The Best and Brightest from Our Champagne Aisle

When we think of Champagne, it’s not hard to conjure up images of fanciness: New Year’s Eve parties, wedding toasts, velvet-rope club table service. Even many of the bigger-named Champagne houses cultivate the association of luxury with their brands. And Champagne certainly has a place at any party—it can undoubtedly make anyone’s mood brighter. But there’s another side to Champagne: the small grower-producers who have farmed their land for generations and make their own terroir-driven wines, many coming from villages that have nearly more hectares of vines than human inhabitants. These farmers are making the wines we’ve fallen in love with, and that Champagne Buyer Gary Westby has built our Champagne section on. These are the wines that express the soul of Champagne, and—even better—they usually way overdeliver for their price points.

Today’s newsletter features a few of our beloved Direct Import producers—from the fun and fruity Baron Fuente wines grown in the Valle de Marne to the regal Blanc de Blancs from Launois that we can’t keep in stock because it’s such a fan favorite... These pages hold some of the wines that Gary has spent 20 years of traveling and tasting to find. They run the gamut of prices, meaning you can drink many of these as easily with your dim sum as with your caviar—black tie completely, utterly optional.

To chat with Gary about more of his favorite wines, join him on Instagram Live at 4PM on Tuesday, February 9. Be sure to follow @klwines on Instagram and we’ll pop up in your story feed at 4. Not on Insta? No problem! We’ll repost to YouTube and our blog.