Can champagne reign in the eco campaign?

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I spent a week in Champagne earlier this year visiting producers big and small, and the topic of sustainability is now dominating the conversation like never before. This is a big change from just a few years ago, when attempts to discuss the topic were still met with an eye-roll. Even those who were trying to do the right thing seemed reluctant to confer about it out of a fear, I sensed, of coming across as hair-shirted. Would talk of carbon footprints and waste-management risk tarnishing champagne’s unapologetically luxurious image?

Cristal 2012 was Louis Roederer’s first to be made from 100 per cent biodynamically farmed grapes

Packaging is the hot topic, and especially bottle weight, which is one of the biggest contributors to any wine’s carbon footprint but a particular issue for champagne, which requires extra-strong, extra-heavy glass to withstand the high pressure within. It’s a cause célèbre for Champagne Telmont, which counts Leonardo DiCaprio among its investors. Last year the Damery-based maison completed trials of a new 800g bottle, which is 35g lighter than standard. That might not sound like much, but it sets a new threshold for what’s technically possible. The first examples are now in the cellar and will hit the market next year. Telmont has also open-sourced the design in the hope that it will be widely adopted. 

“There is a real emergency to act for the environment, and in this field nothing significant can be done working solo,” says Telmont president Ludovic du Plessis. “That’s why we are trying to bring as many winegrowers as possible along with us.”

Growing numbers of producers, including Telmont, have also been streamlining their packaging. The family-owned house Larmandier-Bernier, which has long practised sustainable viticulture, has joined Telmont in taking advantage of a recent change in EU rules that means a weighty neck foil, or coiffe, is no longer required.

Six to try

Louis Roederer 244 NV

The latest edition of Roederer’s ever-evolving non-vintage combines expressive orchard fruit and bright citrus with a scintillatingly fresh finish. Irresistible. £52, thefinestbubble.com

Telmont Réserve de la Terre

Telmont’s signature, certified-organic cuvée has a vivacious acidity – green apple, blackcurrant leaf, citrus and a delicate florality. In the 800g bottle from next year. £69.95, thewhiskyexchange.com

Vouette et Sorbée Fidèle

One vintage, one grape variety, zero dosage and biodynamic into the bargain – this textural blanc de noirs is champagne at its most characterful and uncompromising. £86, parched.wine

Clandestin Les Revers Brut Nature 2019

A gloriously sherbetty blanc de blancs from this disruptive micro-négoce in the Côte des Bar – expect lively pineapple notes and a crisp, mineral finish. £390 for case of six, bbr.com

Bollinger La Grande Année 2015

The latest iteration of Bollinger’s prestige cuvée, marrying fleshy stone-fruit ripeness with all the stately power and complexity that is the signature of the house. £120, thefinestbubble.com

Larmandier-Bernier Latitude

This fresh and elegant blanc de blancs hails from the south of Vertus, a chalky cru renowned for its electrifying chardonnay. Enjoy with seafood. £59.95, thewhiskyexchange.com

Soil health is also on the agenda, and there have been reductions in herbicide use in recent years. But you only need to look at the land’s irregular patchwork of lush green vineyards and brown patches of chemical-scorched earth to see that not everyone is yet on board. Sixty-one per cent of the vineyards in Champagne are certified HVE or VDC (generally considered the entry level for sustainability). Nine per cent are certified organic. Which leaves around a third of vineyards “sans certification”.

A lot of champagne houses don’t own all their vineyards, which makes implementing wholesale change more difficult. But increasing numbers of eco-minded producers, including Telmont, which is en route to being 100 per cent certified organic, are now offering to subsidise their suppliers’ conversion to more sustainable practices. At the smaller end of the scale, the radical Champagne Clandestin has also been doing great things to help local growers in their move to cleaner viticulture. Meanwhile, Louis Roederer remains the gold standard for organic and biodynamic viticulture at scale – in 2012 its prestige cuvée Cristal was the first to be made from 100 per cent biodynamically farmed grapes.

The benefits of biodynamics – which informs organic principles with some more alternative practices including homeopathy and the observation of lunar calendars – can sometimes seem obscure. But on a visit to cult grower Vouette et Sorbée, down south in the Aube, I saw the benefits with my own eyes. Winemaker Bertrand Gautherot laid a spadeful of soil from his own vineyard next to a clod from an HVE-certified producer. His had the crumbly appearance of rich chocolate cake, was full of worms and had a truffly, forest-floor smell. The other’s clod smelled of little and looked compacted, dry and inert. You didn’t need to be a soil scientist to tell who was doing the better work.

Both organic and biodynamic schools still have their detractors. For example, both permit antifungal copper sprays that, when used to excess, can be harmful to plant roots. Other critics find the measures too heavy on red tape, inflexible or costly. For those growers, “regenerative viticulture” may offer a more workable third way, says Anne Jones, adviser to the Sustainability in Drinks conference, which debuted in London this week. 

“Regenerative viticulture has a lot of the same processes and outcomes as biodynamic and organic viticulture – the difference is it looks at the whole ecosystem and adapts to its specific environment,” says Jones. “It’s a tool kit that can be applied to your climate, your grapes, your soil, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.” She credits LVMH, which owns some of Champagne’s biggest brands including Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot, for “supporting the development of regenerative viticulture… They’ve been big supporters of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation and the World Living Soils Forum.”

Champagne Bollinger has also been making strides, she says, with an ambitious set of targets that it plans to meet before its 200th anniversary in 2029. These include moving to 100 per cent recycled and recyclable packaging, eliminating up- and downstream air freight, and increasing the proportion of its land given over to nature from 15 per cent to 30 per cent by 2025. It’s also one of only four champagne brands so far to have achieved B Corp certification (the other three are siblings Piper-Heidsieck, Charles Heidsieck and Rare Champagne).

Choosing a conscious champagne remains complicated. If you’re just after a nice fizzy wine to celebrate with, what should you do?

“Find a retailer that’s aligned with your values,” says Jones, “because they are the gatekeepers in all of this. The best ones will have done the work – they’ll know the winemakers they’re buying from and have visited those wineries and vineyards and be able to tell you about it. And remember that champagne’s not just a luxury item, but an agricultural product that’s rooted in the land.” 

 @alicelascelles