Koningsdag is loud, warm, generous, and completely unpretentious. Champagne, in the popular imagination, is neither loud nor unpretentious. That is precisely why it fits.

That decision is called assemblage, the French word for the act of assembling a champagne from its component wines. It is the invisible craft at the heart of the category, and it is the reason two bottles from the same region, in the same year, can taste like completely different wines.

This guide flips the usual order. Instead of grouping our growers by village or grape mix, we group them by taste signature. Read the bucket that matches what you like in a glass.

Every bottle we send has a face behind it. Not a marketing face, not a brand ambassador with rehearsed lines about heritage and tradition, but a real person who walks the same rows of vines every winter and decides, alone or with family, when to harvest, how to press, whether to add sulphur and how much. That is what we work with. That is what changes the taste in the glass. The formal name for this approach is Récoltant Manipulant, French for "grower who makes his own wine."

There are older champagne houses than Jacquesson, but very few still belong to the family that runs them, and almost none have done what the Chiquet brothers did in 2000.

Among the three regions of Champagne, the Marne Valley is the one most drinkers underestimate. The Côte des Blancs gets the mineral reputation.

Every year Jacquesson releases one main champagne with a new number on the label. This year the number is 748.

The Côte des Bar sits in the Aube département, one of the three regions of Champagne alongside the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne. Historically the poor cousin, geographically closer to Burgundy than to the champagne heartland, the Aube has quietly become the most interesting corner of the appellation.

This article explains what Crémant d'Alsace actually is, how it differs from champagne in ways that matter, and why we import three specific producers. If you want a bottle that behaves like champagne but tells a different story in the glass, this is the category.

That is the kind of private champagne tasting we host in Amsterdam and across the Netherlands, and this page explains what actually happens when you book one.

you can pick a champagne shop on the Netherlands that treats the wine and the box like they matter. Here is what champagne delivery in the Netherlands looks like from our side of the operation, and what to expect no matter who you buy from.

Our local, opinionated take on how to buy champagne in the Netherlands when you happen to live in or visit Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is one of those cities that rewards the people who slow down. The light changes constantly. The water is everywhere. Whole afternoons disappear sitting next to a canal, on a rooftop, in a park. It is the kind of city that was built for outdoor drinking, and for the kind of drinking that has nothing to prove.

The question comes up at every party, every shop counter, every dinner table where someone is choosing between bottles: is champagne really better than prosecco? Or is it just marketing and tradition keeping the price higher? The honest answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. Champagne, prosecco, and cava are three fundamentally different products made in three different places using three different methods. They can all be delicious. They serve different purposes. Th

There is a moment in every champagne maker's year when everything changes. It is not harvest. It is not the first taste of the wine. It is the moment when they add a tiny mixture of yeast and sugar to a bottle of still wine, seal it shut, and trust that chemistry will do what it has done for centuries: create bubbles that will evolve and develop for years. What separates champagne from every other sparkling wine in the world is not just where it comes from. It is also how it

One of the most common misconceptions about champagne is that it is always dry. Walk into a shop, look at the labels, and you will see terms like Brut, Extra Dry, Sec, and Demi-Sec. The names are confusing (Extra Dry is not the driest!), and many people have no idea what they mean or which one to choose. The sweetness level of a champagne is determined by something called dosage, a small amount of sugar added right before the final cork is sealed. Understanding dosage and how

Champagne is one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give. Not because it is expensive or fancy, but because it says something specific: I know you well enough to choose something that reflects what you actually enjoy. I am marking this moment with something special. I want to celebrate with you. The problem is that most gift-giving champagne advice points toward supermarket brands and famous houses. Bottles chosen for their label recognizability, not their taste. Gifts sele

There are over 4,000 grower-producers in Champagne. Most people have never heard of a single one. This matters more than you might think. While the world drinks Moët, Veuve Clicquot, and Dom Pérignon, a vast ecosystem of independent farmers is quietly crafting some of the most authentic, expressive champagnes on the planet. They grow their own grapes, make their own wine, and bottle it under their own label. No shortcuts. No blending across continents. Just terroir, hands, an

Champagne has its own language. Walk into a producer's cellar, read a tasting note, or listen to someone who knows champagne talk about what they love, and you will hear terms that seem to belong to a foreign country. Some of them are French, reflecting the centuries of tradition in the Champagne region. Others are technical winemaking terms used across all wine production. Understanding these terms deepens your appreciation of champagne. They stop being mysterious and start

You have never really had good champagne before. You have had champagne at parties, at celebrations, maybe in a restaurant when someone else ordered it. But you have never sat down with a glass and paid attention. You have never chosen a bottle specifically for yourself and taken time to notice what you were tasting. That is completely normal, and honestly, the perfect starting point. Champagne can be intimidating when you assume there is a right way to enjoy it and a wrong w