The thousand souls of champagne: cadeau bottles and vintage wines for end-of-year countdowns

There is the hand of entrepreneur and winemaker Martino Zanetti behind the new Martin des Orsyn labels, four cuvées, all Premier Cru, produced with artisanal care. Joyful, strong and bright colours - blue, pink, green and gold - stand out against a black background and identify the Grande Réserve, the Rosé, the Tradition cuvée and the Vintage 2018, a broad, elegant and persistent assemblage, suitable to accompany an entire festive lunch.

For those who put the green choice first, the love of nature has always been evident in the anemone-flowered Art Nouveau bottle of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque, one of the house's historic cuvées, and also in the many projects with a green heart, such as regenerative agriculture in the vineyard and patronage for environmentally aware artists. As in the Cohabitare project, an ecological installation in the vineyard to tell the story of biodiversity in the Champagne region, conceived by the design studio Formafantasma. For Christmas, the same studio has declined it in the Belle Epoque 2016 Limited Edition box, which also contains two flûtes. In the typical floral bouquet that characterises the 100 per cent Chardonnay cuvée, this year, according to chef de cave Séverine Frerson, the dominant note is that of carnation.

It reinvents itself by recognising the profound changes in the vineyards caused by climate change Collection 245 by Roederer. The changing weather conditions have intensified the house's focus on sustainable viticulture and challenged the chef de cave to play with blends to keep the house style constant. The 245th blend since its foundation - in 1776 - is a combination of 2020 harvest grapes from selected plots in the best terroirs, with an addition of reserve wines aged in oak barrels and wine from the Perpetual Reserve. Freshness and balance in a cuvée aged for four years.

Da sinistra: LES FA’BULLEUSES ChampagneIsos; DOM PÉRIGNON Vintage 2015; BOLLINGER La GrandeAnnée 2015; NICOLAS FEUILLATTE Réserve Brut ExclusiveDefying Gravity; PERRIERœJOUËT Belle Epoque 2016 byFormafantasma; KRUG Grande Cuvée 172ème Édition.

For the Christmas and end-of-year toast, you can also go for a great classic. It was originally called Champagne Number 1. In the intentions of founder Joseph Krug, it was the original creation of the maison, the dream of producing a cuvée of the highest level every year. Today it has become the Krug Grande Cuvée, we are now at edition number 172, and the aim is always to offer a great champagne regardless of climatic variations. Such as the difficult and unsettling ones of 2016, the year that forms the basis of the cuvée unveiled in 2024. To balance them out, chef de cave Julie Cavil tasted, selected and blended the expressions of the vintage with reserve wines from different plots and ten different vintages.

Also gracing any festive table is La Grande Année from Bollinger. A blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, rich in aromas ranging from hazelnut to plum to a riot of red fruits, it has a full, fleshy sip with a citrusy, mineral finish. Thanks to its richness, it does not shy away from even the most elaborate festive flavours, from foie gras to duck breast to blue cheeses.

Surprise with something new in flavour and history. The number on the label, -52, refers to metres. Those of the depths of the Ligurian Sea, where the Cloe Marie Kottakis champagne was lowered to refine on the seabed, in the absence of light, noise and vibrations. A Pinot Noir from the Aube area, zero dosage to enhance the aromas of the terroir, it has crunchy butter and pastry aromas and a nice savoury streak in the finish, reminiscent of that sea that pampered it, and a bottle embellished with concretions and shells.

A champagne with several heads, seven to be exact: those of the vigneronnes of Les Fa'Bulleuses, an association set up in 2015 to promote the work of champenoise women who, with their maisons, represent all areas of Champagne. Isos ("equal" in Greek), their product, was born in 2018 by assembling the same amount of each one's wine into a single label.

L'inattendue, the unexpected; a cuvée paying homage to the diversity of Champagne's various terroirs. Each release, in fact, reveals a single cru and grape variety in a particularly expressive vintage. A champagne that is never the same and therefore always "unexpected". The 2018 vintage takes us to the Grand Cru of Chouilly, in the Côte des Blancs, where chalky soils dominate, that craie that gives Chardonnays unmistakable scents. A generous wine, exotic in its aromas, particularly gourmet, a splendid table companion.