Ritzy fizz — the best champagne in the world

Times

08-05-2025

Here is cause for celebration: research suggests that drinking champagne may lower your risk of cardiac arrest. It's wonderful to have an excuse to open a bottle but, given the dizzying array of fizz available, which to open? Given the occasion, I feel it appropriate to recommend those champagnes so sought-after that they tend to retail at prices that might, under other circumstances, trigger a heart attack.
For an aperitif I particularly like a blanc de blancs (a champagne that is 100 per cent chardonnay) — that lemon zip of acidity providing a vivacious start to the evening. Charles Heidsieck's Blanc des Millénaires 2014 (Shelved Wine, £191) is beautiful: hazelnuts and a wisp of smoke, the citrus almost roasted; so is the lemon sherbet and spice of Henri Giraud Aÿ Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs 2014 (Farr Vintners, £325), made by a delightfully eccentric family based in the famous village of Aÿ.
Then there are the clos: tiny enclosed parcels of particularly fine terroir. Only about fifteen are left in the region, and they include Clos des Goisses, a steep, 5.5-hectare patch in Mareuil-sur-Äy that has been owned by Philipponnat since 1935. The 2014 (The Whisky Exchange, £300) is a great result from a rainy year: fresh yet complex, with notes of pear and herbs. Krug's Clos d'Ambonnay is far smaller: 0.68 hectares of pinot noir next to its imposing new winery. The 2006 (Hedonism, £2,850) is a luscious blend of figs, orange peel and nuts. Clos Saint-Hilaire, also in Mareuil-sur-Äy and named for its patron saint, is a single hectare of old-vine pinot noir, complete with beehives, lovingly tended by the seventh generation of the Billecart-Salmon family. The 2006 (The Finest Bubble, £380) — aged for 15 years — has flavours of coffee, brioche and clementine; there are never more than 7,500 bottles produced each year.
Champagne Bollinger also has two historic clos in its home village of Aÿ, which it chooses to combine into Vieilles Vignes Françaises. These pinot noir vines, some of the oldest in the region, give an extraordinary wine; the 2012 (Hedonism, £1,270) has notes of plum, cinnamon and a hint of cocoa.
For reasons of space I am ignoring rosés and magnums, even though everyone knows that rosé champagne lifts the heart as well as protecting it and that, as Winston Churchill is supposed to have said, the perfect bottle size for two people is a magnum, especially if one of them isn't drinking. A heroic drinker, with a particular soft spot for Pol Roger, he nonetheless lived to 90; and on turning 175 in 2024, his favourite brand celebrated its longevity — and his — in the most appropriate possible fashion: by releasing Vinothèque, a selection of six particularly fine older cuvées, all aged in its vast cellars to ensure exemplary provenance. One of these is, naturally, the 1998 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill (Berry Bros, £544), an exceptionally complex wine with notes of white flowers and spice.
A leader who was far less long-lived, so little opportunity to suffer from any heart issues, was Tsar Alexander II of Russia, for whom Louis Roederer's Cristal was created: in clear glass and with a flat base to foil anyone trying to hide a bomb in it. Unfortunately he was a more creative thinker than his assassins, who just chucked their bombs into his coach and, when he emerged, at his feet. The 2015 vintage (The Wine Society, £245) has notes of lemon peel and yellow nectarine and perfumes of flowers.
Not every top champagne cleaves to a single vintage: since none is ever perfect, Laurent-Perrier prefers to combine three years of grand cru vineyards to make its Grand Siècle. Iteration No 26 (Laithwaites, £190) is a bountiful blend of cream, honey and baked apple.
One of the most valuable qualities in a fine champagne is rarity. Grower champagnes are made by families who would once have sold their grapes to the bigger names but now choose to produce their own cuvées, usually in very small quantities. The Jacques Selosse champagnes are now nearly as hard to get hold of as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, but try Les Pierrières Blanc de Blancs NV (The Finest Bubble, £440), a single-vineyard blanc de blancs from Ulysse Collin, whose founder, Olivier Collin, is a Selosse alumnus. Certain top growers circumvent the scarcity problem by buying in some grapes, while staying small and family-owned: Larmandier-Bernier, whose Les Chemins d'Avize Grand Cru 2015 (Lea & Sandeman, £142.50), from 65-year-old vines, has expansive notes of citrus peel and nectarine plus a juicy, almost minty freshness; and Bérêche & Fils, where the brothers Raphaël and Vincent made Aÿ Grand Cru 2015 (The Whisky Exchange, £209), which is rich, lightly spiced and exceptionally moreish.
Whichever you choose to drink, raise a glass to beneficial research. It is surely no coincidence that both Britain and France toast the drinkers' health. So here's to yours — or, as the French say, santé.