Champagne

Nobody here buys grapes. They grow them, and then they have to live with them.

That's the whole difference, and it isn't a small one. A great house blends away a difficult year; a grower has to look at it, bottle it, and put the family name on it. Seven families, barely seventy hectares between them. One still presses in a wooden Coquard because that's what the cellar has. Another bet the entire estate on Meunier, the grape everyone else uses as ballast. These are farms that happen to make one of the greatest wines on earth, and I'd rather sell you their year than anyone else's blend of five.

Seven Grower Houses