Champagne has always carried a certain amount of ceremony. It arrives with the cake, the speech or the raised glass. That familiarity has been useful, but it has also narrowed the way we drink it. A wine capable of expressing place, vintage and the decisions of an individual grower is still too often treated as a preamble.
Jason Haynes sees something more interesting. As founding director of Flint Wines, he has spent two decades seeking out producers before their names become widely known and developing the relationships necessary to understand their wines over time.
Speaking exclusively to A Matter of Taste for World Champagne Day, Haynes describes a region increasingly appreciated for more than celebration. Champagne is finding a fuller place at the table, while renewed interest in its smaller growers is encouraging drinkers to look beyond the most familiar labels.
Flint began in 2006, when Haynes and fellow founding director Sam Clarke turned their attention to Burgundy and the producers they believed deserved a wider audience in the UK.
“Our original ambition was to find great wines, starting in Burgundy, and bring them to the UK to share them with others. Twenty years on, it still stands, and stronger than ever.”
That initial focus continues to shape the business. For Haynes, wine offers a connection that extends beyond taste alone.
“We believe there is no better means for making connection – to a place, to a point in time, to others – than wine.”
Champagne has become an increasingly important part of that work. Although the two regions are discussed very differently, Haynes sees distinct similarities between Champagne and Burgundy.
“There are real correlations between Champagne, which is a very important region for us today, and Burgundy: small production, the importance of the parcellaire approach, small cuvées, artisanal settings, and obviously the grape varieties – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the principal grapes in both regions.”
It is this sense of place that makes grower Champagne particularly compelling. The great houses have built their reputations through consistency, producing a recognisable style across considerable volumes. Grower Champagne offers another perspective, one in which the character of a particular plot, vintage and winemaker may be more readily apparent.
“Like in Burgundy, grower Champagnes – which is where we specialise – are the ideal vehicle for telling a story. Grower champagne was a big thing about a decade ago, and it’s having a second wave now – people want the story behind the label, and these wines deliver that in spades.”
Finding those stories requires more than tasting a finished wine. When Flint considers working with a producer, Haynes is as interested in the person pouring as he is in what has been poured.
“It might sound surprising but it’s as much about the person in front of you, pouring their wine, as what’s in the glass. You see something in their eyes. You see it in the way they’re approaching the importance of the work in the vineyards and in the cellar – it’s a hunger to be the best – and we’re taking a bet on that person and their land.”
One recent discovery is Pierre Hugot of Domaine d’Hélène in Cramant, in Champagne’s Côte des Blancs. Hugot works with barely a hectare of Grand Cru vineyards and gained experience at estates including Roulot and Comte Liger-Belair before beginning his own project.
The scale is tiny, but that is part of the appeal. Haynes sees in Hugot the land, experience and ambition required to produce something of lasting interest. The wine may be the introduction, but the producer’s determination is what gives Flint the confidence to follow what comes next.
Long relationships provide an understanding that no single tasting can offer. They allow Haynes to observe the decisions made in the vineyard and cellar, see how a producer responds to different vintages and understand how the wines develop in bottle.
“One is that the really good guys, they’re never happy. They never sit back and say that’s great. Each year they are looking at how to make their wine even better: maybe the pruning, maybe the use of oak. At this level, it’s all about the marginal gains, the half a percent here or there, where every ounce of extra quality helps. And maybe if everything does come together, you make the perfect wine.”
Those marginal decisions may take years to reveal their full effect. A move towards organic farming, for example, is an evolution rather than an immediate transformation. Its influence on the vineyard and the wine may only become fully apparent over the course of a decade.
The same patience is required when judging how a wine ages. A single tasting captures one moment and wines do not develop in a perfectly straight line. Confidence comes from returning to them over several years and understanding the work that sits behind each vintage.
Climate change has made that experience more valuable. Producers are facing an increasing number of variables, making the accumulated knowledge of their land essential.
“It’s definitely climate change, and we’ve been heartened by the incredible speed of technique and technology to help producers keep up with the changing climate, as tragic as the environmental reality is.”
Perhaps the most visible change in Champagne is not how it is produced, but how it is served.
“Champagne’s place at the table is evolving, for the better. It’s much more likely to be a full part of a meal, not just an aperitif, not just for special occasions. We have found this to be evident in the fact that most top restaurants now use proper wine glasses, not flutes, to serve champagne – treating it like any other fine wine, just one that happens to have bubbles.”
The wider glass allows more of the wine’s aroma and character to emerge, but it also makes a cultural point. Champagne does not need to be separated from the rest of the meal or reserved for its opening moments.
Its acidity and effervescence allow it to work particularly well with rich food. Haynes suggests gougères or Comté sablés, along with black-pepper cashews, smoked almonds or roasted hazelnuts. These are not overly elaborate pairings. They simply allow Champagne to move out of its formal setting and become part of an evening.
For drinkers whose experience centres on the established houses, smaller growers offer a different expression of the region.
“Grand marques are made in such big volumes, they have to appeal to everyone. Grower champagnes are made in ways that reflect the terroir, the vintage, the winemaker’s style, so there’s much more individuality, and much more charisma.”
One starting point can be found on the bottle itself. The registration code beginning “RM” stands for Récoltant-Manipulant. It identifies a grower who makes and markets Champagne under their own label, using grapes exclusively sourced from their vineyards.
The code is not a guarantee of personal taste, but it offers a useful route into a part of Champagne where provenance and the identity of the producer tend to be more visible.
Names still matter in fine wine, but Flint has seen how a reputation can be built from the restaurant table outwards.
“Buyers certainly value brand names in fine wine. We’ve enjoyed having a hand in helping producers build a brand here in the UK by working with sommeliers to bring wines first to top restaurants where consumers see them on lists and then seek them out to enjoy at home. Storytelling matters so much in wine, which sommeliers are so well placed to do with their place tableside – and so we’re in a fortunate position to work with both restaurants and to sell to private individuals.”
Buying habits are becoming more exploratory too.
“We are seeing more people want to try before they buy – purchasing a single bottle from us to see if they like the wine before committing to a full case, or to a producer over multiple vintages. We only buy wines for Flint which we’d drink ourselves, so this approach works very well!”
For Haynes, the more persistent assumption is that quality must arrive with a famous name. Smaller producers cannot compete with the marketing budgets attached to the most recognisable labels, but that can make the relationship between cost and the wine itself more direct.
“That you have to buy a famous name to get quality – so much money goes into marketing and branding there – we’d always suggest looking to the little guys, who’ve no marketing budget, where more of your money is going straight to the wine you’re buying.”
For a first exploration, Haynes recommends Champagne Paul Bara Brut Réserve. Predominantly Pinot Noir, it provides an approachable introduction to grower Champagne from a long-established producer in Bouzy.
For dinner, his choice is the 2022 Oger Grand Cru from Domaine Vincey. Quentin and Marine Vincey work in the Grand Cru village of Oger and represent a younger generation emerging in the Côte des Blancs.
For a special occasion, he turns to the 2016 Partition from J.M. Sélèque, particularly in magnum. Vintage Champagne is made from the harvest of a single year, giving the wine a precise relationship with a moment in time. Ten years on from the 2016 harvest, its development becomes part of the occasion.
The point is not to replace familiar houses with increasingly obscure names. It is to make room for a broader understanding of what Champagne can be.
The toast will always have its place. The more interesting question is what happens when the glasses remain on the table afterwards.
Discover more from Flint Wines today via their website.
