Black Friday: Save 20% on Annual memberships for a limited time! Join now

Beyond the grandes marques

Benoit and Melanie Tarlant

Tim Hall of Scala Wine shares news, views and tips from this year’s reprised Champagne Week, Le Printemps des Champagnes. Production is down, sales and prices are up (and how!). Above, Benoît and his sister Mélanie Tarlant, member of La Transmission group of women leaders in Champagne.

It’s early April and I’m driving to Champagne from a damp Paris after an event the night before at the luxurious George V hotel off the Champs-Élysées. Champagne’s Grand Chapître de Paris of the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne included some of the leading grande marque houses’ wines and lauded...