If there’s one grower whose popularity has exploded over the last year, it’s Frédéric Savart.

While at a small dinner party in Napa in February, two different guests arrived with bottles of Savart. When a New York attendee inquired about the producer, the Bay Area folks were shocked — “he’s the hot new grower,” they explained.

On Instagram, it sometimes seems as if Bryan Garcia (aka @corkhoarder) drinks Savart on a daily basis. Superlatives are used by Raj Parr whenever he pops open a bottle — which he seems to do quite regularly. Mike Madrigale is a fan. These are great allies for any wine brand.

It helps, of course, that Grand Cru Selections imports Savart’s wines. (Garcia works as a rep for Grand Cru.) And Fred, as he’s known, is quite active on Twitter and Instagram.

But his wines are the real deal.

Producing about 3,000 cases annually, it’s obvious that Savart’s goal is to make high-quality wine. He just happens to be in Champagne. That’s why some of his wines see malolactic fermentation and others don’t. Some see large oak barrels, some see small oak barrels, and others don’t see any oak at all. Dosage varies. It’s also why his vin clair was mind-blowingly delicious.

Hanging out with Fred on my visit to Champagne was a blast. Get your hands on these wines, because they’re only going to get even more popular. Below are some photos from my visit.

Three of the many wines tasted.

An oak barrel. I’d never seen one before.

Frédéric is extremely photogenic.

Explaining the different wines.

Brotastic.