News
Champagne Collery Reworks Its Blanc de Blancs With a Rare Pinot Blanc Blend
Champagne Collery has redesigned its blanc de blancs as a two-variety blend, introducing Pinot Blanc — a grape accounting for less than 0.3% of Champagne's vineyard plantings.
What happened
Champagne Collery has reformulated its blanc de blancs, recasting it as a two-variety blend that incorporates Pinot Blanc. The redesign marks a deliberate departure from the more conventional single-variety approach associated with the blanc de blancs style, and has been described as a tribute to the Pinot family of grapes.
Why it matters
Pinot Blanc occupies a vanishingly small share of Champagne's vineyard landscape, accounting for fewer than three vines in every thousand planted across the appellation. At less than 0.3% of total plantings, it sits firmly at the margins of the region's permitted varieties — cultivated by only a handful of producers willing to tend a grape that offers little in the way of commercial convenience.
For Collery to place Pinot Blanc at the centre of a reformulated cuvée is, therefore, a considered statement. Blanc de blancs is a category already defined by restraint and specificity; introducing a variety of such scarcity into that framework draws attention both to the grape's existence and to the producer's willingness to work outside the familiar palette of Chardonnay-led expressions.
The move also arrives at a moment when grower and house producers alike are showing renewed curiosity about Champagne's lesser-planted varieties, as the region's viticultural identity continues to be examined and, in some quarters, quietly expanded.
Context
The blanc de blancs designation requires that a Champagne be produced exclusively from white-skinned grape varieties. Chardonnay has long dominated this category, but the appellation's rules permit several other white varieties, including Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Arbane, and Petit Meslier — each of which remains rare in commercial production.
Collery's reformulation introduces a second variety alongside Pinot Blanc, though the identity of that variety has not been confirmed in available information. The redesigned blanc de blancs was announced on 12 May 2026.
Source: The Drinks Business