Cyrill Banchet

CHAMPAGNE — There are Grower Champagne houses and then there are tiny, micro Grower Champagne houses. Champagne Cyrill Banchet is the epitome of micro. He is a one man show. I met Cyrill and his wife, Christine, in 2010 and it took 8 years to convince him to export his wines to me. To this day, I am the only person to whom he has ever exported his wines outside of France.

Cyrill’s grandfather and father paved the way before him. They transmitted their know-how and solemn respect for traditional Champagne production to him. Plus, the family is blessed by being situated in Chouilly, one of the famous Grand Cru towns in the prestigious Cote des Blancs.

Cyrill owns vines that produce only 10,800 bottles per year:

**  8400 bottles of his NV Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru Brut Champagne
**  600 bottles of his Privilege Vintage Grand Cru Extra Brut Champagne
**  1800 bottles of his NV Rosé Grand Cru Champagne

Again, that’s micro production. From tending the vines to bottling the bubbles, Cyrill does all the work himself.

He makes only 3 wines! Two of them are Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc Champagnes and the third one is a Grand Cru Rosé Champagne. GRAND CRU: It’s the best of the best! What a privilege to market these bubbles.