What is a Grower Champagne? Like all Champagne, Grower Champagne is a sparkling wine that must come from the region of Champagne, France. Grower Champagne, as the name implies, are wines made by people, who grow their own grapes and make Champagnes from these grapes, generally clustered around a single village. Unbeknownst to many people, the big Champagne houses make their Champagnes by using grapes sourced from as many as 80 different vineyards from the entire Champagne region, and some may not even grow any of their own grapes.

What is the difference? The biggest difference is obviously the amount produced. While larger Champagne houses make millions of cases in a production facility, the Growers often only make hundreds and at the most a few thousand cases, in small family owned domaines. The larger Champagne houses have the flexibility to buy grapes from all over the Champagne region and thus are not affected by vagaries of the weather in a particular region. As such, they can have a consistent house style that can be made year after year. Grower Champagne producers are limited to only their vineyard holdings and are highly affected by the growing conditions. Grower Champagnes are usually described as artisanal, and the wines reflect the terroir (the unique flavor/style/taste) of the village, especially if they own vineyards in one of Champagne's Grand Cru Village. Grower Champagnes are also often released younger than their large house counterparts due, in part, to the greater financial resources that would be needed for long term aging and storage.

What should I drink? If you like a certain house style of one of the large producers, stick with that style. However, if you want to experience the effect of different soil types, the growing conditions and the different grapes (by the way, the three main grapes in Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier), try one of the Growers. Growers, since many are family owned, do not have large overhead. Hence, you can get a great quality Champagne, from the Grand Cru villages, for about half or less than what you would expect to pay for a Grand Crus from one of the larger houses.

How do I determine if a Champagne is a Grower Champagne? A Grower Champagne can be identified by the initials RM (meaning Récoltant-Manipulant) on the wine label, while conventional Champagne would have the initials NM (négociant-manipulant). The writing on the label is extremely small and you have to search for it - they don't make it easier. In case you can't find the initials, some of the famous larger negociant producers include Veuve Clicquot, Moet Et Chandon, Piper Heidsieck, Mumm, Tattinger, Bollinger, Louis Roederer. The growers only account for 3% of the total champagne production. Some names to look out for, that may be available in Grand Rapids include Chartogne-Taillet, Pierre Peters, Marc Hebrart, Pierre Gimmonet, Guy Larmandier, Varnier-Fanniere. In short, if you recognize the name (can you say advertising and marketing budgets), it probably is a negociant producer. We, here at Bar Divani, have a whole section of our bubbles offering dedicated to just Grower Champagnes.

One of my favorite importer of Grower Champagnes is Terry Theise. He has a small portfolio of amazing Growers from all around the Champagne region. The following is some of his personal musings about Grower Champagnes (abbreviated and slightly modified)

Why Drink Grower Champagne, aka "Farmer-fizz"?

• You should drink "farmer-fizz" if you'd rather buy Champagne from a farmer than a factory.

• You should drink it if you'd rather have a wine expressive of vineyard, and the grower's own connection to vineyard, than a wine "formed" by a marketing swami who's studied to the nth-degree what you can be persuaded to "consume."

• You should drink grower-Champagne if the individually distinctive flavors of terroir-driven wines matter more than the lowest-common denominator pap served up by the mega conglomerates in the "luxury goods"business.

• You should drink it because it's honest REAL wine grown and made by a vintner—by a FAMILY just like yours—by a "him," not by an "it." You should drink it because it's better to buy wine from a person than from a company.

• You should drink it because its price is honestly based on what it costs to produce, not manipulated to account for massive PR and ad budgets, or to hold on to market-share.

• You should drink grower-Champagne because, like all hand-crafted estate-bottled wines, it is not a mere Thing but is indeed a BEING, expressive of where it grew and who raised it. In drinking it you help protect DIVERSITY, and diversity leads to VITALITY.

• And if you'd rather eat a local field-ripened summer tomato rapturous with sweetness instead of some January tomato you buy at the supermarket hard as a stone and tasting of nothing, then you should be drinking farmer-fizz!