Bordeaux and Champagne may be worlds apart in style, but they share a common toolkit: blending expertise, and the patient art of aging. These values were the inspiration behind Champagne Barons de Rothschild, founded in 2005 as a collaboration between all three branches of Bordeaux’s historic Rothschild family.
Both regions treasure the specificity of their terroirs and soils, with centuries of experience mapping grape variety to plot. And in 2026, both regions also find themselves on the front lines of climate challenges. Champagne recently made headlines for a record-breaking early harvest this August, highlighting the need to adapt in a shifting climate.
This month, I received an extraordinary invitation to taste Champagne Barons de Rothschild with chief winemaker Guillaume Lété during his first visit to Texas. I joined him and communications director Christian Holthausen for a private tasting of five wines in Dallas.
Lété has been at the helm of Champagne Barons de Rothschild since 2016, and is one of Champagne’s youngest chefs de cave. He first joined the estate as an intern in 2011 at the age of 23. That tenure–combined with the house’s youth–means that he has worked on more than 70 percent of its vintages to date. He spoke with evident enthusiasm about the creative freedom the project has afforded him.
Thumbing through a full-color book of maps and photos, Lété shared some exciting developments for the brand. They include a new winery building in Vertus that was inaugurated in 2025, and which lies adjacent to the “Le Grand Clos” plot of old-vine Chardonnay.
Barons de Rothschild also has a dedicated bottle-aging, disgorgement, and packaging facility in Oger. (It’s solar-powered and partially buried in a chalk hill for energy efficiency.) There are business offices in Reims, and around 8 hectares of vineyard holdings, notably in the Grand Cru villages of Cramant and Avize. Additional fruit is sourced from a network of growers across 80 hectares.
As we tasted, we spoke about climate, blending, gastronomy, and Lété’s unique opportunity of growing a young Champagne house from the roots up. Here are my takeaways from the conversation.
A Love of Chardonnay
Born and raised in the Côte des Blancs, Lété has a passion for Chardonnay. This superstar grape is at the heart of every blend across the portfolio. Chardonnay accounts for around 70% of Barons de Rothschild’s grape supply, and no less than 50% of any given bottling.
Lété favors fruit from his home village of Avize, which he values for the structure and chalky minerality it brings to Chardonnay-based wines. Some white grapes are also obtained from the Montagne de Reims–specifically from the village of Trépail, an island of Chardonnay in a sea of Pinot.
In the winery, Lété employs malolactic fermentation, careful blending, and extended aging to build complexity in each of the house’s Chardonnay expressions. Our tasting was bookended with two divergent takes on the variety.
We began with the crisp and citric signature Blanc de Blancs, and ended on the 2014 Rare Collection Blanc de Blancs. It features golden-ripe fruit from sun-kissed Grand Cru slopes, which Lété calls Chardonnay rôtie (“roasted Chardonnay”).
A Perpetual Reserve
One of the standout features of the house is its use of a réserve perpétuelle system, a master stock of wine that dates back to the first harvest. A portion of the multi-vintage wine is drawn down and replenished each year. (Like a “forever soup”–but more delicious!)
The large reserve vat differs from a true solera, Lété explained, as it blends older and newer vintages together without tiering. Barons de Rothschild uses an exceptionally high percentage of reserve wine, at least 40% of each of its non-vintage Champagnes.
Many of my personal favorite Champagnes have this trait in common–a generous foundation of reserve wine–and it is one of the traditions that makes Champagne stand out among the sparkling wines of the world. Older wines can contribute depth, texture, and developed fruit flavors that counterbalance Champagne’s high acid and mineral bite.
It’s a stylistic choice–but also a smart hedge against climate disruption. Champagne has always struggled with unpredictable spring weather, and can now add very hot summers to its list of worries. A deep store of reserve wines will allow the house to maintain continuity of taste and quality, even in challenging future vintages.
Time + Restraint
Barons de Rothschild Champagne undergoes extended aging as a pillar of its style. The non-vintage cuvées spend at least nine months on fine lees before bottling, followed by three to four years aging in bottle, depending on the wine. Vintage cuvées receive still longer maturation, with some spending more than a decade in the cellar.
The patience to let each wine reach its best maturity is a discipline inherited from the parent estates in Bordeaux. At disgorgement, the wines receive a touch of wine-based liqueur d’expédition (at 4-6 g/L) and are rested again for some months before release.
Barons de Rothschild refers to their low-dosage house style as “purity of dosage,” aiming to center the expression of fruit and terroir. The exact recipe is tailored to each wine and vintage. “But, we will never go above 6 grams,” Lété says.
Even so, the house’s approach isn’t simply to make the driest possible Champagne. It declines to designate the wines discussed here as “Extra Brut” on the front label, even though they technically qualify for the category by being under the 6-gram limit.
Instead of bone-dry austerity, Lété strives for a nearly invisible balance in each blend. Nothing registers as sweet on the palate, but richness emerges from the wine’s long lees aging and reserve-wine complexity.
A Beautiful Range
Tasting through the portfolio, the first thing that struck me is that these are five very distinct wines.
There are through-lines to be found, of course–citrus rind, crisp minerality, and that precisely calibrated sweetness. But they are truly very different, from the feather-light presence of the signature Blanc de Blancs through to the creamy, toasted layers of the Rare Collection.
If you have a favorite Champagne style, you’ll likely be drawn to one of these bottles in particular. If you have multiple favorite styles, then you may find it very hard indeed to decide between them.
Wines tasted:
Barons de Rothschild Blanc de Blancs Champagne (NV)
100% Chardonnay exclusively from Grand and Premier Crus, mainly Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger.
Lemony and delicate, with a zesty entry on the palate and fine bubbles. Pear, sliced apple, and carnation flowers with a touch of fresh bread. A tiny percentage of oak (5%) shaves the sharp edges off of the fruit. It finishes clean and bright, with a characteristic chalky freshness.
Ideal as an aperitif or with dainty small bites, like chilled seafood and canapés. It’s also available in large formats (magnum, Jeroboam and Methuselah) for festive occasions.
This current release is based on the 2021 vintage (60%) with 40% reserve wine. Aged for a minimum of 9 months on lees before bottling and 4 years after bottling. 5.5 g/L dosage.
Barons de Rothschild Rosé Champagne (NV)
Based on Chardonnay (100% comes from select Grand and Premier Cru villages), with a touch of Pinot Noir (6%). Barons de Rothschild Rosé also incorporates 40% wine from a perpetual reserve. Aged for a minimum of 3 years after bottling with 6 g/L dosage.
Lété sources Pinot Noir from the village Ambonnay, which he vinifies separately as a red wine. He uses a very gentle “infusion” technique for coaxing out Pinot’s color and flavor, avoiding over-extraction of tannin from the grape skins.
This Brut rosé is a pale pink color with orange-gold highlights. Small red berries, stone fruit, and herbs on the nose, with enticing hints of mandarin orange and rose. There’s a bit of tactile grip on the finish–as promised, not from stray tannins, but from the underlying chalky Chard that is this wine’s body and soul.
It’s a refined, gastronomic rosé that the winery recommends bringing to the table as a companion to sushi, tartare, and umami-based dishes.
Barons de Rothschild Concordia Brut (NV)
“Concordia” is the Barons de Rothschild homage to the elaborate traditional assemblages (base wine blends) of Champagne. It draws fruit from at least 16 different Grand Cru and Premier Cru villages. It also has the highest percentage of Pinot Noir of the non-vintage bottlings at 40%.
Lightly nutty with apricot, peach, spiced apple, and candied lemon. On the palate, a subtle bitterness combines with the house’s signature mineral freshness. A creamy and harmonious wine with plenty of mature fruit, again from at least 40% reserve wine. Aged for a minimum of 9 months on lees before bottling and 3.5 years after bottling. 6 g/L dosage.
Barons de Rothschild Triptyque (2018)
“Triptyque” is a composition exclusively from three Grand Crus: Avize (Chardonnay, 50%), Ambonnay (Pinot Noir, 25%), and Aÿ (Pinot Noir, 25%). It is described as a modern approach to a classic Pinot-Chardonnay blend.
As a lover of Pinot-heavy Champagne, I enjoyed the baroque pleasure of “Concordia”–but I was actively startled by the “Triptyque.” It’s very aromatic, with exotic spices on the nose and many layers of fresh and dried fruit, including lemon, apple, quince, and blood orange. Each sip is complex, spicy, and full-bodied, ending on a saline finish laced with ginger.
As I told a friend later, tasting “Triptyque” reminded me that Champagne is wine. It’s not only something fancy to toast with, or to contemplate in a swirling glass. This wine has such structural power and savoriness that I could genuinely imagine it on the table for every course of a meal.
Aged on fine lees for 9 months before bottling and 65 months in bottle. A tiny production of 6,515 bottles and 800 magnums.
Barons de Rothschild Rare Collection Blanc de Blancs (2014)
100% Côte des Blancs Chardonnay from four Grand Crus only: Avize, Cramant, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. This is the richest style on Barons de Rothschild’s table, made with fruit from select sites on southeast-facing mid-slopes.
A portion (~15%) is vinified/aged in oak barrels with regular bâtonnage (stirring of the lees). Nine months of lees aging precedes at least 8 years in the cellar, and a 12-month rest period after disgorging.
A cheery bright gold color, with ripe apple, vanilla-scented brioche, orchard peach, toasted almond/marzipan, and light butterscotch on the nose. Toasty and textured with very good length. Its fullness is tempered by snappy acidity, hints of lemon and grapefruit zest, and the lowest dosage of the bunch at 4 g/L.
Luxurious but balanced, an elegant bottle for gifting or sharing at a special-occasion dinner. A limited production of 13,000 bottles and 2,000 magnums.
It was an honor to meet Guillaume Lété and taste these very accomplished wines from Champagne Barons de Rothschild. Truly a dream come true for this wine student and Champagne lover. Best wishes to the winery on all their future vintages! 🍾
Further Reading:
Food and Wine: Champagne’s 2026 Harvest Is One of the Earliest Ever — Here’s What That Could Mean for Your Bubbly – Climate change and vintage report
The Buyer: Behind Champagne Barons de Rothschild’s ambitious plans – Interview with Guillaume Lété by Christian Holthausen
France Today: The New Barons of Bubbly – 2012 article on the early development of Champagne Barons de Rothschild.
Review disclosure: I attended this tasting as a guest of the winemaker. I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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