Jacquesson Cuvée 748: What to Expect from a Numbered Champagne
Updated: Aug 29
Every year Jacquesson releases one main champagne with a new number on the label. This year the number is 748. It is Extra Brut, based on the 2020 harvest, and it is the twentieth chapter of an experiment that started in 2000, when the Chiquet brothers walked away from the industry standard non-vintage in favour of a year-by-year approach. This is our short guide to what is in the bottle.
What "748" Actually Means
Cuvée 748 is the 748th release from Jacquesson in an unbroken line back to 1798. But that is not really the number that matters. What matters is that 748 is Jacquesson's twentieth numbered cuvée, following 747, 746, and so on back to 728 (the 2000 harvest).
Each number in the series corresponds to one specific year as the base. Most of the wine in Cuvée 748 comes from grapes harvested in 2020, with a modest amount of reserve wine from earlier years to add depth. The blending philosophy is called perpetual reserve: the same reserve stock is fed each year and drawn from the following year.
If the numbered cuvée idea is new to you, we have written more about how growers think about blending in our piece on champagne assemblage. For Jacquesson, the numbered format means the wine you drink this year is honestly different from the one you drank last year. That is the point.
The 2020 Harvest, In Short
2020 was a warm, generous vintage in Champagne. Early bud break, dry spring, hot summer. The grapes came in ripe and healthy. The style of a wine based on 2020 tends toward fruit-forward, ripe, and immediate, with strong Chardonnay expression coming through the finish.
Cuvée 748 sits inside that year, filtered through Jacquesson's Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards in the Vallée de la Marne and on the Côte des Blancs: Aÿ, Avize, Oiry, Hautvillers, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. If you know those villages, you already know what this wine wants to be.
What to Expect in the Glass
Jacquesson's numbered cuvées lean Chardonnay-dominant, which shapes the character before anything else. Expect citrus and orchard fruit on the nose, chalky minerality underneath, and a saline finish that comes from the estate's chalk-heavy parcels in Avize and Oiry.
The Extra Brut dosage keeps things dry. If you are used to champagnes that carry a soft sweetness on the back palate, this is drier than that. If you have not spent time with an Extra Brut before, our guide to champagne sweetness levels explains where the style sits on the scale.
The mouthfeel is fine but not weightless. There is body from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier in the blend, holding up the Chardonnay's precision. Bubbles are integrated rather than aggressive, the sign of proper cellar time on lees.
Food Pairings for Cuvée 748
The 2020 fruit gives Cuvée 748 more generosity than some earlier releases in the series, which makes it flexible with food. A few pairings we would happily open a bottle for:
Fresh oysters, mussels, or a bowl of clams. The Extra Brut dryness meets the sea salt cleanly.
Roast chicken or a mild fish, cooked simply. Nothing overpowering. The wine will do the lifting.
Aged Comté or a young Gouda. The nutty and salted notes work with Chardonnay in exactly the way you would expect.
A tomato salad in high summer. Underrated pairing. Try it.
If you want to think more systematically about matching champagne to food, our pairing guide breaks down the main styles.
How to Serve It
Serve Cuvée 748 at 8 to 10 °C. Colder than that and you flatten the aromatics. Use a proper glass, not a plastic cup. A tulip glass or a white wine glass is better than a fluted coupe, because it lets the aromas open.
If you can, decant it. Yes, decant it. Jacquesson champagnes reward air. Pull the cork, pour a glass, and taste it half an hour later. It will not be the same wine.
Who Cuvée 748 Is For
Cuvée 748 is for people who like champagne that tastes of something specific. If you have been drinking supermarket brut and finding it uniformly pleasant but not memorable, this is a good bottle to see what is on the other side. Extra Brut, terroir-forward, made by a house that has been paying attention for two centuries.
It also fits a specific occasion: a serious dinner, a champagne poured as an aperitif before a real meal, a small celebration where you want the bottle to add something to the story.
If Jacquesson turns out not to be your style, that is useful information too. Cuvée 748 sits at one clear end of the champagne spectrum: dry, mineral, honest. If you prefer round, rich, softly sweet, we can point you elsewhere.
The Bottom Line about Jacquesson Cuvée 748
Cuvée 748 is a numbered cuvée in the way Jacquesson has been doing them for a quarter of a century: base year clearly defined, dosage kept low, Grand Cru vineyards doing the heavy lifting. If you are looking for a champagne with a specific voice from a specific year, this is one of very few big-name bottles that will honestly give you that.
