "Prisme" draws on three complementary sites: old vines in lieu-dits Mont Aigu (planted 1969), Les Caurés, and Les Bergeries in the Grand Cru village of Cramant. Each contributes its character to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
In this approach he is like some of our other favorite traditionalists (Bartolo Mascaorello, the legendary traditionalist of Barolo, jumps immediately to mind) who believe that there is a unique value in expressing the totality of their local terroir no matter how fascinating (and trendy) micro-expressions may be.
We're here to help
Have a burning question or just want to connect with our team of fellow Champagne lovers?
GROWER CHAMPAGNE
A guide to the best bubbles in the world and what makes them different from the Grandes Marques
Champagne is the world’s most famous sparkling wine. Hailing from the Champagne regions of France, its biggest names are among the biggest names in wine: Moet, Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot, Cristal.
But there’s another side to Champagne: a universe of small-scale producers preserving ancient family farming traditions and bottling wines you’ve never heard of.
These are the Grower Champagnes.
