Grower champagne: Apollonis at Vintage

Vintage now brings in grower champagne — Apollonis Champagne Michel Loriot.

Growers are small Champagne producers who grow their own grapes and make their own champagne. Their bottles carry the mark RM — Récoltant-Manipulant.

How is it different?

Big houses buy grapes from many growers and blend wines from different plots to keep a recognisable house style year after year. A grower works their own vineyards and controls everything from vine to bottle. That’s why grower champagne is more closely tied to a place, a vintage and the person who made it. Not better or worse — a more intimate side of Champagne.

Who are Apollonis?

A family estate in the village of Festigny in the Marne Valley. The Loriot family has grown grapes since 1675 and released their first bottles of their own champagne in 1931.

Today the estate has about 7 hectares across 20 plots. The main grape is Pinot Meunier (about 80%), plus Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Meunier, typical of the Marne Valley, largely defines the Apollonis style. The vineyards are HVE 3 certified.

Champagne set to music

Michel Loriot is known as the musician winemaker: since 2010, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Vivaldi have played in the cellars while the wines age. Hence the name — Apollonis, after Apollo, god of music and the arts.

Why try it?

To discover Champagne from another angle — through a family estate, its land and its story. Next time you see the small letters RM on a bottle, you’ll know the same person grew the grapes and made the wine.