A grower's champagne is made by the person or estate that owns the vineyards where the grapes are grown. These champagnes show much personality and character - evocative of terroir as they are usually from a single vineyard or cluster of vineyards around a village. They also showcase the skill of the winemaker-grower.
When buying, look for the initials "RM" in small print at the bottom of the label, which means "Recoltant-Manipulant". To me it means "really marvellous" wine, as these champagnes are so much more interesting than those from the larger commercial houses. Of Champagne's 19,000 independent growers, about 3,800 produce champagne from their own grapes. In 2008 this was about 3 per cent of the market. The quantities that they make are so small they are only available in selected overseas markets. While the larger champagne houses mainly aim for consistency, some do produce premium-priced terroir champagnes from Grand Cru villages - think of Krug's Clos de Mesnil and Billecart-Salmon's Clos St Hillaire.
A technical detail that separates the growers from the larger houses is the issue of dosage, the amount of sugar added to aid the secondary fermentation that creates the bubbles. With growers, dosage tends to be lower, allowing the flavours of the wine to come through.
I recently met four growers who were in Hong Kong to promote their champagnes.
Located in the village of Congy (yes, it's pronounced "congee"), which is south of the Cote des Blancs.