All the medallists from The Champagne Masters 2023

Apr 28, 2023

Find out all the medallists from this year's Champagne Masters, featuring a set of outstanding bottles, from blanc de blancs to prestige cuvées, and, in particular, a set of good-value, ready-to-drink vintage offerings, including one remarkable sample from 1999 – which has only just been released.

For all the challenges facing Champagne – from grape price inflation to better rival sparkling wines – it's a category in rude health. And while it's tempting to think that Champagne's strength stems from big budget promotions, as anyone with a passing interest in marketing will tell you, the most important aspect for long-term sales success is a good product. In other words, Champagne's growth, despite some significant recent price rises, and a much-improved competitive set, has occurred because this French fizz is better than ever.

That's certainly my impression from more than a decade of blind tasting Champagne, and certainly after this year's Champagne Masters. In 2023, I found myself handing out a higher proportion of top scores than in the past, as I repeatedly tasted cuvées with depth and precision, flavour intensity with balancing freshness – and, I’m pleased to say, little in the way of greenness.

Of course, styles vary, and although my preference is for pristine fruit flavours allied to a nutty richness, I can see the quality in more oxidative styles, with their appealing notes of dried fruit and honey. Furthermore, while I like a certain creaminess in Champagne, I was surprised by the pleasure I took in the firmer feel of those producers who eschew malolactic fermentations: Lanson and Gosset in particular.

Indeed, riper base wines in Champagne may be favouring this approach to winemaking in the region – even if producers only opt to block the conversion of sharp-tasting malic acid to the softer lactic sort in a percentage of the blend.

And, on the subject of ripeness, yes, this is a function of warmer vintages, but also of better control of grape health through improved viticulture, along with the moreaccurate monitoring of disease precursors in the region. Why? Because, without rot in the bunches, vignerons can harvest later – the pressure to pick in Champagne normally comes from the threat of disease.

In short, riper and cleaner base wines are yielding better cuvées, and this allows for lower dosages too, because you don't need a lot of sugar to offset green notes – nor to mask unwanted flavours – if there aren't any. Hence, the Champagne of today is fuller, but drier too. And, in my view, that's a good place to be.

It's also worth noting that two of the top Brut NVs tasted were certified organic – a viticultural philosophy we were once told would be almost impossible to practise in Champagne, at least for anything mid-priced and in mainstream distribution, which both these cuvées are.

Over the following pages I’ve picked out some highlights from the competition, taking in a range of styles and producers. This year showed a high degree of quality in all categories, with the most improved style being blanc de noirs – Champagne without Chardonnay is hard to get right – and the most irregular being rosé, with some lovely wines, but also some high-priced disappointments. Elsewhere, there were some delicious blanc de blancs, with their citrus and chalk characters shining like stars on a clear night, and wonderfully indulgent prestige cuvées – a category of great quality, but also huge stylistic variation.

But the sub-category to go for in Champagne is undoubtedly vintage. Remarkable wines were unearthed among the single-harvest Champagnes this year, and from a broad range of years. These were Champagnes with toasty interest, precision and layers of fine fruit, from peach to pear, and apple to lemon, in order of increasing zestiness. Such sparkling wines offer great relative value – you get at least 50% more complexity and intensity than a Brut NV for 20% more in price. Furthermore, you get around 80% of the power and longevity of a great prestige cuvée for half the outlay.

Most notably, you get such quality for the same price as the more mundane rosés we tasted. And, while you might say they are prettier in the glass, be they pale salmon-pink or more like gravlax, in my view, there is nothing more inviting than the straw-gold colour of a mature vintage Champagne.

Finally, it was notable to see the range of producers who are making such a good job of the vintage sub-category, from the famous brands to lesser-known labels. At each extreme there were surprises. Somewhat niche grower-cooperative Castelnau was reliably excellent. But it was the region's biggest Champagne maker, Moët & Chandon, that yielded the best vintage expressions of the competition.

So read on to see all the medallists from this year's competition, and scroll to the bottom to learn more about The Champagne Masters, as well as find a list of links to our top picks.

The best vintage wines from The Champagne Masters 2023

The best Brut NVs from The Champagne Masters 2023

The best prestige cuvées from The Champagne Masters 2023

The best rosés from The Champagne Masters 2023

The Champagne Masters is a competition created and run by the drinks business, and is an extension of its successful Masters series for grape varieties, such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as regions like Rioja and Tuscany. The competition is exclusively for Champagne, and the entries were judged using Schott Zwiesel Cru Classic glasses supplied by Sensible Wine Services. The top wines were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze medals according to their result, and those expressions that stood out as being outstanding received the ultimate accolade – the title of Champagne Master.

The Champagnes were judged on 14 March at The COMO at London's Halkin Hotel by Patrick Schmitt MW, Patricia Stefanowicz MW, Jonathan Pedley MW, Siobhan Turner MW, Demetri Walters MW, Neil Sommerfelt MW, Adam Porter MW, Andrea Briccarello and Matthieu Longuere MS.

Please visit The Global Wine Masters website for more information, or, to enter future competitions – giving you the chance to feature online and in print – please call +44 (0) 20 7803 2420 or email Sophie Raichura at: [email protected]