Five new release Champagne hits (and a few misses) from Taste Champagne 2025

Welcome back.

After almost three weeks drinking very little wine (but still preoccupied with deliciousness), I’m now back at the tasting desk and straight into a lineup of Champagne reviews that you might be interested in.

The fizz lineup here comes via the Taste Champagne event that rolled into Sydney this week, offering what is the largest annual Champagne tasting on the Australian calendar. It’s a walk-around, rather than a structured tasting, so it’s more about vibes than a detailed note-taking exercise, and such a handy annual benchmarking exercise (especially for the latest vintage releases), Especially so when all the big houses have a fullish range open.

Today then, let’s tap into these tasting vibes for a look at some Champagne hits and misses – including a selection of new wines that even I’d buy.

Let’s go:

We need to kick off with what was one of the finds of the tasting – this Mailly Grand Cru Extra Brut 2018.

One of the younger vintage wines in this lineup, and a sense of the complete package. Crystalline purity, with a cutting line of acidity, but also this perfectly poised richness that fills out the palate perfectly. A real ‘everything in its right place’ Champagne.

Of course, the Mailly is hardly a cheap wine here in Australia (the best I could find was circa $230), but it’s fascinating to try the Mailly and then a Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2015 straight after.

With a $380 pricetag, it’s a valid comparison to benchmark against the Maillard too. The 2015 is a forward and mouthfilling La Grande Dame release too – a wine that I would guess had a higher dosage (6g/L FWIW) and really leans into a wave of leesy golden flavour. Yes, there’s a sense of luxury in the richer mouthful, which is going to make many people who trade up for Grand Marque Champagne happy, but for mine it lacks definition

Speaking of defined, right next door to the Veuve stand was Louis Roederer, with a selection of wines looked particularly strong. Leading the pack was a Louis Roederer Blanc de Blancs 2017, which felt laser-etched. That’s not always a comment I’d use when talking Roederer, and a fair indictment to how far this house has come in recent years.

While we’re on the Blanc de Blancs train, the next highlight was one of the most notable (contextual) bargains in the room – the Jacquart Blanc de Blancs 2015. The standard Jacquart Brut Mosaique NV is a real steal, and the Blanc de Blanc trades in an extra layer of precision and grandiosity for a third of the price of the Veuve. I know what I’d take.

A great companion wine lay across the way too, with a Pierre Gimonnet Spécial Club Grand Terroirs de Chardonnay 2015 in all its voluptuous Chardonnay volume. I think some of the other superstar 2015 Gimmonet Spécial Club wines might edge this wine out, but again, such a lovely, inviting wine. A Pol Roger Blanc des Blancs 2018 next to it was a bit of a miss, and again I just can’t conquer the nutty reduction in the Pol vintage. Such a mercurial wine, yet again.

Perhaps the biggest miss of this lineup was the new Bollinger PN VZ19. I absolutely loved the 2018 release of this Blanc de Noir even though it’s such a particular phenolic wine, yet the 2019 could be from another planet. I had to check whether it wasn’t all Pinot Meunier as it tastes like soft red apples with none of that hardcore vinous drive. Bright and generous, yes, but also a callow and fruity wine too.

Also in the misses folder was a bretty Vincent Couche Elegance Brut Nature NV, although the rest of the typically oxidatively handled, lo-fi Vincent Couche range was certainly interesting. And finally, I thought the Frank Bonville range looked good without fireworks, except for the Franck Bonville Les Belles Voyes 2014, which is quite an extravagant, single-plot, barrel-fermented Champagne that has a top-dog grandiosity. I’d love to sit down and empty a bottle (for research).

Finally, the subplot that murmured through the room at this tasting was how sparkling wine (and to a certain extent, Champagne) remains a rare bright spot in what is otherwise a wine market that otherwise is very gloomy. This isn’t a new thing, but it was spoken by so many wine people, all asking the same question – where to next for wine in a world of declining consumption and chronic oversupply?