This article was originally published on Feb. 27th, 2026. It appears in the May 31, 2026, issue as “Isiah Thomas Brings Champagne to the Kosher Market.”
Isiah Thomas was never shy on the basketball court, and he takes a similarly determined approach as a winery owner. Since acquiring Cheurlin Champagne in 2016, the NBA Hall of Famer has operated as a hands-on owner, immersing himself in the craft of the 238-year-old grower house in France’s Côte des Bar. Now he is making another ambitious move—launching a premium kosher Champagne collection.
“Most people think I just put my name on a bottle,” Thomas told Wine Spectator. “But I feel the pressure every day to prove myself in Champagne. I think we have the best juice in town.”
Blending is an essential part of Champagne production: typically blending different grape varieties, sourced from multiple sites and often multiple vintages. Champagne houses also have the possibility to blend different quality press juice, including the cuvée, the prized juice extracted from the first, gentlest press, with the taille, the lesser-quality juice of the second pressing, and the rebêche, although the juice of this third pressing is rarely utilized for Champagne. Most quality producers use only the cuvée, and Thomas is following suit.
“Every bottle of Champagne that we give to the market is first press,” he says. “Champagne and first press shouldn’t be for the elite,” he says. “It should be for everyone.”
That philosophy now extends to the kosher market through a partnership with Royal Wine Corp, the industry’s leading kosher distributor. For decades, premium Champagne has been largely absent from kosher shelves. Thomas saw both a gap and a responsibility.
“Why kosher?” he asks. “Every customer and every person deserves to have first press Champagne at least once in their life.” For a long time, if you kept kosher, your options for French Champagne were slim.
The kosher collection debuted Feb. 3 at the 20th Annual Kosher Food & Wine Experience in New Jersey. Thomas has two bottlings: Cheurlin Brut Champagne Spéciale NV, which is 70% Pinot Noir, and Cheurlin Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs Champagne Thomas Célébrité, a “Brut Nature” blanc de blancs with zero added sugar. “I was pushing for zero and low sugar 10 years ago,” Thomas says. “People told me it wouldn’t sell in America. I said, ‘We haven’t been given the choice.’”
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