You don't need a big occasion to open a bottle. Pops makes the case for celebrating the small stuff — and why everyday moments deserve a glass of champagne.
The Champagne region is trying to cut carbon emissions 75% by 2050 - grower-producers are leading the charge. Here's sustainability in action in the vineyard.
Chardonnay lifts. Pinot noir grounds. Meunier smooths. Learn what each of champagne's three primary grapes brings to the bottle — and why the blend matters.
Veuve and Moët built the category. Grower champagne takes it further. Learn the difference between big houses and small producers — and why it matters in the glass.
Champagne isn't just for weddings. Champagne Tuesday is where grower champagne meets everyday life — small producers, real stories, and bottles worth opening on a Tuesday.
The first grapes of the 2026 harvest came off the vine on August 6, in a handful of parcels picking under dispensation, several of them in the Aube. The ban des vendanges, the order that fixes the earliest date anyone may legally pick, was issued by préfectoral decree on August 12 on the Comité Champagne's proposal and after INAO review, with start dates staggered by commune and grape variety out to August 22. Picking became general across the region from August 17, around two weeks earlier than 2025. It is the earliest harvest ever recorded in Champagne. One house, Barons de Rothschild, began on August 13 and finished on August 27, starting and completing an entire Champagne harvest inside a single August for the first time in its history. It brought in 6,000 kilograms per hectare. For most of the last century, picking in Champagne ran from late September into October. This year the fruit was in the press before Labor Day. That is the part of the story that will get written up as a curiosity. The part that matters is what came in with it, which is roughly half of what a normal year produces.