Few Americans know their Champagne as well as David White. The author of the critically acclaimed book But First, Champagne: A Modern Guide to the World’s Favorite Wine has studied and written about the region for more than 15 years, and his observations about its wines, social impact and history remain razor sharp.

In a recent discussion with The New Wine Review, White spoke with his usual candor and good humor about what he still loves to drink, where value can be found in a category whose prices continue to climb rapidly, and how not to spend your money on Champagne.

What’s changed about Champagne in recent years?

• Over the last five or so years? Prices. The prices for the most sought-after wines have just gone through the roof in a way that's not tracking with inflation. I’m talking about the producers people are chasing: Selosse, Cédric Bouchard, Ulysse Collin, Jérôme Prévost. These are two — if not three or four — times more expensive today than they were five or six years ago. A lot of wines where you could find for $110 or $125 per bottle are now $400 or $500. That’s a splurge few people are capable of making.
• The other thing that’s changed is the huge array of grower producers now available to American consumers. There’s been an explosion in the number of producers who make it here. An importer like Skurnik has a ton of new producers in his portfolio. There are also lots of importers of sorts who purchase overseas from distributors or producers like R Squared, SommPicks, The Bottle List. They’ve been able to introduce Americans to great new producers like Jérôme Blin, Alexandre Lamblot, Champagne Ullens. These are totally competent, if not fantastic, Champagnes from authentic farmers who grow the grapes they then make wine from.
• The other thing that’s been fun has been to see how some of these producers have taken off. My book came out in 2016. We knew some of the producers I mentioned before were going to be hot. But a lot of other producers were still up-and-coming like Emmanuel Brochet and Pierre Gerbais.

What’s going on with the crazy prices we’re seeing?

• For a lot of the producers we’re talking about, they only make a handful of wines, and those wines are directly tethered to the vineyards they’re sourcing from. When you think about the top producers of Burgundy, even producers at the $1,000-plus bottle level, they often make Bourgognes and village-level wines. So they have wines that hit a lot of different price points. Think about Leflaive — they make a Grand Cru Montrachet, but they’re also making just white Burgundy that’s probably $45 per bottle.
• Champagne producers don't have that. And many make a microscopic amount of wine. So some of this is just governed by simple economics. 
• And you can’t ignore the impact of social media. Everyone’s heard the “phone eats first” idea. Whether you’re in middle school or you’re a 45-year-old grown-ass man, you want to be accepted by the cool kids — you want to snap some photos of those wines that impress people.

What do you tell someone who wants to get into Champagne?

• If you’re not into Champagne and you want to get into it, I recommend you start at the beginning with the big houses. While big houses might seem sort of boring or fall into that “mass-produced” category — conventional farming, poor quality grapes, et cetera — some of them have been making exceptional wines for generations. I’m talking about Roederer, Pol Roger, Bollinger. For $60 you’re getting exceptional Champagne from producers who have access to some of the best vineyards in the entire region and just simply know what they’re doing.
• If you go up a price point with the quality big houses, all of their tête de cuvées are excellent wines for the price. 
• From there, move on to the first growers introduced to the U.S., which is where so much value is found. The first person to import grower Champagne to the United States was Kermit Lynch, the second serious person was Terry Theise (through the Skurnik portfolio). Those producers that they brought in now represent some of the best values in Champagne today. You look at Paul Bara, J. Lassalle, Gaston Chiquet, Marc Hébrart, Pierre Gimonnet, even Chartogne-Taillet. Great wines.
• If you only hear about the labels people chase, you might assume you need to get yourself a $300 bottle to understand grower Champagne. That’s not the case. The producers I mentioned offer tremendous quality, good quantity, and pretty classically styled Champagnes at a real value compared to some of the wines that are more popular on Instagram.  

What’s happening with grower Champagne? 

• Some growers that took off just don’t make as much wine as others — a producer like Gimonnet makes a sea of wine. But growers like Cédric Bouchard or Ulysse Collin or Selosse just aren't making that much wine, which is partially why we’ve seen prices climb the way they have
• Bérèche et Fils, which is now widely distributed, has boosted its production by purchasing its grapes. They’re not the only ones. Jérôme Prévost now has a negociant label that’s from grapes purchased in his village. Vilmart, Emmanuel Brochet, Savart are purchasing grapes. What these producers have in common is that they’ve become so popular, they’re becoming the exact opposite of what made them popular. But that’s the way forward for them. A hectare of land in any desirable part of Champagne is $2 million or more now. So a lot of producers who want to boost production have no choice but to purchase grapes because land is so unaffordable. These kinds of producers are becoming mini houses. 
• But a lot of these grower producers are purchasing grapes solely from their village or adjacent sites, so they’re still showing off the style they had when they arrived in the U.S. market. 
• What’s not clear is whether these kinds of producers are more thoughtful about the farming practices they demand from the growers they work with. Some are. But we know, for example, that Roederer, a big house, has had extreme demands on the growers they work with and the farming techniques they demand for a long time. One would be surprised to learn just how thoughtful and detailed a house like Roederer is with the growers they work with. That’s what we expect these smaller producers and mini houses do, but I don’t know. It’s possible a grower who’s now making a negociant wine may not actually be as thoughtful about these kinds of things as a big house like Roederer.
• The chase we’re seeing for these rarefied grower bottles is getting pretty frustrating. In some ways it’s boring. You see the same bottles in the same photos from the same people. And the prices keep going up, so they’re less available. It’s a shame that so many great somms will never have the opportunity to drink these wines because they’re too rare and expensive.

Where do you look for real value in Champagne?

• I’d start with a handful of the quality big house Champagnes, especially their vintage cuvées. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better wine than Bollinger’s Grande Année. Yes, it’s $200 per bottle, but compared to a lot of the popular growers, it’s a steal. It’s also a wine that’s exceptional every year — and you can cellar it for decades. Krug Grande Cuvée stands out, too.
• At $60 or under, it’s hard to compete with Roederer or Pol Roger. Also the O.G. growers that were first brought into the U.S. 20 or 30 years ago like Paul Bara or J. Lassalle — these are houses that have been making great wines for generations.
• There are producers that were in the conversation a few years ago that just haven't taken off the way others have. Maybe they didn’t get as many likes off on Instagram or they make a lot more wine than you’d expect for a grower, so they’re not as rarefied. Laherte Frères, Lilbert-Fils, Suenen, for example. These producers are making singular wines that are as compelling as Prévost or Bouchard, but they haven’t seen their prices rise by 400% the way the others did. I’m shocked that Suenen isn’t $300 a bottle and Lilbert-Fils is still under $100. 
• I absolutely adore the wines of Suenen. Those wines are beautiful fruit with that chalky minerality you can only get from Champagne. Every single time I open one of those bottles — even though they’re now getting more expensive — I just think they’re such a steal.

What’s the wrong way to spend your money?

• One good way to waste your money on Champagne is to fill your cellar with low- or no-dosage wines. Obviously a lot of the producers who have become really popular love low- or no-dosage. But unless they’ve seen a lot of oxygen (like the wines of Selosse or Cédric Bouchard, who ages under cork, not capsule) a lot of those wines simply aren't going to cellar well because they don’t have the backbone for it.
• The wines from David Léclapart, Georges Laval, Jérôme Prévost — these are amazing wines, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve had a lot with age on them, and they don’t get a whole lot better. Sure they improve in the bottle a bit as they get themselves together, but at some point they stop aging, then they feel hollow and can fall off a cliff. These wines need either oxygen or sugar to sit in your cellar for 10 years.
• Because they’re rising in price year after year, you might think it’s prudent to stock your cellar now with these kinds of trendy names, since prices are only going to go up. But in 15 years you probably won’t be pleased with how you spent your money.

What are you drinking?

• Gimonnet’s Premier Cru Cuis was my wedding wine. But my goodness, the price has gone up since then! But that’s still an affordable Champagne. You can still find it for under $40 per bottle. Every time I open it for people who aren’t into Champagne, they say, “Oh! That’s what champagne is supposed to taste like.” It checks every box in a perfect way from an authentic grower who’s been doing a lot of things right for a very long time.
• If I’m at a table where people are bringing Cédric Bouchard and Ulysse Collin, but I don’t want to spend that kind of money, I’m bringing Suenen.
• Obviously, I don’t drink it all the time, but Krug has always been a happy wine for me. For that big, rich and almost (but not quite) over-the-top, Krug Grande Cuvée is just exceptional, no matter the edition. Even at its current release price [around $220 per bottle], you can justify spending that much money when you think about the quality Krug can deliver every single year.

What bottle do you give someone who knows their Champagne for a gift?

• Give them a Special Club release from any of the early-to-the-U.S. producers. In 1971, a group of really spectacular producers decided to launch the Special Club to try to convince the world that their best wines — their tête de cuvées from their best vintages — could compete with those from the big houses. A lot of great producers are in that club, about 20 members. Those wines are truly special and they’re often just under $100 a bottle. So you’re not going to break the bank and they’re spectacular. Kind of an insider pick. 
• If you’re wealthy and want to give me a bottle of Champagne, I’ll take Selosse. Anselme Selosse’s wines are at the table with the finest Burgundies in the world because they belong there. Unfortunately they’ve skyrocketed in price. You used to be able to buy Selosse’s rosé for under $200 a bottle or their V.O. or Initial for just over $100. Those days are obviously long gone. Those wines are just so expensive, it’s hard to justify, even if you can afford it. But I’ll take one!