A visit to Champagne Boizel

Located on 46 Avenue de Champagne in Épernay, Champagne Boizel is label founded back in 1834 and producing approximately 500,000 bottles every year.

This popular Champagne house produces three ranges of wines to chose from which are ‘The Essential‘, ‘The Exceptional‘ and ‘The Jewels‘. Each range is a carefully chosen selection of Champagne offering a bold freshness, style and elegance to include one of my favourites of theirs the Grande Vintage 2007 which gives a lively fruity, honey, brioche tasting experience and is an excellent gastronomic wine.

Boizel is firmly a family driven label that has seen it grow in to being one of the world’s biggest sparkling wine producers “The involvement of the family in all stages of production, from the vine to the glass, and the family’s deep roots in Epernay, in the heart of Champagne, are two major strengths for the House“. As many will know, the rules for Champagne appellation require fifteen months, but at Boizel, where strong traditions are upheld, the wines are kept for at least three to four years in their cellars before being dispatched to customers all over the world.

Their focus on quality over simply mass production and selling is very apparent in their range of Champagne despite managing 65 hectares of vines (10% owned by Boizel) and selling half a million bottles per year. The highlights of my tasting notes from exploring their range with Florent Roque-Boizel (Export Manager at Champagne Boizel) included words such as “an explosion of floral and fruity freshness” and “a deep honey and brioche tasting Champagne that though not overpowering still has the complexity to be classed as a top gastronamic wine”.

Their superb property location on Avenue de Champagne, which for many tourists is the main place to walk up and down to really say you have visited Champagne, is an inviting place to both taste their range of wines and to have a tour of their winery and cellars. Currently there are many works taking place at Boizel improving the property and installing more hotel rooms as the increase in tourism to the region will enable more people to engage with their brand and fall in love with their wine. You certainly get the feel that Boizel is an emerging brand and there is much more to come from them.

I was also allowed down in to their cellars where there is also much renovation works happening and where in a few months time visitors will be able to take one of the most amazing tours of a Champagne house on Avenue de Champagne – To book your visit to Champagne Boizel we recommend visiting Champagne-Booking.com

On a warm and sunny late morning in Epernay I was pleased to be able to interview Florent Roque-Boizel over a glass or two of bubbly:

In England we are seeing Champagne prices still at low figures such as under £10 a bottle – Is this good for the image of Champagne?

I feel it is damaging and should not cost £10 or less because of the work going into making Champagne such as the ageing process and of course the cost of the grapes.

They are using the image of Champagne and its history to lure people in to their shops. It is sending the wrong message that Champagne is a cheap product.

In the face of competition from the likes of English Sparkling Wine, Cava and Franciacorta, what makes Champagne special?

They are not competition as I feel we are producing wines in a special place with a special and unique history and style. I do though see people having the choice of other sparkling wines as a positive for it gets more people drinking it and appreciating the different styles and seeking for better quality as they explore the different regions and makers.

Has the recent UNESCO bid and success for the region of Champagne helped your industry?

It is a great positive and will indeed help further to improve the name of Champagne and people’s appreciation of our wine region. We do now get more visitors which is great to see and I do feel that now is a great time for people to enjoy Champagne as we have seen a great progress in our wine making, it is certainly better than it was 30 years ago.

For those who have not yet tasted Boizel, why should they?

It’s our Boizel style and the key is the balance to our wines with complexity and freshness along with richness of ageing and having some of the best vineyards in Champagne.

Our wines are not heavy, it is more the balance of the taste we are offering, we seek elegance to the tasting experience of Boizel.

Let us also not forget that we are family owned and can go back six generations of Boizel – There is a deep set history and tradition that the Boizel names works under. If we take my father as an example, he as 43 vintage years experience that he has offered the Boizel brand both then and even today by sharing his experiences.

The consistency of our wines is also down to the great relationships we have with our land owners whose grapes we use, many have been with us for a long time which enables us to year or year produce a unique style of Champagne that is Boizel.