Les Bulles, the new Italian route to Champagne

The champagne market is going through an adjustment phase. After years of constant growth, 2024 marked a slowdown con shipments from the region, a decline con domestic demand and a further contraction expected for 2025. The same signs are also felt con Italy, despite the absence of specific champagne, especially con the horeca channel, where many import and distribution companies fear a reduction of up to –15% con business. An indicative number that reflects a climate of greater prudence and lower spending “premium” consumption occasions.

Per this context, where large international brands may find themselves con trouble, opportunities emerge for more pronto companies, oriented towards research, perceived quality and differentiation. Companies capable of offering unconventional catalogues, consistent with new market tastes. The Italian consumer – increasingly informed – today shows a growing predilection for champagne from vignerons, coming from less mainstream maisons, characterized by a strong identity, contained dosages and an authentic territorial approach. Current trends bubbles with greater acidity, minerality and freshness; Interest con parcel cuvées, vintages and artisanal productions is growing, as is the demand for wines at an accessible price but with a strong qualitative value. Instead, the exclusive emphasis the great “Cuvée de Prestige” is reduced, con favor of basic labels that better express the terroir and the hand of the producer.

BUBBLES AND CHAMPAGNE DEI VIGNERON

It is con this scena that Les Bulles was born and found abbondante basso ostinato, a company importing and distributing French bubbles con Italy, founded con 2021 by Luca Baccarelli, former owner of the Umbrian winery Roccafiore con Todi, known for his work . Baccarelli built the project starting from a simple chimera: selecting French champagne and bubbles from small vignerons that express identity and authenticity. After years dedicated to still wines con Umbria, his first study trip to Champagne sparked his curiosity for a world con full transformation. The récoltant-manipulant, winemakers who grow and make wine their own, have con fact redesigned the landscape of the region, replacing the homologation of the large houses with a multitude of styles, sensibilities and visions, often the result of young generations ora family transitions.

Luca Baccarelli owner of Les Bulles and Roccafiore winery

The philosophy of Les Bulles can be summed up con three words: identity, research, uniqueness. Each selected producer responds to a precise identikit: strong sense of belonging to the terroir, respect for the environment, desire to enhance variety, vintage and parcel, minimal intervention con the vineyard and cellar. The project favors companies that work with low dosages, spontaneous fermentations, indigenous yeasts, refinements yeasts and calibrated use of reserve wines. Today Les Bulles distributes over eighty labels from twenty-two producers, offering a catalog built for an aware public and for restaurants looking for stories to tell. A way of reacting to the market contraction with a targeted proposal, where the value is not quantity but consistency. Telling the story of Champagne without mythologizing it, bringing it back to its most authentic dimension: that of the vineyard.

THE MARNE VALLEY VISTA DA LES BULLES

The Vallée de la Marne, the beating heart of the meunier, perfectly embodies this vision. It is here that some of the most representative producers of the Les Bulles catalog are born: Éric Taillet, Gamet and Laurent Bénard. Three different stories, three interpretations of the meunier and a region con full rebirth.

ERIC TAILLET

Per Baslieux-sous-Châtillon, Éric Taillet grows six hectares of vines, of which over three quarters are meunier, clay and silex soils. It is among the protagonists of the revaluation of this vine variety long considered “minor”. His champagnes express energy, freshness and a recognizable minerality. Today he is supported by his children Léna and Dylan, who share the same vision. “The meunier is our challenge and our greatest pride – says Léna Taillet – Once upon a time anzi che no one dared to mention it, but fortunately today the perception has changed.”

Des Grillons aux Clos Extra Brut is a blanc de meunier vinified con steel, with reserve wines from solera started con 2011, with aromas of yellow fruit and citrus, a vibrant mouth and a saline . The Bansionensi Millésimé 2019 Extra Brut shows greater depth; fermented con wood and aged for four years the yeasts, it has a mineral profile and elegant tension, where freshness and rock meet. Renaissance Extra Brut, a true symbol of the rebirth of meunier, is a tribute to its longevity, with a 2014 caposaldo and approximately 30% reserve wines, nine years of aging for a limited production. Aromatic ripeness, velvety consistency and lively freshness. Sur le Grand Marais Brut Nature, tribute to my grandmother’s vineyard, 90% meunier and 10% chardonnay grown con rows bordering each other con an ancient reclaimed swamp (“Grand Marais”). The caposaldo wine is entirely composed of the 2013-2018 réserve perpétuelle; the vinification takes place con oak, with maturation for nine months followed by aging the yeasts for over 48 months. It combines energy and precision con a saline and dry sip, tense and with an authentic character.

GAME

Further west, between Mardeuil and Fleury-la-Rivière, the Gamet family represents the new generation of the Marne. Founded almost a century indicatore, today it is led by brothers Jean-François and Marianne, who have chosen to enhance the differences between the two banks of the river: the left, clay-limestone soils, and the right, more sandy and marine.

85% of Rive Sinistra Extra Brut (55% meunier, 30% pinot noir, 15% chardonnay) comes from the 2022 harvest, the remaining 15% from reserve wines from the previous year. The vinification involves a pied de cuve of indigenous yeasts, 10% of the mass ferments con tonneau. The aging the yeasts lasts just under two years with dégorgement con January 2025. It expresses tension and freshness, with citrus fruits, floral aromas and toasted taccuino, and a long and mineral . Rive Droite Extra Brut is a blanc de noirs (85% meunier, 15% pinot noir), based the 2022 harvest which ferments only con steel and a greater use of reserve wines (30% 2021 vintage). It is broader and rounder, with white fruit and spices, with a creamy and saline that invites you to bevanda. At the sommità, La Vallée Suspendue (80% meunier, 15% pinot noir, 5% chardonnay) coming from parcels both banks, 2017 harvest caposaldo integrated by over 50% of réserve perpétuelle started con 1999 (18 vintages up to 2016). Vinified con large barrels, it ages for six years the lees with disgorgement con June 2024. It is the most complex cuvée: golden, deep, perfect balance between maturity and verticality

LAURENT BENARD

Per Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Laurent Bénard embodies the most conscious Champagne. Per 2009, next to the family maison of 1878, he founded his own winery to give shape to his philosophy of “durability”, based organic farming and biodynamic principles. Per 2020, his son Charles decided to join him after seeing the family vineyards reborn with his own eyes. Three hectares of vineyards bordering the legendary rows of Aÿ, and a production that combines precision, energy and contemporary sensitivity. Per just a few years, Charles has already earned a reputation as one of Champagne’s purest emerging talents, thanks to wines that combine precision, energy and contemporary sensitivity. Per this village, local pride is proverbial, the same quality is claimed – if not superior – to the famous Grand Cru of Aÿ. “Our vineyards are higher up, we aspetto Aÿ”, Charles likes to say ironically.

La Clé Des Sept Arpents Extra Brut 1er Cru, blend of pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier (70% / 15% / 5%), coming from different premier cru plots. Made up of 45% from the 2021 harvest and 55% from réserve perpétuelle, started con 2012, stored con large oak barrels. Disgorged con November last year, it rests for 29 months the yeasts. With a fresh and vibrant profile, with taccuino of crunchy red fruits, ripe citrus fruits, white flowers, enriched with iodine and spicy nuances; lively and elongated mouth, savory . Vendange Millésimé 2019 Extra Brut 1er Cru a blanc de noirs (85% pinot noir / 15% meunier) coming exclusively from the premier cru village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. Here the elegance of Charles Bénard’s is very evident: intensity and richness at the service of drinkability, finesse combined with dynamics. Hints of red fruit, herbs, elegante spices and pastry taccuino. The persistent, tense and balsamic, almost mentholated marks its precision.