Michel Genet Champagne MG BB Spirit Chouilly Grand Cru

I love Champagne from Chouilly.

First, the name is great. To this Midwesterner it reads like it should be pronounced Chewy, as in, “What a Wookie!”

Yet now I’ve (hopefully) learned to pronounce it correctly, as “shh-wee!”, as if a pleasant breeze has picked you up in the summer morning light of Champagne in order to waft you over its Grand Cru vineyards.

And that is the other thing I love about Chouilly – here in the Cote de Blancs of Champagne, France, some of the greatest Champagnes are made. So great, that the vineyards get the title of Grand Cru.

Now Grand Cru Champagne is a rarity indeed, something that you will only find in most Tete de Cuvees. Too much terminology for you? Here is an easy comparison – if you drink Moet Imperial (like I do), you’re not going to find any Grand Cru grapes until you purchase a bottle of Dom Perignon. And Dom Perignon doesn’t come cheap.

Which is why, when I tasted a bottle of this – I was blown away. I would argue that it competes with any Tete de Cuvee on the block, yet go ahead and scroll down – look at that price! Shocking on all counts. But it’s not shocking at all to the siblings who make it:

Antoine, Vincent, and Agnès Genet stand today at the helm of their father’s Champagne house Michel Genet. Here is a family that takes the term artisanal seriously. Farmed organically and sustainably from their own Grand Cru vineyard that is now over 100 years old, everything is done by hand. The three siblings handle all their own fermentations, blending and aging, and finally bottling. Their skill and passion draws out the terroir of Chouilly into a gorgeous drinking Champagne:

A playful joy fills the glass when you pour off a taste of Genet’s Champagne – aromas of Meyer lemons, lime flower, mandarin oranges, and Asian pear are matched with exotic lifting notes of ginger, anise and hints of chalk. Chouilly to me tastes like persistent elegance—persistent because the textural mouthfeel and definition is incredibly long and seamless. What it presents to you in the first nosing of the glass is the same purity of enjoyment from palate to finish. Elegance because it’s dressed in a gorgeous evening gown and has no need to strut or show its stuff—everything you could dream of is right there, in the glass. This Champagne can be enjoyed right now (it’s already been matured several years on the lees) but you can certainly age it for a decade or more.

Brilliant Grand Cru Champagne always comes at a price. Yet I was astounded when I learned of this one. Hand crafted, sustainable, family owned, organic, Grand Cru Champagne never comes at this price. Get it now before the Genet family is discovered (or 100% trade tariffs hit)!