WITH the Australian wine lovers’ increasing love affair with smaller, boutique winemakers it’s perhaps surprising that they haven’t paid more attention to grower wines from Champagne.
The difference between these and those from the great houses of Champagne is that grower champagnes are those produced by the estate that owns the vineyards where the grapes are grown. While Champagne has some 20,000 grape growers only 4000 of them produce their own champagne, and then in mostly very small quantities, totalling around 20 per cent of Champagne’s production by volume.
And much of that never
