Enthroned at The Summit of Larzac: Domaine de Montcalmès, a Languedoc Stand-out, Drinks Well in Its Youth and Shows No Weakness with Age. + Four Top Terrasses du Larzac Producers. 6-Bottle Package, All Producers Sampler $268 + Recent Arrival Larzac’s Rising Star: Le Clos du Serres 6-Bottle Sampler Package For $138
Join us for Saturday Sips: A Taste of Terrasses du Larzac
Come as you are; come any time that’s convenient for you during our business hours to sample selection from this week’s selections. Our staff will be on hand to discuss nuances of the wines, the terroirs reflected, and the producers.
Elie
If you’re an aspiring domaine owner working with a tight budget, and have an eye to producing world-class French wine, you could do worse than Terrasses du Larzac, where an acre of vineyard land might set you back the equivalent of $5,000. Compare that to Burgundy’s $100,000-an-acre mind-blowing average. Not only that, but only 35% of the available land is currently under vine.
It’s no wonder that this relatively new (2014) appellation is seducing many winemakers who are equally green behind the ears; they are beginning careers with an eye (and palate) toward quality—still a rather novel concept in Languedoc, long the home for a sea of cheap wine available for under ten dollars a bottle. AOP rules in TdL are relatively tight in comparison to the Languedoc as a VdF: in Larzac, there are five permitted grapes—Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignan; the wines must be blends and include at least two from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. Furthermore, cellar-aging must last at least one year.
Among the new class of Larzac producers, we number the following as among our favorites. They are visionaries with both heritage and discipline, finding in the wonderfully diverse terroirs of the region an opportunity to rival, and frequently outgun, wines from the same grapes made way up north in the Rhône.
Terrasses du Larzac: A Languedoc Stand-Out, Coming into Its Own
The history of Languedoc’s vineyards dates back to the 5th century BCE when the Greeks introduced vines to the area. As such, the Terrasses du Larzac AOP is a bit anomalous simply because it only received official recognition in 2014. Extending across 32 communes among the foothills of Larzac, with its northern boundary naturally formed by the Causse du Larzac, part of TdL’s appellation upgrade was a phasing-out of the predominantly Carignan-based wines of the past in favor of ‘cépages améliorateurs’ (improver varieties) like Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre—grapes more usually associated with Rhône. Carignan is now limited to only 30% of any Terraces du Larzac wine.
But the terroir is perfectly suited to the Big Three; Larzac is geologically varied and offers soils that range from stony clay and sand, iron-rich red soils, and heavier clay soils with high limestone content. Vineyards situated on the banks of the Hérault river are planted on pebble-strewn alluvial terraces and stonier soils with limestone bedrock. The average altitude of the local vineyards is around 400 feet, but rise to nearly 1300 feet in the northerly commune of Saint Privat. The Mediterranean climate provides distinctly seasonal rainfall throughout spring and fall, and thanks to the nearby mountains of the southern Massif Central, the appellation’s vineyards enjoy the benefits of cooler nights after hot days, helping to provide balance between sugar and acid in the grapes.
PACKAGE ONE
This package offering is comprised of six wines featured and numbered below: Two wines from Montcalmès, one white Vin de France 2020 and one red 2019, and one of each of Saint-Sylvestre 2015, Mas Jullien ‘Lous Rougeos’ 2017, Cal Demura ‘Les Combariolles’ 2017 and Le Clos du Serres ‘Le Palas’ 2018 for a total of six bottles at $268.
Domaine de Montcalmès
The Summit of Larzac
The quiet persistence of Frédéric Pourtalié has, since his first vintage in 1999, gradually elevated Domaine de Montcalmès to a quality level to match his mentor Grange de Pères, although in terms of cult wine status, it still flies a bit under the radar. Pourtalié trained at Pères before taking over family vineyards at the edge of the Massif Central, where cool night air descends off the Cévennes Mountains.
Named for a hamlet that once overlooked the Hérault valley, Pourtalié’s winemaking cousin Vincent Guizard (now of Domaine Saint-Sylvestre) joined in 2003 in a quest to put the Hérault estate on the world’s wine map. Today, Pourtalié farms 54 acres spread between the communes of Puéchabon, Aniane, St. Jean de Fos and St. Saturnin de Lucian, each with its own unique microclimate and soil geology. Montcalmès means ‘limestone mountain’ in Occitan, and Pourtalié draws variously from the lacustrine limestones of Puéchabon, the rolled pebbles of Aniane, the scree of Saint-Saturnin and the clays of Saint-Jean-de-Fos.
Frédéric Pourtalié, Domaine de Montcalmès
photo: Atelier Soubiran
The domain is hundreds of miles from either Burgundy or Southern Rhône, but the influence of both manages to trickle down to Pourtalié’s operation. His Mourvèdre grows on pudding-stones nearly identical to Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s galets roulés and his red wines are aged for 24 months in old Romanée-Conti barrels, giving them a potential longevity of a decade or more.
Frédéric Pourtalié proudly shares that for the past decade, he has been supplying top-end wines to local Michelin starred restaurants— the Pourcel, the Auberge du Vieux Puits in Fontjoncouse, Michel Bras in Aveyron—but also the Troisgros, Pierre Gagnaire, the Grillon in Paris. “Between restaurants and a network of wine merchants, it is sometimes hard to keep up,” says Pourtalié.
“We are slowly expanding; I recently planted six acres of Syrah on a clearing of scrubland on the hillsides, but I’ve also made time to vinify a 100% Viognier in Vin de France, this time sold only in the cellar. A special vintage just for visitors.”
Vintage 2020
The ‘nutshell’ summation of the 2020 vintage in Languedoc is ‘low quantity, high quality.’
For the most part, the appellation had ample reserves of water from flooding the previous autumn and winter. The spring was quite cool, and there was quite a bit of rainfall in late April early May. Summer heated up, but not to the over-the-top extremes of 2019; it was dry, but the August nights were cool—ideal were quite warm but thankfully without the extremes of 2019. High summer did of course warm up and was dry as usual, but the August nights were cool with an ideal condition for the ripening and flavor development.
2020 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($57)
60% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache; the grapes were destemmed and crushed and allowed to ferment separately on indigenous yeast during a maceration of 30 days. The varieties underwent regular punching down, following which barrel-aging took place over 24 months; the three varieties were blended two months before bottling.
The wine shows clean blackberry and cassis notes while the palate is silky with spice and fine-grained leather with a touch of licorice on the finish.
2020 Domaine de Montcalmès, Languedoc Blanc ($57)
50% Marsanne, 50% Roussanne—the classic Hermitage blend in which the Marsanne provides body and the delicate flavors of peach, pear and spice, while Roussanne brings elegance, aroma, crisp acidity for aging and nut along with mineral notes. The vines, now over twenty years old, are located in Puéchabon on a clay-limestone hillside. After harvesting by hand, the two varieties were pressed and vinified together via direct pressing, and cold settled. Vinification occurred on indigenous yeasts in barrels and demi-muids and the wine was aged in used oak barrels for 24 months. The different barrels were blended 4 to 6 months before bottling.
ONE BOTTLE
•1• 2020 Domaine de Montcalmès, VdF Languedoc-Terrasses du Larzac Blanc ($47)
40% Petit Manseng, 10% Gros Manseng, 10% Petit Courbu, 10% Gros Courbu, 15% Chenin, 15% Chardonnay; a blend so unusual it wears the generic VdF label, but don’t let that fool you; the wine is a gem, showing taut minerality and an herbal edge suggestive of the wild thyme and fennel that grow near the vines. In the mouth, it is reminiscent of honey, almonds, wildflowers and gentle brine.
Vintage 2019
2019 was (as is happening more and more frequently) a season of intense drought, beginning with a cold, dry spring which slowed leaf development in the vines. High summer temperatures arrived quickly and further slowed growth during peaks. Relief came in the weeks before harvest with a mercury drop, especially at night, and a few rain-filled days. Harvest 2019 came later than in 2018 and the wines are more concentrated, with nicely defined tannins behind moderate to low acidity.
ONE BOTTLE
•2• 2019 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($57)
60% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache. The two sites that contribute to this are distinct; the first is north-facing and on limestone scree, the source of the Syrah and Grenache, while the second is south-facing and on galet roulés as you might find in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This warmer site is where he sources the heat-loving Mourvèdre. The wine aged in old casks from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for two years before release and reamins fresh on the nose with ripe plum and blackberry, bricking out with leather, balsamic, undergrowth, chocolate and dried fruit.
Vintage 2018
If any vintage in a given appellation can be labeled ‘typical,’ 2018 in Languedoc was that. After a dry autumn, the winter and spring that followed were particularly wet, bringing record precipitation levels. This was ideal for rebuilding water tables drained during the dry 2017 growing season. The rain was not yet done, and heavy downpours in May and June threatened mildew, and the most sensitive vineyards face yield cuts. Wine growers who acted rapidly managed to have yields in the normal range. The rest of the summer was hot and dry, with expected storms in mid-August. The grapes were harvested during an Indian summer that allowed them to reach an exceptional level of ripeness.
2018 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($57)
60% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre and 20% Grenache, The wine presents a toasty nose of campfire charcoal with hints of vanilla and an intensity of blackberry jam. The palate shores up the bouquet adding scrubland garrigue and on the finish, mineral, graphite and bracing acidity to offset the tannins.
Vintage 2016
2016 was a notably dry year, but also a year that demonstrated how cleverly a grape vine can adjust, throwing its resources into long-term survival and paying less attention to the health of its annual progeny of grapes. As a result, the fruit was small and the juices concentrated.
The red wine grapes reached optimal ripeness in late September and early October and compared to the white grapes, were witness to the stress of one month’s additional drought. Red volumes were down 40%, with Syrah in particular displaying small berries. Mourvèdre and Carignan came in last, having suffered less than the Syrah and Grenache; but then these varieties resist semi-arid conditions better. Carignan displayed a notable improvement in quality versus earlier years (perhaps due to its Spanish origins)—a masochistic variety if ever there was one.
2016 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($54)
The Syrah and Grenache are planted on a limestone plateau facing north; the Mourvèdre on south facing slopes filled with rolled pebbles similar to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The wine has come into its own, showing rich black cherries with cranberry acidity behind the bite of Mediterranean herbs and tannins that have integrated well, becoming settled and harmonious.
Vintage 2015
A delightful vintage for Languedoc; one that wine writer Jancis Robinson calls ‘une année vinabilis.’ Water tables were replenished over the previous year’s winter, and spring was warm and dry, with no weather issues during flowering. Conditions that favor healthy and clean fruit continued into summer, with no hail or rainstorms of any serious note. Hydric stress was an issue for younger vines with shallower roots, notably some Syrah planted in 2006. The older Grenache and Syrah shrugged it off as deeper roots found water. Harvesting began in early September and finished a week earlier than ever before. Grenache wound up as the star of the year; ripe, healthy and very juicy. The Syrah yielded smaller but very concentrated and fruity berries. The Mourvèdre and Carignan were well-balanced between acid and sugar.
2015 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($48)
60% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache; an enticing nose displaying ripe black cherry, anise and a fleeting whiff of dried strawberry. A Grenache with a delicacy that is reminiscent of Château Rayas; a nice balance between fruit and the grip of acidity and silken tannins.
Vintage 2014
As folks in Languedoc recall too well, 2014 was the vintage of cataclysmic hailstorms which seriously compromised yields. Spells of unseasonably hot spring weather tested vines while the summer brought sharp variations in temperature, with cool periods followed by periods of extreme heat. Only the most careful and persistent vintners produced notable wines, but the best of these show balance, concentration and complexity at relatively low alcohol levels.
2014 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($50)
60% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache; the nose is full of leathery cherry and perfumed with dried violet while the fruit is settling into garrigue spice with a long and lingering finish washed in velvety tannins.
2014 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($249) Jeroboam (3 Liter)
Some Larzac from the 2014 vintage may already have peaked, but the beauty of a large bottle format—in this case a three-liter Jeroboam—is the slower, more exacting aging process. As such, this mega offering has traversed the years with grace. Showing mature tertiary notes of earth while maintaining a dark fruit profile behind spicy garrigue and game with mellowed tannins, it is also a collector wine: 2014 was the first year that Terrasses du Larzac was officially recognized as an appellation.
Vintage 2013
Compared with the rest of France, the Languedoc fared well in 2013, escaping most of the major climatic hazards that beset other regions. Key climatic factors were a wet spring—the wettest in thirty years—but that meant that there was no danger of water stress later in the season. Summer arrived late, leading to a late harvest—sometimes grapes catch up, but this year they did not. Fortunately, September was bright and sunny and the rain that did fall did not harm the grapes. They ripened well, with supple tannins and ample freshness.
2013 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($49)
60% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache; a typically elegant wine in the process of aging beautifully, showing broad and expansive dried berries and kirsch accented by hints of garrigue and Asian spice. The finish is very long, with ripe, silky, fine-grained tannins.
2013 Domaine de Montcalmès, Terrasses du Larzac ($130) Magnum (1.5 Liter)
A large format version of the above.
Domaine Saint Sylvestre
Terrasses du Larzac, Languedoc
It’s easy to conclude that Terrasses du Larzac has one of the highest concentrations of ambitious young producers in the south of France. This is partially due to the unique climate conditions but also the vast range of soil types confined to a relatively small area. Throughout the communes that host Larzac’s vineyards, you’ll encounter schist, sand, horizontal layers of red ruffe, clay/limestone and galets roulés in the course of a few miles.
“Among the more interesting of these types is the ruffe,” says Vincent Guizard of Domaine Saint-Sylvestre, referring to the fine-grained, brilliant-red sandstone soil. “It’s rarely found outside Languedoc. It is extremely iron-rich soil that is a beautiful brick color and produces intense, fruity and full-bodied Syrah, Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Cinsault.”
Vincent and Sophie Guizard, Domaine Saint Sylvestre
Guizard knows his terroir as well as his wife Sophie knows the wine business; together, they created Domaine Saint-Sylvestre in 2010 with 17 acres he owned as part of Domaine de Montcalmès, the winery he worked alongside his cousin, Frédéric Pourtalié. Domaine Saint-Sylvestre released its first vintage release in 2011.
Vincent and Sophie employ a sustainable approach to viticulture, a method known as ‘lutte raisonnée’ (the reasoned struggle) and use no synthetic fertilizers or herbicides in the vineyards.
ONE BOTTLE
•3• 2015 Domaine Saint Sylvestre, Terrasses du Larzac ($41)
70% Syrah, 20% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre. A beautifully-aged Larzac blend showing dried cranberry, sweet leather, crushed stone, garrigue and woodsmoke. Total production, 1375 cases.
Mas Jullien
Terrasses du Larzac, Languedoc
Olivier Jullien bore witness to the unwieldy beast that was Languedoc wine during the 1970s. Partly responsible for the European ‘wine lake’ created by over-cropped vineyards producing bulk wine for mass consumption and, if unsold, distilled as industrial alcohol. As a boy growing up in Jonquières, north of Montpellier, he saw many talented contemporaries either opt out of winemaking as a career or move to other appellations. He became the ironic pioneer who stayed put: “I saw it as a moral mandate to prove the worth of my land,” he says.
In 1985, Olivier converted several outbuildings on his family’s farm into wine cellars, intent on producing thoughtful and complex wines under the label ‘Mas Jullien.’ His father was a vigneron who grew grapes and sold them to the local co-op, but these were not the quality that Olivier was after, so he purchased vineyards of his own.
Olivier Jullien, Mas Jullien
Today, he controls 37 acres scattered around Jonquières, most of them growing vines grow on the rocky terraces of the Larzac plateau at the foot of Mont Baudille. Some of these vines are planted near 3000 feet, the highest altitudes in the region. This acreage is actually a reduction from Jullien’s original holding—as he experiments, he hones. His brief foray into natural wines is an example: “I think it’s a good thing in general because it has led people to reduce their sulfur dioxide. But sans souffre (zero sulfur) doesn’t work. You must add some after malolactic and before bottling. Without any sulfur you get the same wine every year, from every terroir.”
He has been working organically and biodynamically for a long time, but he doesn’t bother with certification. Like son, like father: As a side note, so successful was Olivier with his ‘moral mandate’ that his father wound up leaving the co-op in the 1990s and making his own wine under the well-respected label Mas Cal Demoura, today owned by Isabelle and Vincent Goumard.
Vintage 2017
2017 was a rough wine year across France; due to frost and drought, it became a double-record year, for both the earliest harvest and the smallest harvest since 1945.
Languedoc did not see it coming: Winter was encouraging, with January to March witnessing twice the rainfall of 2016. Despite a cold January, there were no frosts or hail of any note, and February followed suit. March temperatures were above average, and with the water-replenished soil, vines grew explosively. Everyone anticipated a recovery in yields, notably among the younger, shallower-rooted vines after the drought-induced drops in 2016.
Disaster struck in late April with a Siberian mass of cold air that made temperatures plunge, causing winemakers to light smudge pots across the region. Crop losses were huge, and further exacerbated by the subsequent rake-hell turn in the weather, which became scorching hot and rain-free until near harvest. It was to be yet another year of low yields (40% less than normal) and a harvest a record two weeks earlier than expected.
And then, a funny thing happened in the cellars: The evolving wine turned out to be similar to 2003 but characterized by more maturity and higher acidities. The wine, lacking in quantity, wound up more than making up for it in quality.
2017 Mas Jullien ‘Autour de Jonquières’, Terrasses-du-Larzac ($53)
40% old-vines Mourvèdre planted in poor limestone soils, with 40% Carignan and 20% Syrah, also from very old, minuscule-yielding vines. The wine is aged for two years in a combination of demi-muids and large foudres and exhibits dark raspberry, blackberry, date, pink peppercorn and basil notes that still shine through an earthy core with nicely integrated tannins.
ONE BOTTLE
•4• 2017 Mas Jullien ‘Lous Rougeos’, Terrasses-du-Larzac ($53)
‘Lous Rougeos’ is Occitan for ‘Les Rougeots,’ and ironically, rougeots is a grape disease characterized by arrested growth of shoot tips and red discoloration of leaves. The wine originates in Olivier’s highest vineyard (around 1450 feet); a west-facing plot situated above the village of Saint Privat. Composed of 50% old-vine Carignan and 50% Syrah, it is fermented and aged 12 months in fine-grained oak foudres. The wine is harmonious and well balanced, with silky forward fruit and black pepper, blackberry and licorice.
Mas Cal Demoura
Terrasses du Larzac, Languedoc
In Occitan—the lenga d’òc of Southern France—Cal Demoura means ‘one must remain,’ and Jean-Pierre Jullien is living proof.
Olivier’s father Jean-Pierre came from a long line of Languedoc vignerons who made a living filling orders from the Languedoc wine industry, good and bad, staying afloat by selling grapes to the local co-operative. But his son’s stubborn refusal to watch Languedoc’s reputation drop any further, and convinced that the terroir of the region was made of sterner stuff, Olivier founded Mas Jullien and proved his point. Suitably impressed, Jean-Pierre sold off a portion of his vineyards and retained only the best twelve acres and began to make wines on the scale of Olivier’s to become part of the qualitative revolution in the Languedoc.
In 2004, Jean-Pierre retired, selling the estate to its current owners, Isabelle and Vincent Goumard.
Isabelle and Vincent Goumard, Mas Cal Demoura
Having spent a year working alongside Jean-Pierre in the fields and cellar, these two young, Dijon-trained enologists became convinced of the terroir’s potential long before taking control. The soil is dry and stony with deep but porous topsoil and the Mas Cal Demoura parcels are spread over 27 diverse acres that benefit from the cooling winds that come both from the Mediterranean and from the mountains to the north of Monpeyroux. This results in a long growing season that preserves essential acidity and yields juice of high complexity.
ONE BOTTLE
•5• 2017 Mas Cal Demoura ‘Les Combariolles’, Terrasses du Larzac ($51)
Les Combariolles is a lieu-dit located halfway between Jonquières and Monpeyroux; the Goumards believe it produces wine with less rusticity and more charm than surrounding vineyards. Equal parts Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache, the wine sees longer cuvaison and an eighteen month élevage in 600 and 500 liter demi-muids and in an oval, 2400 liter foudre. The wine is nicely concentrated, almost liqueur-like with pure cherry notes with a lovely spicy, peppery edge.
2017 Mas Cal Demoura ‘Terre de Jonquières’, Terrasses du Larzac ($36)
Previously labeled ‘L’infidèle’, this wine is the signature cuvée of the domain, a blend of all the regional grapes—Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignan. It is treated to a prolonged maceration that may last up to six weeks; aging takes place in older demi-muids and each grape variety undergoes the primary stages of the élevage separately. The wine brims with dried fruit and a wild savory character behind incisive minerality, offering notes of cassis, freshly-turned earth and complex aromas of licorice and tobacco.
RECENT ARRIVAL
PACKAGE TWO
This package offering is comprised of six wines, two of each wine featured and numbered below.
Le Clos du Serres
Terrasses du Larzac, Languedoc
Says Beatrice Fillon, “We chose this new occupation to rebuild our lives, to abandon a lifestyle where speed was of the essence and which seemed to us to be more and more unreal.”
She is referring to the decision she made with her husband Sébastien to purchase the 40-acre domain Clos du Serres. It was a life-changing move for the couple. Born in St Etienne, Sébastien grew up in a rural, agricultural environment and was familiar with working the land, but it was Beatrice, who hails from Montpellier, who chose the area: “We wanted to move south to the only region where there is still land to clear.”
Sébastien adds, “We were won over by the quality of life, surrounded by wild, unspoilt nature, set among olive groves, vines and the wild garrigue, close to some great natural sites—Lake Salagou, Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, the Hérault gorges—but not far from Montpellier or the sea at the foot of the Larzac plateau.”
The Fillons, Le Clos du Serres
The domain is organically certified and the Fillon’s philosophy is built around the idea that a wine’s quality has its roots in the vine, but terroir gives nothing without being worked. To this effect, each of their parcels are cultivated with individual attention: “In winter, we leave the grass between the rows of vines to avoid erosion during the heavy autumn rain and enhance the soil’s life,” says Sébastien. “We start ploughing with the first warm days getting rid of the grass naturally thus ensuring it doesn’t challenge the vine’s access to water. During the winter we treat with organic material; grape-based compost and manure from animals bred on the Larzac plateau.”
Work in the cellar is equally meticulous, according to Fillon: “We use ‘tronconique’ (conical) concrete vats and other small ones made of glass fiber with floating ‘hats.’ Thanks to the shape of the concrete vats, the ‘marc’ hat sinks into the juices, resulting in soft and natural extraction, so that fermentation based on the grapes’ natural yeast is very steady. The glass fiber vats mean we can work with very small volumes, maximizing our ability to vinify parcel by parcel. Proof is that our winery boasts 17 vats for 15 land parcels.”
Iron-rich, red Ruffe soil in Le Clos du Serres
Vintage 2022
Despite spring frosts and summer hail, clear risks during any growing season in the Languedoc, 2022 wound up being spectacular—the most acclaimed vintage in the region since 2011.
Extreme weather patterns have become commonplace in the Languedoc in recent years. After the June hailstorm, the temperature heated up while sunshine and wind reduced the risk of disease. Some grape varieties made such rapid progress that for the first time in history, Languedoc winegrowers began picking grapes in July. Most harvested between August 11 and October 19, with the early-ripening whites coming in ahead of schedule. It rained in mid-August and at the beginning of September, which polished the tannins and the polyphenols. The weather from then on was idyllic and the reds reached peak ripeness with no concerns at all.
Marie Corbel, head of the Interprofessional Council of Languedoc’s technical department, called the vintage ‘bright, vibrant and exhilarating.’ “The reason for this is that the levels of ripeness promoted quick, easy extractions for the reds, culminating in an explosion of fruits and silky tannins on the palate. Aromatics dominate in the whites, with great density. The rosés follow the same tendency, reaching unusually high levels of expressiveness,” she said.
TWO BOTTLES
•1• 2022 Clos du Serres ‘Saint Jean’, Terrasses du Larzac ($24)
Equal parts Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Carignan and Mourvèdre from various plots at elevations of around 1000 feet and aged for eight months in concrete vats. There is, of course, no oak influence—only raspberry and cranberry with spicy notes that pick up orange peel and clove on the long, luscious finish. 835 cases produced.
TWO BOTTLES
•2• 2022 Clos du Serres ‘Serres’, 2022 Languedoc ($19)
Overall, Sébastien was delighted with the 2022 vintage. He says, “The weather was perfect up to 15th June and then the heat arrived, which was very worrying. However, rain between 15th and 20th August saved them. The Syrah was ripe earlier and benefitted less from the rain, but everything else ripened well and the other reds were picked about a month after the Syrah.”
60% Grenache in addition to equal parts Cinsault and Carignan, the wine shows red fruit jelly and garrigue, especially sage. Total production is 833 cases.
TWO BOTTLES
•3• 2020 Clos du Serres ‘Les Maros’, Terrasses du Larzac ($26)
Soil type is the chief difference in Clos du Serres’ fifteen identified parcels of vines; each has an individual make-up that includes schist, sandstone, pebble, shingle and red ruffes. ‘Les Maros is the domain’s coolest vineyard and is planted to Cinsault, Carignan and Mourvèdre with the former making up 60% of the blend of this vintage. Each variety is vinified separately and then aged for 12 months in concrete tanks which enables the fresh and complex fruit character to shine through. 500 cases produced.
ONE BOTTLE
•6• 2018 Le Clos du Serres ‘Le Palas’, Terrasses du Larzac ($34)
From a west-facing lieu-dit adjacent to the village of Saint-Jean de la Blaquière, this organically-certified blend of 38% Syrah, 32% Carignan, 30% Grenache is aged in concrete and shows blackberry and plum preserves with citrus notes accompanying licorice, black pepper and graphite. Total production, 250 cases.
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Posted on 2025.03.14 in France, Languedoc-Roussillon | Read more...
The Evidence Of Things Terroir Champagne Hubert Noiret’s Coteaux du Petit-Morin Single Vineyards In Pursuit of Authentic Expression of Place of Origin
Wine is not about bubblegum halter tops or chunky flip-flops, but as an industry, it is as susceptible to fashion trends as any other. At Elie’s, we roll our eyes at some and embrace others with open arms and eager palates. Since the mid-1990s, as a whole, French winemakers (many fresh out of enology school) have made a concerted effort to employ organic methods in their vineyards, both as homage to the soil that produces grapes and as a planet-saving necessity.
In Champagne, global warming has shifted the hierarchy of terroirs, allowing regions once considered marginal to seize a little limelight. Discovering these tiny pockets (Villevenard in the Coteaux du Petit-Morin, for example, has around three hundred acres under vine) as they begin to rise in the public’s estimation is one of the joys of being a merchant; getting to know the winemakers themselves is one of the privileges of being a wine lover.
A New Generation
If we are on the brink of another Golden Age of Champagne, the 70’s and ‘80’s might be viewed as the Dark Ages. The advent of industrialized farming and its overwrought dependence on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and fungal treatment, stripped away a portion of the character that many wineries had spent centuries nurturing. The organic farming and an adherence to biodynamic principles that feature prominently in the practices of countless modern operations had its beginnings in the ‘back to the future’ outlook of this generation of winemakers, who took a rearview mirror to the methods of their forefathers and saw the folly of treating wine as a process rather than a reflection of place.
Champagne Hubert Noiret is this week’s ‘Exhibit A.’
Champagne’s Search for Authenticity: A Wine Like Any Other
Over the years we have emphasized that Champagne—however vaunted it is as a symbol, a ritual and an icon—is first and foremost, a wine. At a wedding, an anniversary or at two minutes passed midnight on New Year’s Day, you may lose track of this simple fact, but the men and women who work the cellars of Champagne do not. At its best, whether blended or not, Champagne expresses the site(s) upon which it is grown, and this is a wine fundamental that does not change because process adds carbonation. And it’s a fact that long before that carbonation is added, the still wine (vin clair), is evaluated at face value and many major houses isolate individual vineyards with specific characteristics at this point, the better to create a more complex and predictable final product.
Still Champagne, a subject about which we wrote recently, is an entirely different category, and was born in part from a warming climate which allows traditional cool weather Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (which serves sparkling Champagne best when slightly under-ripe and still electric with acidity) to ripen more completely on the vine. Such grapes make infinitely better non-carbonated wine, and are, in fact, the talk of the town in both Épernay and Reims.
Digging Deeper: Site-Specific Champagne
For a wine region that is a day-trip away from Burgundy, Champagne has showed a historical reluctance to focus on lieux-dits—vineyard-specific wines. In fact, Champagnes named for a particular village has been a rarity; Eugène Salon did it in 1905, and however legendary his Côte des Blancs has become, it was decades before anybody else did it, at least for public consumption.
But things are changing in Champagne—climate and zeitgeist, and the torch is being passed to a younger generation. In the 1990s, interest in experimentation took hold, and part of that innovative spirit involved the recognition that sites have personality—something that Champagne houses have long been obsessed with displaying. Blends can achieve a generic identity recognizable from vintage to vintage, and it is unlikely that single-cru models will replace this hegemonic tradition. But a new crop of chef de cave in Champagne are also increasingly aware that consumers have become interested in a more focused reading of terroir and that by attempting to express their vineyards with individuality rather than synergy when blended with others, an entirely new breed of wine-lovers will be engaged—those who recognize that any wine’s primary identity is drawn from the vine, not the label.
The Landscape of Coteaux du Petit-Morin
It’s all quiet on the western front—primarily because the Champagne-producing villages of Petit-Morin are located exclusively on the eastern front. This has traditionally been négociant country, where growers sell their grapes rather than produce wine. Although Coteaux du Petit-Morin is only fifteen miles from Épernay, it remains rural and true to its roots, where the vineyards are surrounded by open field and forested hillsides.
The region is frequently lumped in with the Côte de Sézanne or labeled ‘Val de Petit-Morin’ named after the river that has its source in the Val-des-Marais commune, part of the Côte des Blancs. But Olivier Collin of Ulysse Collin (the area’s largest producer) prefers to call his home-base Coteaux du Petit-Morin after the hillsides on which the vines grow; he defines the territory in specific terms: “Côte de Sézanne begins at the villages of Broyes and Allemant, south of Villevenard. We run from Soulières in the north to Villevenard in the south, up to Vert-Toulon in the east. As you can see, we are quite unique from either Sézanne or Côte des Blancs”
He adds: “Meunier is more common than Chardonnay in the Val du Petit-Morin taken as a whole, while Chardonnay completely dominates the Côte des Blancs. The finest terroirs in Petit-Morin are peppered with black silex—a type of flint—that offers our Champagnes a smoky tone of minerality that is unique.”
Cyril Jeaunaux of Jeaunaux-Robin reinforces this statement: “We are often grouped with Côte des Blancs, but our aspect and terroir are completely different. Our soils contain much more clay and considerably less chalk; we have black silex and, whereas Côte des Blancs is nearly all Chardonnay, we excel at Meunier,” adding, “For me, it is a fairly recent phenomenon to be talking about individual plots and vineyard-specific Champagnes—maybe only for the last ten years. This is the same length of time since we began referring to Petit-Morin as a unique and self-contained regional appellation. As for terroir, my parents worked under the blending philosophy of the big Champagne houses, meaning that our wines were a balanced mix from many villages and multiple vineyards. For me, the ‘terroir revolution’—sometimes called the ‘Burgundian turnover’—has happened in my own time.”
Silex is a word that arises in nearly every conversation about Coteaux du Petit-Morin’s distinctive soil, and Aurélien Clément of Clément & Fils mentions that his own local silex deposits near Congy—mostly grey rather than black—were used for centuries and centuries before vineyards were planted. “Perhaps as long as seven thousand years ago, early man used it in tool-making,” he says.
Like Cyril Jeaunaux’s family, Clément adds, “My uncle and great-grandfather were more concerned with blends rather than the expression of ‘one blood’—meaning a single vineyard or commune. When our regional identity was legalized for use on our labels, we began to take a more focused look at the specific ground beneath our feet, seeing it, perhaps, as a chance of a new way of expressing our Champagnes.”
Marie Laurène Lefébure (Champagne Lefébure) is also a fan of Petit-Morin for the complexity of the soils, which she favors over the homogenous aspect of the Côte des Blancs; she mentions specifically the clays near her winery in Baye in the western part of the appellation and in particular, the ferrous content of her terroirs: “For me, this is more important than silex. Iron imparts a rich and sensual aroma that almost reminds one of blood. We love Meunier, of course, but our orientation allows us plots of Chardonnay, which here shows an exotic side—it is very unique, very baroque Chardonnay.”
Along with her husband Sébastien, Lefébure generally avoids the ‘fast-motion zeitgeist’ in modern Champagne, but is equally a proponent of natural approach to winemaking. In fact, the couple was assisted by the organic champagne pioneering family, the Horiots in building her small, low production winery.
About The Flinty Soils of the Village of Villevenard
Flint is a word with plenty of literary oomph—references range from Shakespeare (“O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb that carries anger as the flint bears fire …”) to Dickens (“Scrooge was hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire …”).
It’s also a word used in wine descriptors to signify a wine with a minerality that approaches smokiness.
Whether or not the mineral itself is responsible for all the ‘flint’ tasting notes is debatable, since flint is chemically inert and virtually insoluble, and thus, odorless and tasteless. But soils that contain measurable quantities of flint still produce iconic wines. This is true especially in Coteaux du Petit-Morin, where Silex Noir, a rare black flint, is found. It is a soil component most associated with a small corner of Vouvray, but which reappears in the terroir of Villevenard.
But for a vineyard? Besides making hard tools for prehistoric man, it’s a great marketing tool for modern wineries. It’s true that flint pebbles provide good drainage, and being inert, restrict nutrient availability, making for meager soils—the kind that tend to deliver finer grapes. At the same time, in overly dry areas, flint pebbles can promote the localized formation of dew, which leads to increased microbial activity and more organic matter beneath the stones. All this promotes a good soil structure. But does flint influence the taste of the wine itself? Alas, vine roots are demonstrably incapable of absorbing and using a solid, inert compound such as silica, which is tasteless anyway.
Wine is poetry in a glass, however, so we’ll raise one to the power of literary allusions.
Champagne Hubert Noiret
In Pursuit Of Authentic Expression Of Place Of Origin
The transition from wine growing to wine marketing, from selling your grapes to producers to becoming the producer yourself, often takes many generations. Such was the case with Hubert Noiret, a Champagne house in Villevenard commune of Petit-Morin formed in 2003 by Nathalie and Jean-Michel Noiret, whose families have been tending vineyards since the 18th century. Indeed, it is a background that has served the couple well.
Jean-Michel Noiret
Nathalie Hubert-Noiret
Says Nathalie: “We find that the ancestral techniques of our grandparents who used natural materials have been forgotten and replaced by chemistry. Used on a large scale, it has unbalanced the human environment and plant diversity in the name of comfort. Our life journey has made us understand that chemistry has limited human and plant life and created a phenomenon of resistance, which is why since 2011, we gradually rebalance the natural forces of life on all our plots via biodynamics. We reuse materials of natural origin at very low doses: copper against mildew and sulfur against powdery mildew—both essential for the protection of the vineyard and the production of great Champagne.”
Jean-Michel adds, “From a very young age, we followed our parents closely, but to try to understand what nature wants to give us, I would need at least 3 lifetimes. Ours is a profession of patience, where every detail counts to achieve excellence. We are blessed to be in a region of Champagne rich in a Neolithic past with a very diverse and varied geology. We move from the peat of the Marais de St. Gond to chalk, from marls to white and green clays, from sandy loams to clay loams; a geological palette of incredible richness, lending a character and a style to our Champagnes.”
Champagne Hubert Noiret Vineyards in Villevenard, a village in Coteaux du Petit-Morin
2021 Vintage in Coteaux du Petit-Morin
2021 was a pretty brutal growing season throughout Champagne’s Côte des Blancs and Coteaux du Petit-Morin region, but a few well-positioned producers were able to snatch victory from the jaws of de weather. March was mild, but April temperatures took a nose-dive with heavy bouts of frost; growers who only lost 30% of their crop were considered lucky. Humidity followed and the bruised vines began to rot. A much-anticipated May warm-up did not arrive, but instead brought heavy rains. By July, 60% of all vineyards were affected.
Most of the grapes went into blends, but the best maintained vineyards have produced vintage wines with fresh elegance and acidity and may even have some capacity to age.
Champagne Hubert Noiret, Harvest 2021 Coteaux du Petit-Morin – Villevenard Lieu-dit ‘Clos Prieur’ Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut ($68)
100% Chardonnay from hand-picked grapes, traditional pressing, 10 months of aging and vinification in 228-liter and 300-liter oak barrels. The vin clair was bottled July 2022, disgorged in February 2024 and dosed at 4 gram/liter. The wine shows a lusciously creamy nose, notes of butter and ripe nectarine peach with roasting spices through the palate. 2120 bottles made.
2014 Vintage in Coteaux du Petit-Morin
A warm, dry spring got the growing season off to a quick and healthy start; both budburst and flowering were successful, and the absence of any severe frost gave producers cause for optimism. However, all that crashed to a halt as the summer proved to be damp. July and August were cool and wet with only the latter half of August eventually drying out. Although the large volume of rain was enough to make rot a concern, cooling breezes kept it at bay. A benign September brought warm, dry conditions, ripening the grapes and effectively saving the harvest.
Champagne Hubert Noiret ‘Cuvée des 3 Symboles’, 2014 Coteaux du Petit-Morin – Villevenard Lieu-dit ‘Les Bacons’ Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut ($68)
From the single-plot ‘Les Bacons’ planted between 1969 and 1984; the site is northeast of Villevenard with a gentle west-facing slope. The soils are clay-rich with some black flint above a subsoil of chalk. Cuvée 3 Symboles is 100% Chardonnay from this site and shows toasty notes above a caressing character. The wine is manual harvested and traditionally pressed, then aged for 10 to 12 months in 300-liter oak barrels on fine lees. The vin clair was bottled July 2015, disgorged in April 2023 and dosed at 5 gram/liter. 1750 bottles made.
2013 Vintage in Coteaux du Petit-Morin
Both the winter and spring were cold and wet, delaying first budburst and then flowering. Young grapes suffered millerandage and coulure due to the cool temperatures, which cut yields. However, the reduced crops tended to ripen more easily during what transpired to be a long, cool growing season. Despite summer temperatures never really heating up, conditions remained fairly consistent, and a warm, sunny September provided just enough warmth to rescue the harvest. Many producers chose to pick later than usual to take advantage of the positive turn in the weather.
Champagne Hubert Noiret ‘Cuvée des 3 Symboles’, 2013 Coteaux du Petit-Morin – Villevenard Lieu-dit ‘Les Bacons’ Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut ($68)
100% Chardonnay from 2013 harvest. Unlike the rich, concentrated ripeness of 2012, 2013 Champagnes are almost its exact opposite: elegant, introverted and lithe, revealing themselves slowly and quietly, thriving on finesse rather than power. This Champagne is aged on lees in oak barrels during 10 to 12 months. Dosed at 5gram/liter. From the single-plot ‘Les Bacons’ planted between 1969 and 1984; the site is northeast of Villevenard with a gentle west-facing slope. The soils are clay-rich with some black flint above a subsoil of chalk.
The wine is manually harvested and traditionally pressed, then aged for 10 to 12 months in 300-liter oak barrels on fine lees. The vin clair was bottled July 2014, disgorged in April 2022 and dosed at 5 gram/liter. 1750 bottles made.
Notebook ….
Single Harvest vs. Vintage (Millésime) Champagne
In France, under Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) rules, vintage Champagnes must be aged for three years—more than twice the required aging time for NV Champagne. The additional years on the yeast is said to add complexity and texture to the finished wine, and the price commanded by Vintage Champagne may in part be accounted for by the cellar space the wine takes up while aging.
On the other hand, a Champagne maker might prefer to release wine from a single vintage without the aging requirement; the freshness inherent in non-vintage Champagnes is one of its effervescent highlights. In this case, the wine label may announce the year, but the Champagne itself is referred to as ‘Single Harvest’ rather than ‘Vintage’.
Drawing the Boundaries of the Champagne Region
To be Champagne is to be an aristocrat. Your origins may be humble and your feet may be in the dirt; your hands are scarred from pruning and your back aches from moving barrels. But your head is always in the stars.
As such, the struggle to preserve its identity has been at the heart of Champagne’s self-confidence. Although the Champagne controlled designation of origin (AOC) wasn’t recognized until 1936, defense of the designation by its producers goes back much further. Since the first bubble burst in the first glass of sparkling wine in Hautvillers Abbey, producers in Champagne have maintained that their terroirs are unique to the region and any other wine that bears the name is a pretender to their effervescent throne.
Having been defined and delimited by laws passed in 1927, the geography of Champagne is easily explained in a paragraph, but it takes a lifetime to understand it.
Ninety-three miles east of Paris, Champagne’s production zone spreads across 319 villages and encompasses roughly 85,000 acres. 17 of those villages have a legal entitlement to Grand Cru ranking, while 42 may label their bottles ‘Premier Cru.’ Four main growing areas (Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, the Côte des Blancs and the Côte des Bar) encompass nearly 280,000 individual plots of vines, each measuring a little over one thousand square feet.
The lauded wine writer Peter Liem expands the number of sub-regions from four to seven, dividing the Vallée de la Marne into the Grand Vallée and the Vallée de la Marne; adding the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay and combining the disparate zones between the heart of Champagne and Côte de Bar into a single sub-zone.
Courtesy of Wine Scholar Guild
Lying beyond even Liem’s overview is a permutation of particulars; there are nearly as many micro-terroirs in Champagne as there are vineyard plots. Climate, subsoil and elevation are immutable; the talent, philosophies and techniques of the growers and producers are not. Ideally, every plot is worked according to its individual profile to establish a stamp of origin, creating unique wines that compliment or contrast when final cuvées are created.
Champagne is predominantly made up of relatively flat countryside where cereal grain is the agricultural mainstay. Gently undulating hills are higher and more pronounced in the north, near the Ardennes, and in the south, an area known as the Plateau de Langres, and the most renowned vineyards lie on the chalky hills to the southwest of Reims and around the town of Épernay. Moderately steep terrain creates ideal vineyard sites by combining the superb drainage characteristic of chalky soils with excellent sun exposure, especially on south and east facing slopes.
… Yet another reason why this tiny slice of northern France, a mere 132 square miles, remains both elite and precious.
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Posted on 2025.03.06 in France, Champagne, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
Burgundy is in the Details: The Best of 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Have Blossomed and are Achieving Their Sultry and Nuanced Side at Their Greatest.
Véronique Boss-Drouhin, the talented winemaker from Maison Joseph Drouhin and Domain Drouhin Oregon, talks about the Burgundian triumvirate vintages of 2016, 2017 and 2018 like this: “Drink 2017 first, then 2016 after and 2018 drink anytime!”
This echoes our own assessment, particularly of the voluptuous 2018s. Nowhere on earth are the nuances of a vintage more scrutinized than in Burgundy, and this marvelous year has delivered a wine that performs on demand. Kudos for the trophy wines are a given, but this immediacy and drinkability extends to the regional wines, satellite appellations and everyday wines of the countryside. Balance is the Holy Grail of winemaking, and the Burgundies of 2018 display this quality—a harmony in sweetness and acidity, fruit and tannin, aroma and body.
Rich and concentrated with superb structural potential for maturation over many years, 2018 also promises to excel as a collectable.
The Rise of Neo-Traditionalists: Back to Quietude and Closer to Earlier View
If there is one thing that Burgundy’s post-modern traditionalists can agree upon is that the region, once known for a pronounced inconsistency from vintage to vintage (like the girl with the curl who was either very, very good or she was rotten), is facing a brave new climate. Each generation of vignerons wants to add something to the Burgundian equation, and as we reach the quarter-point in the 21st century, the prevailing attitude is that the best way to approach global warming is to cast off some of the shibboleths of the late twentieth century in favor of new techniques that take into account earlier harvests, prolonged periods of droughts and a surfeit of heat. Among the avenues being explored are shorter and lighter macerations, less intrusive cellar techniques, and particularly, the inclusion of stems during pressing—a method that enhances delicacy by reducing the contact time between the grape skins and the press and adds floral nuances to the wine.
Of course, better and more sustainable farming—the use of organics and working with the plant itself to control yields (green harvests and de-leafing) and in particular, a return to traditional clones—have all combined to make ‘méthode nouvelle’ a growing mirror to ‘méthode ancienne.’
An Evolving New Climate: Warming and Instability are New Territory
Notions of terroir—the unique soil, topography and climate of each vineyard—and a wine’s typicity, or how faithfully it reflects its origin and grape variety, are central to Burgundy’s identity. So much so that terroir and typicity are fundamental to how the region developed its hierarchy of crus, or demarcated vineyards also known as climats, classified by quality based on centuries of winegrowing history.
Climate is a large part of what defines terroir, and Burgundy is one of the world’s great archetypes for cool-climate viticulture. Whether red or white, classic Burgundian wines are distinguished by their finesse, raciness and pristine fruit profiles, a tension and verve attributed to grapes cultivated in cool climates.
Of course, like the rest of Burgundy, the story of modern Gevrey is inextricably linked to the weather. In 1831, Denis Morelot wrote, “The sun, with nothing to block its rays, spreads its rays beneficent warmth to all part of the Côte d’Or equally.”
Would that this had remained the case. Just as one afternoon milkshake is good, ten afternoon milkshakes in a row is demonstrably not good. The sun and its beneficent warmth has ratcheted up to unprecedented levels, and if this arc continues, by 2031 the Côte will be as warm as northern Rhône. The thought of Le Chambertin tearing out Pinot Noir vines in favor of Syrah is sobering indeed.
As in Bordeaux, Gevrey winemakers are strategizing every phase of their process, field to cellar. A lot of the new wisdom, ironically, originated in Napa, where the battle against heat and sun have been waged relentlessly since before the Civil War. The goal in California, and increasingly in France, is to ensure that grape sugar does not accumulate faster than the grapes can physically mature.
This is not to say that these changes are not without an unexpected quality boost here and there. Chaptalization—the process of adding sugar to raise brix levels—is becoming a thing of the past. Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac says, “I’d say that so far, the warming up has benefitted Burgundy more than it has hurt us.”
A Riper Shade: Vintage 2018 is the New Normal
Calescent and copious—big words to describe a big vintage, equally fascinating and enjoyable for those who like potent, youthful Pinots and for those willing to wait out a prolonged span of aging.
2018 is being heralded throughout Burgundy as a rare vintage in which both quality and quantity stepped up to the plate and delivered. The winter and spring leading up to the growing season were unusually wet, topping off water tables that would allow older vines with deep roots—the ones most coveted—to breeze through periods of extreme heat. And that came early, with April temperatures soaring into the upper eighties. From there, the season progressed with higher than average temps, but without the heat spikes seen in previous vintages (notably 2003 and 2019) and there was sufficient intermediary precipitation to keep even the younger vines away from stress.
The primary challenge for growers in 2018 was settling on a picking date, as Pinot Noir has a fickle period of optimal ripeness before the flab sets in. As might be expected, the more experienced domains fared best, setting up wines with charming immediacy as well as the potential for prolonged cellar growth.
The wines of Gevrey-Chambertin in particular offer a genuine sense of freshness hand-in-hand with the vintage’s characteristic and powerful sun-ripened fruit.
Gevrey-Chambertin: Setting the Boundaries
“The Emperor will drink only Chambertin,” said Louis Constant Wairy, Napoleon’s valet.
Indeed. So what does Gevrey-Chambertin have in common with Westland, Michigan? Not much, except that Westland was named for a mall and Gevrey-Chambertin is named for a vineyard. As those schooled in Burgundian lore know, during the nineteenth century it became fashionable for villages in the Côte d’Or to adopt double-barreled names, adding a hyphen followed by the name of their most famous vineyard: Thus Chambolle added Musigny and Gevrey added Chambertin.
In minimalism, less may be more, and in wine—especially those with a hyphenated name—more may be less; a village-level Gevrey-Chambertin, for example, does not seek to compete with the quality of ‘Le Chambertin’ itself. But if nothing else, its name reminds you that it comes from a rarefied zip code. And to be sure, the region is hallowed grapeland, graced with the Holy Trinity of terroir—elevation, climate and soil structure. Contained within the appellation are nine Grand Crus and 26 Premier Crus (whose name on the label may be followed by the name of the climat of origin) as well as nearly a thousand acres of Villages wine.
The Essential Qualities of Gevrey-Chambertin: Blood and Iron
In the far northeast of Burgundy, about ten miles south of Dijon with the valley of Saône valley to the east, lies the Rodeo Drive of red wine, Gevrey-Chambertin. The town itself is touristy, picturesquely festooned with vineyards from end to end, but certainly one of the must-visit areas on any French wine tour. Should the tour include a tasting (and if it doesn’t, skip it), you’ll find that the wine, at all levels of quality, share certain characteristics, many of them in seeming contradiction: In general, Gevrey wines are big without being heavy, rich without being cloying and full-bodied while retaining a velvety, delicate texture.
This inherent tension is what makes Gevrey-Chambertin a superlative, even in the star-studded Côte de Nuits. But it must be remembered that this quality represents many centuries of trial and error: The best vineyards are based around the foothills of the famous hill of Lavaux, on the east-facing slope where they are hit by the morning sun, which disperses any fog and warms the vineyard into the late afternoon. Soils, of course, impart their geological magic–the vines in the Premier and Grand Cru sites are grown on shallow brown limestone with sections of clay which holds onto the heat of the day, warming the vines overnight and further increasing their ripeness and power. Organoleptically, the Pinot Noirs of Gevrey suggest blackcurrants and jammy strawberry compote when young, with distinct notes of licorice heightened by maturation in new oak casks. As these wines age, they acquire earthy notes aromas that hint at animal pelts, musk, spicy vanilla and Havana cigars. The top flight Crus are unparalleled, of course, and no more apt descriptor for them exists than ‘blood and iron.’
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils
‘Local boy makes good’ is a common enough tale in Burgundy, where land—which can command a price tag twice that of Bordeaux—is generally held by families. Most success stories involve inheriting it or marrying it. Rare is the breakthrough of an outsider who can, for example, step off a train in Gevrey-Chambertin without connections or formal wine training and forge a Burgundian empire within an enclave already pretty imperialistic.
Enter Jean-Michel Guillon. Born into a military tradition, Jean-Michel Guillon chose to settle in France after his past service in the Polynesian Islands and in 1980, without much formal training, planted grapes on five acres of land. What began as a nascent fascination grew into an overarching passion, and the estate today covers nearly forty acres spread over more than 20 appellations. It is work that, like the best Gevrey-Chambertin wines, took years to peak, both stylistically and critically: 2018 turned out to be one of Jean-Michel Guillon’s best vintage ever.
Jean-Michel and Alexis Guillon, Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils
He explains: “It is all the result of my love for this land, and any acclaim I have received is based on innovative production processes and more importantly, taking into account the ecological needs of the vine. The climate crisis and the scarcity of natural materials is taken very seriously at the winery. Global warming is at the heart of the destruction of habitat destruction and the appearance of certain diseases. In order to facilitate cultivation and harvesting, we have worked diligently worked to reduce our carbon footprint by using phytosanitary products that respect the environment.”
Among his most aggressive innovations may be his use of new oak—100% at all levels, including the Bourgogne Rouge, his entry-level wine. On this front he quotes Henri Jayer, perhaps Burgundy’s most inventive winemaker: “There are no great wines without new barrels”. As such, Guillon & Fils is the biggest buyer of new French oak in Burgundy after Domaine Romanée-Conti and the Hospices de Beaune, most arranged through a long-standing partnership with the Ermitage and Cavin cooperages.
And speaking of ‘fils’, after forty years of love and labor, the elegant Jean-Michel Guillon has adopted a Burgundian style of primogeniture after all, handing over the management of the estate to his son Alexis. Two younger sons are waiting in the wings, much like King Charles III; thus, in a roundabout way, Gevrey-Chambertin again earns the nickname ‘The King of Burgundy and the Burgundy of Kings.’
President of the wine association for 12 years and of the cellar of the Vignerons de Gevrey-Chambertin ‘La Halle Chambertin’, the elder Guillon’s winemaking career ended with participation in the Saint-Vincent Tournante 2020 in Gevrey-Chambertin.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 ‘Cuvée Père Galland’ Gevrey-Chambertin ($88)
Named for René Galland, the man who first helped Jean-Michel learn to make wine. As proper homage, the bouquet is almost fierce, rich and redolent of muscular dark fruit and iron, making it a remarkable Villages wine that could easily be mistaken for a Cru. It expands on the palate to include smoke, coffee, cola perfumed by fresh violets and lavender.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 ‘Cuvée Alexis’ Gevrey-Chambertin ($110)
Named after the (then) heir apparent Alexis (long live the new king), this blend is more elegant and perfumed than Guillon’s other Gevrey Villages wines, hailing from 60 year-old vines. It features an expressive nose peppered with pretty nuances of blackberries, wild herbs and smoky forest floor, yet the palate is fresh and fruity, displaying a full array of strawberry, cherry and sweet spice behind notes of iron filings and crushed stone.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils ‘Vieilles Vignes’, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ($117)
This hedonistic wine from 90-year-old vines is, as expected, perfumed on the nose and massive in the mouth, showing fresh figs, raspberries, black currants and orange zest on the palate and dry extract on a balanced and notably more complex finale.
Domaine Henri Rebourseau
The patchwork of vineyards that makes up the Côtes de Nuit is nothing compared to the gaggle of names that make up Domaine Rebourseau—keep them separated if you dare, and I only have to go back to 1980, the year that Pierre Rebourseau handed over the management of the estate to his grandson Jean de Surrel. Jean de Surrel adopted organic winegrowing practices and a biodynamic approach. Then, in 2018, the Bouygues family joined the estate, and as majority shareholders, Martin and Olivier Bouygues (who also own Château Montrose in St. Estèphe) joined forces with the de Surrel family to continue the estate’s heritage. Subsequently, Bénigne and Louis de Surrel took over from their father under the supervision of Hervé Berland, who’d spent three lauded decades at Château Mouton Rothschild.
There’s two hundred more years of confusing Rebourseau torch-passing behind that; perhaps for another time.
The Domaine conserves its family ethos and seven generations of tradition, but the old style of wine—heavy and a bit clumsy out of the cradle—has been given a stylish facelift under Bouygues management, becoming lighter, with a greater emphasis on finesse.
Even so, the estate continues in its biodynamic farming, and boasts some of the oldest parcels in the Côte de Nuits; around half of the vineyards are located in the Grands Cru of Chambertin, Clos de Bèze, Charmes-Chambertin, Mazy-Chambertin and Clos de Vougeot and they maintain holdings in Premier Crus as well.
Bénigne and Louis de Surrel, Domaine Henri Rebourseau
According to Louis de Surrel, this is a daunting prospect: “It’s very frightening to make a Grand Cru wine,” he admits. “Honestly, every time I step into the vineyard, it’s like a ‘mise en abyme’: I can’t help thinking about all the generations that have come before, and that responsibility haunts me sometimes. It is a two-pronged approach: We try to have the best vinification techniques but our first and foremost priority is the vineyard.”
Louis is as fascinated as he is intimidated by the intricacies of Burgundian terroir: “In Gevrey-Chambertin, there are 69 climats and every one of them is different,” he says. “But expression of terroir is by no means limited to the Grand Crus, and even at village level, these wines have their own identities. In front of the domain, we have two plots: Aux Corvées and La Brunelle. They almost touch each other, separated by a three-meter path; they are totally different wines. That, for me, is the magic of terroir.”
Domaine Henri Rebourseau, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ($99)
A lovely and approachably Gevrey with concentrated fresh black cherry, rhubarb, violets and a hint of sweet vanilla bean melding in the glass along with a pretty undertone of spice box.
Gevrey-Chambertin:Village Vins de Lieux
The Burgundian term ‘climat’ and the more widespread French term ‘lieux dit’ are often used interchangeably, but this is technically incorrect. They may occasionally interlap geographically, and cover the same area of vines, but in fact (to get pedantic), a lieu-dit is named in cadastral (related to property ownership) records and a lieu-dit is a geographical area with a traditional name. A climat always refers to a wine-growing area that is regulated by the INAO and a lieu-dit may not refer to a vineyard at all, but simply a historical stomping ground.
With nearly seventy lieux-dits in Gevrey-Chambertin appellation, learning their names, let alone the gustatory nuances of each one is admittedly a daunting task! But such small parcels are pretty much the truest and most detailed expression of terroir available.
Domaine Henri Rebourseau, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Aux Corvées’ ($99)
Aux Corvées is a six-acre lieu-dit in front of the Rebourseau home, on one side of the approach, marking a boundary between Les Corvées and La Brunelle and representing a clear variation in character. Corvées’ vines are around a half-century in age, and the scree deposits are more varied; soils are relatively deep, reaching depths up to six feet. This produces a harmonious Gevrey, with pure, translucent berry notes and tarry undertones. It shows a core of ripe strawberry on the palate and a voluptuous, velvety texture laced with supple tannins and fine acidity.
Domaine Henri Rebourseau, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ‘La Brunelle’ ($117)
La Brunelle, situated at the heart of a projecting ledge that forms a silt trap, has been described as one of the greatest successes of the Combe of Lavaux’s alluvial cone. On the surface brown soils predominate, just below are the limestone gravels that are effective in maintaining the heat. In the lower portion, clustered piles of calcareous stones are to be found with a layer of sand and clay about ten feet below the surface. Jammy dark cherry dominates the nose and leads to a concentrated, full-fleshed palate that rises far about a Villages label—as lieux-dits are wont to do.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Les Crais’ ($78)
The Pinot Noir parcel ‘Les Crais’ sits east of the main road on the Brochon side of Gevrey-Chambertin; it was planted in two parts, one in 1979/1980 and the other in 1990/1991. Soils are gravel made of decomposed limestone. The wine is racy and intense with juicy raspberry aromas, ripe cherry and anise sparks, offering remarkable length.
Domaine Philippe et Henri Jouan
With fewer than ten acres under vine, the tiny domain of Philippe et Henri Jouan does not produce at volumes that move the needle on most output charts (five cuvées), but the quality is frequently over the top. Situated in the village of Morey-Saint-Denis the estate is run by Phillipe Jouan, the fifth generation of his family to make Pinot Noir here. Harvests are typically de-stemmed, with 10 to 15% whole-bunch fermentation in cooler vintages; the musts tend to undergo short macerations of 12 to 14 days and are then pressed off with a 100-year-old wooden press bought by Philippe’s great-grandfather. The wines typically see 25 to 40% new oak, the majority from François Frères.
Henri Jouan, Domaine Philippe et Henri Jouan
Says Philippe, “Henri was a lifelong friend of the legendary Jacky Truchot. Jacky’s wines were often ethereal, sometimes just frankly light, and at times as beautiful as Burgundy can be. Our wines are not elegant in the same way as Jacky’s. The similarity is that our fruit is often on the red spectrum and the wines lifted, but ours are, above all, marked by old-vine sap, dense structures, and deep, penetrating flavors. We share the iconic Morey Premier Cru Clos Sorbé, and a side-by-side clearly illuminates these stylistic differences, as if the same light were refracted through two prisms. Both are sublime.”
Domaine Philippe et Henri Jouan, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Aux Echezeaux’ ($88)
Aux Echézeaux is a compelling plot that complicates the image of Gevrey as massive and muscular. Located in the southern part of the appellation on the border of Morey-St.-Denis, this small vineyard produces wines that are silky and elegant, qualities enhanced by Jouan’s use of de-stemming with up to 15% whole-bunch fermentation. The 2018 exhibits aromas of cherries, plums, orange rind and loamy soil with a beautiful concentration and pronounced minerality.
Domaine Perrot Minot
After spending several years in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or working as a liaison between growers and négociants, Christophe Perrot‐Minot returned to his family domain in Morey‐St‐Denis. Prior to this prodigal homecoming, his father Henri had operated primarily as a grower, selling the majority of the family production in bulk. Christophe soon shifted the focus to estate bottling, and all but a small portion of Passtoutgrains is now released under the family’s own name.
Today considered one of the benchmark producers in the Côte de Nuits, his wines have become more refined in every vintage. A combination of intense field work and innovation in the cellar over the past thirty years have raised the bar in his portfolio, aided in particular by his year 2000 purchase of Pernin‐Rossin, giving him many old‐vine parcels from which to draw fruit.
Christophe Perrot‐Minot, Domaine Perrot Minot
Among Christophe Perrot‐Minot’s many innovations has been a renewed focus on sorting during harvest; his goal of producing more elegant wines has been achieved through the use of less new-oak in aging as well as less extraction during fermentation. The wine is a blend from has two vineyards located in Morey-Saint-Denis; one plot is 55 years old and the other, 25 years old. Gravières des Chaponnières shows cherry brandy, earth and graphite with chalky tannins and a savory tang.
Domaine Perrot-Minot, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Justice des Seuvrées’ ($180)
A cuvée composed of two parcels—namely, the lieux-dits ‘Les Seuvrées’ and ‘La Justice,’ blended because the wines of Les Seuvrées tend to express elegance while La Justice lends texture and body. The wine achieves a marvelous balance between power and delicacy; the wine is loaded with blackberry, mulberry, roasted coffee, and crushed berries with slight floral perfumes to add bright layers.
Gevrey-Chambertin: Premier Crus
A novice may point out that the illogic in the Cru hierarchy can be confusing, because Premier Cru is below Grand Cru, even though the word ‘premier’ translates literally as ‘first.’ A pro will quickly point out that logic is not always the best device to use when translating wine laws.
Often abbreviated ‘1er Cru’, these wines—like all wines earning any sort of ‘Cru’ designation— represent excellent vineyards and make up about 10% of Burgundy’s wine production. A notch below Grand Cru, usually in price and arguably in quality, the size and gravitas of that notch is often a matter of taste.
Nowhere is this subjectivity more obvious than in Gevrey, where there are 26 climats classified as Premier Cru. Some are located around the group of Grand Cru vineyards south of the village, while some are located together on a slope to the northwest of the village. And the fact remains that the wine from Gevrey 1er Crus often command prices higher than many Grand Cru wines from Côte de Nuits. As an example, Clos Saint-Jacques, situated in the center of the group of Premier Crus to the northwest of the village, is typically the most highly regarded Premier Cru of Gevrey-Chambertin.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Champonnets ($153)
Champonnets is an 8-acre Premier Cru found just south of Gevrey-Chambertin village in the Côte de Nuits region of Burgundy. The vineyard is on the northern edge of the Grand Cru hillside and produce somewhat lighter wines that display red fruit characters and silky tannins. Guillon’s 2018 shows strawberries, cherries, cream and a bit of smoke behind a bright spine of acid.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Champeaux ($144)
Les Champeaux is a 17-acre vineyard at the northernmost limit of Gevrey-Chambertin, just south of Les Evocelles. Its relatively large size is actually comprised of a patchwork of smaller parcels, some of which are terraced due to steep slopes and over a thousand feet of elevation. The wine shows spicy oak behind cherry, currant, floral and mineral notes.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru La Petite Chapelle ($180)
The ten-acre Petit Chapelle is one of the easternmost Premier Crus in Gevrey-Chambertin, lying below the Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru. It is also one of the lowest Premier Cru vineyards in the appellation, where altitudes top out at 860 feet. Its position at the base of the hill offers a more gentle gradient than the vineyards to the west and the soils are deep and rich, with a high proportion of clay and limestone, and this is often given credit for producing wines with great strength and structure. Guillon’s 2018 displays very ripe cherry, subtle raspberry and floral notes of hibiscus; there is also some inviting citrus zest, nicely integrated tannins and a finish with the bite of salty minerality.
Domaine Bruno Clavelier
Bruno Clavelier made an unusual if direct path from the rugby field to the wine cellar, taking over his grandfather’s estate in the 1980s. The gifted athlete has placed a premium on low intervention winemaking, with 20% whole bunches used and a vinification process that he considers ‘more an infusion than a maceration. There is no punching down and not much pumping over.’ He is more a student of the field than cellar technique: “My grandfather was pioneer in organic farming long before it was common,” he says. “He never used chemicals or potassium fertilizers. We now farm using biodynamic principle and have been certified since 2005. 95% of the vineyards are planted to traditional Pinot Noir Fin, using an old practice of hand-selecting cuttings from the very best vineyards, and yields are naturally low. The vines were mostly planted in the 1930s and 1940s, earning the designation of Vieilles Vignes.”
Bruno Clavelier
Once harvested, the wines are produced with minimal intervention and the utmost respect for the vineyards’ terroir. Fermentation takes place in oak open-top fermenters with up to 30% whole cluster. Indigenous yeast allows for fermentations to start naturally and with manual punch downs. After a gentle pneumatic pressing, the wine is aged in oak barrels (Tronçais, Allier) for 16-18 months (30% new for Premier Cru and Grand Cru, and less for village level). The wines are bottled without fining or filtration, and the bottling happens under a neutral gas so that the amount of sulfur can be as low as possible.
Domaine Bruno Clavelier, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Corbeaux ($259)
Les Corbeaux is an eight-acre vineyard just south of the village of Gevrey-Chambertin; it sits at the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux valley. This setting informs its weather-based terroir as westerly winds funneled through the Combe brings cooling influences that leave the grapes have less time to develop phenols and sugars. This leads to a lighter style of wine than the more sheltered Grand Cru vineyards to the south. As demonstrated, this wine is filled with bright red cranberry notes and grand acidity; crisp subtle, and complex with refined tannins and a finished suffused with earth.
Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
Five generations spanning 163 years have been the Drouhin-Laroze management machine, and today’s team of Caroline and Nicolas Drouhin represent the sixth. The relatively small 30-acre domain spans from Vougeot in the south up to Brochon in the north, including seven villages-level vineyards, four Gevrey Premier Crus, and some of the most famous and sought-after Grand Crus in the region, including Musigny, Bonnes-Mares and Chambertin Clos de Bèze.
Caroline Drouhin explains their successes this way: “Like most estates in Burgundy, our wines have evolved stylistically over the years, going from a powerful and extracted style to one that is more finesse-driven and nuanced. At harvest, our grapes are sorted in both the vineyard and then again in the cellar, using a triage table to eliminate any defective berries. After a cold soak of a few days, the wines are left to ferment naturally.
Philippe Drouhin, assisted by his children Caroline and Nicolas, Domaine Drouhin-Laroze
“Extraction is decidedly gentle using a combination of both a light pigeage as well as remontage, particularly later in the fermentation. Depending on the vintage conditions, most of the wines receive a small dose of whole cluster inclusion, usually between 20% and 30%, although though occasionally higher. We feel that some cuvées work best with 100% de-stemmed grapes. While new oak percentages can be up to 80% for the Grand Cru wines, our current oak regimen uses low-impact wood that doesn’t overly mask the wine, allowing for the underlying terroirs to shine through.”
Nicolas adds, “For the élevage, the wines age in their cool, underground, vaulted cellars for 12 months, and then are racked barrel-by-barrel before the following harvest. They are held for an additional 3-6 months in cask before being moved to tank for a month or so for the blending. Bottling is done gently, without filtration unless absolutely necessary. The wines are then held for an additional 6 months in bottle before release.”
Domaine Drouhin-Laroze, 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Clos Prieur ($198)
Named for the Cluny Priory that once tended it, the walled Premier Cru is five acres in total with an east-facing exposure. Drouhin-Laroze owns about three-quarters of an acre planted in 1954, with one section replanted in 2003. The wine is matured in 40% new oak barrels and the rest single-use barrels from Allier and Nivernais. The deep red color reflects the predominance of cherry compote and peppery vanilla.
Gevrey-Chambertin: Grand Crus
Although Grand Cru wines only makes up about 2% of all production (and although there are only 33 vineyards so named) it is likely that an even passing fan of Burgundy has heard of them all. This is truly where the crème de la crème of Pinot Noir exists and, in fact, they used to be called ‘Tête de Cuvée.’ Of course, there are several consecrated Grand Crus designated exclusively to Chardonnay, but none in Gevrey-Chambertin, which is red wine country. Grand Cru wines are generally allocated only to the well-connected and Michelin-starred cellars. Add to that the ever-expanding global competition for Burgundy and successive years of small harvests, and these legendary wines become even more difficult to find.
Gevrey boasts nine Grand Crus, the best of which are arguably Le Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. From there, the Grand Crus may have mixed reviews, and the reputation of a particular Cru’s quality depends on the sort of parcels the producers own. Charmes, for example, has producers that own vines from weaker parcels, and thus the label ‘Charmes’ alone is not a guarantee that the price will match the level of the product. On the other hand, Clos St. Jacques has a reputed consistency across producers because of more homogeneity among the parcels, and although it is a Premier Cru, has developed a reputation that equals some of the Grand Crus.
Domaine Henri Rebourseau, 2018 Chambertin Grand Cru ($450)
Of Rebourseau’s thirteen Grand Cru acres, the 1.4 acres the estate owns in the fabled Le Chambertin is no doubt a favorite child with an average vine age of 60 years and tiny yields of 20 hectoliter/hectare. Chambertin sits on outcrops of Bajocian ‘entroques’ (fossilized marine animals) slightly lower than mid-slope, where a coating of scree and thin silt covers the limestone and the soils are exclusively calcareous brown. The altitude is ideal and stones are abundant so that drainage is natural, while its exposure to the rising sun is incomparable. As a wine, it checks all the boxes: body, color, bouquet and finesse.
Domaine Henri Rebourseau, 2018 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru ($288)
Les Charmes Chambertin is situated on a limestone outcrop thinly covered with a shallow layer of rendzina soil—pebbly and marly with significant iron content; in fact, iron particles appear at the surface. This appellation is separated from the Chambertin appellation by the Route des Grands Crus and differs from the Mazoyères-Chambertin, which is situated lower down the hill; Rebourseau’s vines are a monopole in the upper area. The wine shows wild strawberries interlaced with vanilla spice, seamlessly combining structure with an unctuous essence.
Domaine Jean-Michel Guillon & Fils, 2018 Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru ($349)
Mazis-Chambertin is the northernmost Grand Cru vineyard in the Côte de Nuits; it covers 22 acres of superb soil on the upper slopes of Gevrey-Chambertin’s Grand Cru belt. The vineyard is divided into two climats, the upper Les Mazis-Hauts and the lower Les Mazis-Bas, the latter having slightly deeper soils. Location, location, location: Mazis-Chambertin is on the same part of the slope as the Chambertin vineyard, about 1600 paces to the south, just beyond the similarly well-regarded Clos de Bèze. The Grand Cru Ruchottes lies on the slope above, to the west.
As to the wine, a densely fruited nose of dark berries is at once earthy, spicy and feral. The imposingly-scaled, lavishly rich and sleekly muscled flavors are firmly structured though not aggressive and the sheer depth of the palate lingers throughout a long, fanning finish; impressive now, but clearly built to age.
Domaine Castagnier
With properties found the heart of the Côte de Nuits, Jérôme and Jocelyne Castagnier—working a scant ten acres—manage to produce four Grand Crus in the prestigious soils of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny and Vougeot.
Says Jérôme: “I’m the fifth or sixth largest owner of Grand Cru vines in Morey-Saint-Denis, but when it comes to Village-level appellation Morey-Saint-Denis, I’m the smallest. All I have is two rows. That’s one barrel of wine.”
Jérôme Castagnier, Domaine Castagnier
photo: Marie-George Stavelot
Having left a career as a trumpet player to pursue the vine, he adds, “After my studies at the Conservatory in Dijon and the Conservatory in Paris I took a job in the French Republican Guard Band, working at the Élysée Palace under both Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2004, at the age of 26, I had to decide whether to continue the career in music or to uphold the family tradition. I chose the latter and returned to Morey-Saint-Denis, thus becoming the fifth generation in his family running the domain.”
Among the younger crop of vignerons who manifest a worldview based in respect for the environment, the Castagniers rely on biodynamics and earth-first techniques at every phase of the winemaking process.
Domaine Castagnier, 2018 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru ($299)
A beautifully constructed Charmes in the classical style, meaning that it rewards patience. The tightly knit complexities of flavors from the micro-climats of this older Pinot Noir vineyard. Smokey oak and sandalwood scents underscore ripe strawberry and cherry and sweet spiced cola. Already impressive, this wine carries a guarantee of further development and should evolve into an even more exquisite expression of its terroir.
Domaine Ponsot
Back in 1872, when William Ponsot set up ship in Morey-Saint-Denis, his major parcels of land at that time were the Clos des Monts-Luisants and Clos de la Roche. When his nephew Hippolyte Ponsot, took over the domain in 1920, he started bottling on premise, a rarity at the time. Eventually the estate was passed down to Hippolyte’s son Jean-Marie, and later to Jean-Marie’s children, Laurent and Rose-Marie.
Alexandre Abel, Winemaker
Today, Rose-Marie Ponsot is the sole director of the company, seconded by Alexandre Abel. Unfettered by the latest fashions, Domaine Ponsot has always sought to express the richness of Burgundy terroir through natural cultivation practices. Human intervention is limited and only applied to the help that the vine needs. The family’s long tradition of letting nature take the lead in the vineyards that today the original plots are still in exceptional condition.
Domaine Ponsot, 2018 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru ($765)
On the lower slopes of the Grand Cru belt, immediately below the commune’s most prestigious climat, Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze, 13-acre Chapelle-Chambertin is one of the area’s lesser-known Grand Crus. Its wines are lighter in color than those from the climats further up the slope, and not as concentrated as those from the small Griotte-Chambertin site immediately to the south. These comparisons are relative, however. These are still full, structured examples of Pinot Noir that can be aged for many years.
Unlike many Grand Cru pressings, this one sees no new oak; in fact, the 18 months aging prior to bottling is in twenty-year-old barrels. Ponsot owns a little more than an acre of Chapelle, and the vines are around 35-years-old. The wine shows a distinct bouquet of peonies and licorice with deeper tones of ed currant, raspberry, and rose petal, accented by wet stone and spice.
Domaine Ponsot ‘Vieilles Vignes’, 2018 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru ($990)
Clos de la Roche is the most northerly of Morey-Saint-Denis’ four Grand Cru vineyards, and at 42 acres, one of the largest in the entire Côte d’Or. So spectacular is the reputation here that it is often compared to a top Gevrey. The terroir is built on largely on limestone, with the lower slope underlaid with Bajocian marl from the middle Jurassic while the steeper, western, portions are slightly newer, but still from the mid-Jurassic, 160 to 170 million years ago.
This is as full-blown a Morey as you will find, brooding with aromas of poached plum, warm earth, smoked game and a full cupboard of spice. The dry extract buffers a tannic spine to create a wonderful, if genuinely imposing wine.
Domaine Ponsot ‘Vieilles Vignes’ 2018 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru ($1,990) 1.5L
The main enological reason to buy wine in magnum format, of course, is the ratio of wine volume to air: A magnum contains twice as much wine as a standard bottle, but with the same sized cork, so the slow exchange of air allows the wine to age more gracefully, albeit over a longer period of time. But time is the key to correct aging; it’s why constant cellar temperatures are vital to a balanced evolution. For a wine with the power and glory of Ponsot’s 2018 Clos de la Roche, this ability to age it at a more leisurely pace is the best way to optimize its ultimate performance.
Notebook …
What Makes A Wine Great?
Superlative winemaking involves a formula that’s part science and part soul. It’s not a stretch to liken the process to a recipe, and so a comparison of a great wine and the steps required to produce a perfectly prepared, top-end Wagyu ribeye steak may be apropos. Like wine, an exceptional piece of beef must trace its origins to the earth itself: Wagyu cattle are pampered from birth, fed a high-protein diet, often massaged and given beer to encourage marbling. Likewise, the vineyards that produce top quality wines enjoy both breeding and babying; adding to the natural elements is a cycle of biodynamics to mollycoddle microbic life, with the correct attention paid to moisture, food and pruning. While in the growth stage, all possible care is taken so that the vines do not fall prey to disease or mismanagement.
And the same holds true for the steer.
Once harvested, both products are handled with extra care, but in the cellar—as in the kitchen—the skill of the creator is paramount. A misstep along the way may result in a whole lot of wasted effort earlier in the game.
Of course, for both beef and bottle, the consumer is the ultimate benefactor and the decisive judge; the time the wine spends maturing toward an ‘ideal’ state is the time the steak spends over the flame. This is, of course, an optimal and somewhat measurable period depending on individual tastes, but a given consensus can certainly be formed and debated.
And this is precisely the key factor separating great wine (and great cuisine) from the also-rans, just as it is true that the broader the consensus, the pricier the product tends to become.
The esoterica we consider when we call a wine ‘great’ are nuance and identity. The former is formed purely through organoleptic sensations, the latter via reputation and history—how well the wine represents and reflects its place of origin. The status of ‘great’ must always be opinion, but at the same time, the more you know and the deeper you look, the more credible your opinion becomes.
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Posted on 2025.03.05 in Gevrey-Chambertin, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
Second Wines First: Bordeaux Top Estates Second Labels’ Exceptional Quality and Lower Prices Make Them Attractive for Early Drinking. Vintages 2022, 2020 and 2019 Showcase in Three 7-Bottle Packs.
Join us for Saturday Sips: Second Wines are No Second Thoughts
Come as you are; come any time that’s convenient for you during our business hours on Saturday, March 1 to sample from our Seconds bin. When someone asks for seconds at a meal, it’s a compliment, and we’ve found that the Second wines from many top estates in Bordeaux are more accessible upon release than the Grand Vins; they are built not only to last, but to come out of the gate at full speed. Our staff will be on hand to discuss nuances of the wines, the terroirs they reflect and the producers.
Elie
Rather than shedding tears, Bordeaux adds tiers—and classification is what Bordeaux is all about. While the Grand Vin is expected to be any château’s A-game, with viticultural practice advancements and an increasingly warm climate, the price of these top-shelf wines has risen with the temperature, and quality is ensured by an ever more rigorous selection of grapes on the sorting table.
Second wines—a tradition begun by Château Margaux in the 17th century—were the logical place to establish grapes deemed unfit for inclusion in the Grand Vin. And since the terroir in which they were grown was often similar, and occasionally identical to the first wines (and generally made by the same vigneron), it stands to reason that the great estates would release these ‘little brother wines’ under some version of their famous name. Château Lafite Rothschild’s second wine, for example, is Carruades de Lafite; Château Margaux’s is Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux.
This name-game association has a downside, of course: As the prices for a château’s main bottling rose, they found that they could easily command more for second wines as well, and inexorably, these also began to be priced beyond the reach of many consumers. Especially in the Médoc, the cost of second wines crept up to a price point once paid for the first. Some châteaux found a solution in producing third wines, and although fourth wines are not unheard of, the bulk of a harvest that does end up in one of the three is generally declassified and sold to négociants.
Price Pressure
As mentioned above, any viable business must weigh the needs of customers with their ability to pay for their product, and the cachet associated with First Growths in Bordeaux is so encompassing that maintaining quality outweighs any need for quantity. It’s fair to suggest that for Bordeaux’s most heralded names, second wines are not a bid for publicity, but exist as a vital—and growing—revenue source. In 2010, for example (one of the best years for quality in decades) only 40% of the harvest went into Lafite’s first wine while a full 55% went into Carruades.
In contrast is Château Léoville Barton, who uses about 80% of their grapes for their Grand Vin, a Deuxième Cru. It’s a somewhat unique philosophy, says the late Anthony Barton: “‘We produced some jolly good wines doing things that in the current era would make our oenologist scream. Grapes into one big wooden barrel, crushed by foot in the field. But we made vintages such as 1945 and 1947. The other day I found an invoice for a fiddler who played while we stomped. Now you need velvet gloves for touching the grapes.”
Precise Vinification
Other estates, like Château Pontet-Canet, express a goal of vinifying 100% Grand Vin—a once unreachable star brought closer to earth by advancing technology and better land management. Beyond the biodynamic movement which is sweeping most winemaking regions in the world, Picovale weather stations are increasingly allowing vineyard managers to be proactive in the face of incipient bad weather, especially the dreaded springtime frosts. Experience, formerly the sole means of measuring phenolic ripeness and knowing when to harvest, has guided winemakers in Bordeaux since Roman times, but technology can remove the last traces of guesswork. Brimrose Le Vigneron AOTF-NIR Analyzer calculates and levels of sugar and acidity, bringing groundbreaking insight to the exact time winemakers should be harvesting.
These innovations allow a much more precise product to be bottled, and with the increasing quest for perfection, they are becoming increasingly indispensable, even in a region where tradition is sacred.
Harnessing Young Vines
Older vines are a legacy among wine growers, and when they reach a certain age, it becomes a point of pride. With an expansive root system and substantial permanent wood, these vines have adapted to their environment and are more resilient to drought and extreme weather. At the same time, they are more prone to disease and damage and produce increasingly smaller yields, and at some point, it no longer makes sense to keep them in commercial production. Maintaining a sustainable economic vineyard means replanting, and in Bordeaux, mature vines are often replaced after about 35 years. After that, it takes between ten and twenty years for a vine’s fruit to reach potential, and a natural outlet for grapes from younger vines is an estate’s second and third wines, where it is expected that the tannins will be a bit coarser and less integrated, but which will mature more quickly than Grand Vin bottlings.
Access to Quality
In fact, the idea that second wines can be enjoyed earlier than their big brothers is one of their main selling points. Great wines may take twenty years to reach their apex; a lesser version may deliver its entire package upon release, or at least, within a few years. Second wines may come from the same winemaker who makes the first, and even the same plots of ground, but the philosophy is different. By using slightly less newsworthy fruit in the second wine rather than the first, the quality of the Grand Vin is expected to remain high; the alternative may to produce more Grand Vin with lesser grapes, but which would consequentially, be available at a lower price. It’s an endless balance, well summarized by Anthony Barton: “While I don’t believe that you can go too far in the search for perfection in wine, you can certainly go too far in search for profits.”
Bordeaux Vintage Journal
The 2022 Vintage: ‘Exuberant Ripeness of Fruit and Satisfactory Acidity Levels.’
2022: The vintage that seized victory from the jaws of de heat.
A year that challenged the most adamant climate change deniers by providing record spells of high temperatures and unprecedented dryness, still managed to yield wines of luminous depth and superb aging potential. How is this possible? According to Jean-Dominique Videau of Branaire-Ducru, “The vines are getting used to the heat. Like human beings, they adapt to the intense heat and are therefore less likely to suffer from sunburn. We should have more confidence in nature; there is no merit in describing 2022 as a miracle, for all the miraculous qualities are produced by the vine’s innate ability to adapt.”
Indeed, 2022 is already being whispered about in the same breath as past greats like as the 2016 and 2010 among them, and the most optimistic are likening it to 1961 and 1945. At Léoville-Las-Cases, based on empirical experience they are suggesting a comparison with 1870, the year of the Paris Commune.
After the severe frosts of 2021, the mildew, brown rot, cool summer and rain at harvest lending a final burst of mildew for good measure, 2022 is shaping up to be the first vintage that truly demonstrates the result of the hard work done over the past two decades to counteract climate change. As ‘un millésime chaud qui ne fait pas comme un millésime chaud.’—a hot vintage that didn’t act like a hot vintage—it is a breath of hope as fresh-tasting as the wines.
2022 Vintage 7-Bottle Pack $389
2022 Bordeaux rates as one of the most interesting vintages in decades. The result of extreme heat and dry weather, the vines appear to have adapted and are able to produce fruit that is not only ripe, but creates wines that remain fresh while expressing silky textures, balance and harmony.
The 2020 Vintage: ‘Fresh, Lively and Balanced, with Beguiling Purity of Fruit.’
The COVID pandemic underwrote the 2020 growing season, harvest and en primeur campaign as new health protocols created challenges to compound the normal difficulties in a season fraught with drought and then intermittent heavy rains that provided mildew conditions. Even so, spring rains had left the vineyards in good condition to withstand the dry spells, which reduced yields and concentrated the juice, and the harvest was fairly early and carried out under ideal conditions weather-wise. The result is a marvelous vintage that is regarded as a classic in terms of richness and intensity.
2020 Vintage 7-Bottle Pack $349
Of a ‘hat trick’ of fantastic vintages (2018, 2019 and 2020), the latter has proven the most consistent, with spectacular wines released from nearly every appellation. With slightly lower alcohol-by-volume, 2020 manages to combine 2018’s sensual, opulent and concentrated character with 2019’s freshness and elegance.
The 2019 Vintage: ‘Dense Yet Vivacious, with Striking Structure, Intensity, and Poise.’
2019, although not rated as ‘great,’ had the stuff to produce many noteworthy and collectable wines, particularly from the Right Bank, where soils range from sandy to clay, delivered particularly rich concentrated fruit. The graveled, free-draining soils from the Left Bank found phenolic ripeness a bit more difficult to achieve. The top wines of the Haut-Médoc, particularly from Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe, Saint-Julien and Margaux have been well received so far, as have those from Pessac-Léognan.
2019 Vintage 7-Bottle Pack $389
In 2019, cool overnight temperatures regularly balanced warm, dry days—pretty much ideal conditions for wine grapes. It led to sensual and approachable textures and amazing intensity—wines enjoyable now, but which will improve markedly over the long haul.
Saint-Estèphe
Located at the northern end of the Haut-Médoc in an undulating sea of quartz, pebbles, clay and limestone, the wines of Saint-Estèphe are known for both finesse and longevity. Accounting for nearly 8% of total Médoc production, the terroir of Saint-Estèphe is considered among the most favorable in Bordeaux—the limestone is ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon, while the heavier, moisture-retaining clay favors Merlot; the two varietal that make up the lion’s share of Bordeaux blends.
* As a result of these ideal geological foundations, the wines of Saint-Estèphe are generally rich and complex wines with notes of cassis, fresh blackberry, tobacco, cigar box, stone and exotic Asian spices.
Château Montrose
In English, it’s ‘Mount Pink’—a reference to the wild heather than blooms on the slopes. But red is the color for which the château is famous since its wines are a blend of four red grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Although (according to the 1855 Classification of the Médoc) Montrose is a Second Growth, or Deuxième Cru, it often rivals First Growth class rank in quality and reputation. Succeeding three generations of the Charmolüe family, Martin and Olivier Bouygues acquired Château Montrose in 2006.
Montrose’s 237-acre vineyard is one of the largest in the Médoc. With terroir built on gravel and black sand with a subsoil of clay and marl, the vineyards are planted to 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot with an average age of 40 years. The vineyards are divided into four blocks, further subdivided into 100 individual parcels.
The new owners are rightly proud of the château’s tradition of excellence: Martin Bouygues says, “The past deserves great respect. We only modernize where it is good for the quality of the wine and the environment, but we respect history.”
Olivier expands on that with some detail: “Winemaking at Château Montrose is an exercise in precision. We employ various temperature-controlled vats of different sizes, and vinification is conducted on a parcel by parcel basis. In 2016, we initiated experiments with gravity-fed systems with plans to transition to a 100% gravity-fed process. The wines are aged in approximately 60% new oak barrels for an average of 18 months, depending on the vintage.”
2022 Château Montrose ‘La Dame de Montrose’ Saint-Estèphe ($55)
Made to the same rigorous standards as the Grand Vin and from grapes grown in the same vineyard, La Dame de Montrose is the estate’s second label, and is created with a preponderance of Merlot with an aim of quicker maturation. The marque was created in 1983 as a tribute to Yvonne Charmolüe, who ran Château Montrose single-handedly from 1944 to 1960. The 2022 is a blend of 71% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petite Verdot and 1% Cab Franc, and is a silken expression of freshly cut white flowers, violets and the India ink behind sweet notes of gooseberry.
Château Cos d’Estournel
Cos d’Estournel is found amid undulating terrain at very heart of Médoc, and the name itself was chosen by the original owner, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel, to commemorate the rolling landscape on which the estate stands; ‘cos’ is an old dialectical word for hill. Known for its ornate, pagoda-topped castle, Cos d’Estournel was purchased in 2000 by entrepreneur Michel Reybier, a man determined to keep the extraordinary personality of the estate intact. “It will be Cos and only Cos,” he insisted at the time and maintains to this day: “At first glance, I was attracted by the history of the place. And then when I visited the estate, I felt instantly how unique, how exceptional it is.”
With roots sunk deeply in tradition, d’Estournel is nonetheless quite happy to employ state-of-the-art technique, and despite the labor-intensity of the entire process, much of it is hands off: Upon arrival, the temperature of the grapes is lowered to around 40 degrees Fahrenheit to slow oxidation, and then is cold macerated with pump-overs done entirely by gravity recycling. Gravity cellars allow for complete nonintervention in making the wine, and the use of this method allows for the purest possible expression of the fruit grown in the gravelly, rock, and stone soils of Cos d’Estournel.
2020 Château Cos d’Estournel ‘Pagodes de Cos’ Saint-Estèphe ($59)
D’Estournel’s second label is named for the two architecturally-acclaimed pagodas of the main château; as a wine, it is known to echo some of the power of the Grand Vin along with all of the iconic balance, but has the advantage of evolving more quickly and being ready to drink earlier. The 2020 (marking Reybier’s twentieth year at the helm) is a blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It is a voluptuous mélange of crème de cassis, violets and blackberry jam with subtle notes of tea.
Pauillac
The most singularly revered appellation on earth, Pauillac is to wine what The Beatles are to pop music. Though fewer than ten square miles in total, three of the top five châteaux in the 1855 Médoc Classification are located here, and so varied is the topography that each estate is able to market the individual nature, in style and substance, of their wares. And it is this trio of skills—growing, producing and selling—that has made the region almost a cliché, synonymous with elite wine, where futures sell for exorbitant rates long before the wine is even in the bottle.
* The wines of Pauillac are considered by many to be poster children for Bordeaux as a style. Expect rich, full-bodied and tannic sensations and an uncanny combination stern and brooding countenance with regal elegance. Typical flavor notes include cassis, blackberry, tobacco, cigar box, spice, earth, lead pencil, cedarwood and wet forest aromas coupled with powerful wines, firm tannins, and regal bearings.
Château Haut-Bages Libéral
This 5th Grand Cru Classé of Pauillac is attached to the vineyards of Château Latour and Pichon Baron. The wines are made under the renowned consultancy of enologist Eric Boissenot.
The vineyard covers 70 acres, half nearby the château on a limestone-rich gravelly ridge and other half on flat land consisting mainly of deep Garonne gravel. The combination of these two types of soil gives Haut Bages Libéral its iconic character, combining the power of Merlot on limestone clay with the elegance of Cabernets on gravel.
The vineyard is planted to 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot and is tended to using ‘lutte raisonnée’—literally ‘reasoned fight—as a rage against the use of chemicals. Vinification is traditional, in concrete and stainless-steel vats in volumes proportional to the plot. All tanks, each with different capacities, are equipped with an automated thermo-regulation system. The wines will then age in barrels for a total of 16 months, of which 40% of the barrels are new.
2020 Château Haut-Bages Libéral ‘La Chapelle de Haut-Bages Libéral’ Pauillac ($41)
Vinified by the same team using the same techniques at the Grand Vin, La Chapelle draws fruit from the estate’s youngest vines, those under fifteen years old. It shows hard candy, kirsch, rose petal, cinnamon and blood orange, displaying the Grand Vin’s magnificent purity and silkiness with brighter acids and more fruit articulation.
Château Pichon Longueville ‘Baron’
‘When you’re number two, you try harder’ is an aphorism that may hold true in car rentals, but in the Médoc, the chances are slim that any Deuxième Cru will have its seat upgraded any time soon. But it is arguable to suggest that Pichon Longueville is first among seconds, and it boasts a terroir essentially identical to Château Latour, immediately next door. Originally part of a larger estate (Château Pichon Longueville) the property was subdivided in 1850 between the owner’s children, among them, Baron Raoul de Pichon Longueville.
Situated at the southern end of Pauillac near border with the Saint-Julien-Beychevelle, Pichon Baron’s 180 acres are planted to 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. The planting density is 9,000 vines per hectare with an average age of 30 years and appellation-appropriate low yields.
Currently managed by Englishman Christian Seely, he adheres to typical modern Bordelaise techniques in the cellar: “Grapes are harvested and sorted by hand, and then macerated for 20–30 days, and fermented at 28–32 °C in temperature controlled stainless steel vats of varying sizes. The wine is transferred into oak barrels for aging after finishing its malolactic fermentation.”
2019 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron ‘Les Griffons de Pichon Baron’ Pauillac ($63)
The ‘Les Griffons’ label first appeared in 2012, intended to be the estate’s higher-end second wine. The original, Baronet de Pichon, first appeared in 1983 and was renamed ‘Les Tourelles de Longueville’ three years later. Les Griffons is distinct in that it is made from the same old vines used in the Grand Vin, with a higher proportion of Merlot to make it accessible earlier. The 2019 blend contains 59% Merlot and 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, and sees 60% new oak for eighteen months before release. It is quite able to age, but delightful now, with a strong floral character lending aromatics to the juicy, supple and upfront fruit.
Château Haut-Batailley
This Fifth Growth Pauillac is a scion of the mother estate, Château Batailley; in 2017, it was acquired by the Cazes family, owners of the ubiquitous Château Lynch-Bages. Named after a battle that took place there in 1453; it functioned as a working winery for centuries until being ranked during the 1855 Classification. In the 20th Century, Francois Xavier Borie (owner of the famous Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste) acquired the estate and portioned off a smaller section of Château Batailley, thus creating Château Haut-Batailley.
The wines of Haut-Batailley are traditional examples of classic Pauillac terroir—heavily graveled, sandy soil over clay. Vinification is typically done in stainless steel tanks and the process of malolactic fermentation occurs within the stainless steel, giving these wines a velvety smoothness and supple luxurious drinkability. The wines of Château Haut-Batailley share the versatility of the grand vin from Château Batailley in the sense that they age well yet are able to be enjoyed on the younger side within an hour or so of decanting.
2019 Château Haut-Batailley ‘Haut-Batailley Verso’ Pauillac ($45)
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot representing 35% of the total harvest, hand-picked and aged in year-old barrels for one year. The wine displays intense up-front notes of cassis and ripe plum merging into minerality with graphite and wet stone enhanced by savory whiffs of tobacco and herb.
Château Lynch Bages
Amid the fanfare and the brilliant marketing (Jean-Michel Cazes sent a bottle of 1975 Lynch-Bages into outer space aboard the space shuttle Discovery), Fifth Growth Château Lynch Bages is worth the hype. Under the tireless campaigning and quality-improvement of the Cazes family, who have owned the property since 1934, the estate has expanded to over 250 acres to the south and southwest of Pauillac.
Improvements to both soil and technique have been a hallmark of the Cazes approach; a massive renovation and modernization of the wine cellar took place in 2017, and cutting-edge vineyard management now includes satellite imaging to survey the vineyard and conducting soil surveys to ensure the vines reach their full potential.
Of the nonpareil terroir, Jean-Charles Cazes (who took over the estate in 2007) says, “Combined with the natural barrier of the Landes forest, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde estuary, we find ourself in a very specific micro-climate. Winters are cool, frosts are rare, spring is often wet, summers are warm and autumns are sunny. Along with that, Lynch-Bages soils are homogeneous, essentially made up of deep Garonne gravel, resulting from the slow erosion of the Pyrenees by the Garonne river. On top of having high draining properties, these soils of pebbles and sands accumulate heat during the day and release it during the night, and they contribute to a moderate growth and a deep rooting of the vine.”
Although stuck in fifth place by the 1855 classification, it appears that fate, nature, and an aggressively forward-thinking family has raised the bar far higher than the Cru-rating suggests.
2019 Château Lynch Bages ‘Echo Lynch-Bages’ Pauillac ($55)
The estate’s second wine, Echo de Lynch-Bages 2019 is composed of 53% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple in color, it is big and bold from the outset, displaying warm black current and blueberry pie in a creamy package where the tannins are secondary to the fruit.
2022 Château Lynch Bages ‘Blanc de Lynch-Bages’ Bordeaux Blanc ($108)
67% Sauvignon Blanc, 22% Semillon and 11% Muscadelle; the grapes undergo a mix of pressings, both with and without stems, followed by fermentation in oak for two-thirds of the crop and in vat for the rest, then aging for six months on lees. The wine’s color shows brilliant straw tones and flavors run from passion fruit to grapefruit, lemon curd and white peach with hints of honeysuckle, lime blossom and a finish of dusty chalk.
Saint-Julien
Great things come in small packages, especially when big money is involved. The smallest of the major Médoc appellations (under four square miles), Saint-Julien also boasts an astonishing pedigree: Fully 95% of the appellation sits on classified acreage. Key to the desirability of the wines produced here is the seamless fusion of concentration and elegance; the wines are of a style historically referred to as masculine, though more in the mode of a Knight Templar than a brawny warrior. This blend of finesse and fortitude comes in part from the preponderance of gravel in the best vineyards, allowing natural drainage in the wet years, radiating warmth in cool vintages, extending the growing season and allowing vine roots to extend deeply into the earth.
* If you were to confuse a Saint-Julien for a Pauillac, you would be forgiven—at the north/south boundary, the two appellations are only a vine row apart. When tasting the greats of Saint-Julien, look for deep color, concentration, pure fruit expression and especially, aromatics. Julien wines show layers of blueberry, blackcurrant, plum, tobacco and licorice blended throughout velvety tannins.
Château Léoville-Las Cases
As a Second Classified Growth established by the 1855 law, Léoville-Las Cases is often ranked as a ‘First among the Seconds.’ With an impressive 136 acres, the best inside the renowned Clos de Léoville, the estate’s mosaic of terroirs is driven by the nearby Gironde River, which benefits the vineyards as a heat regulator, keeping temperatures moderate and acting as a frost barrier. The vines grow in Gunz gravel soils that is made up of a gravel-sandy subsoil on top of a deep layer of clay, and ideal cradle for the estate’s symbolic Left Bank black varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.
Today, represented by Jean-Hubert Delon (proprietor of Château Potensac in the Médoc and Château Nénin in Pomerol), Léoville’s legacy of excellence is preserved under an overarching philosophy. Delon says, “Regardless of their notoriety, all of our wine-producing estates are devoted to the same standard. They must perfectly express their terroir in their structure, harmony, distinction, complexity and aging potential. They are made to be shared with family or friends and are produced in such a way that the ripeness of the fruit is preserved throughout their life. Special attention is paid to the balance of acidity, a key element both for aging and immediate enjoyment. The empyreumatic aromas given by maturation in new oak barrels must not dominate the grape aromas, but should blend together.”
2022 Château Léoville-Las Cases ‘Le Petit Lion du Marquis de Las Cases’ Saint-Julien ($101)
The ‘Little Lion’ is produced as Léoville’s second wine, and is intended to serve as a more accessible introduction to the estate’s signature style. 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot with the remainder Cab Franc, the wine is considerably softer upon release than the Grand Vin, and as intended, ready to drink tonight with dividends paid out over five or so years in the cellar. It shows black cherry behind a graveled, scorched earth minerality with licorice and lavender infusing the mid-palate.
Château Lagrange
Following its purchase by Suntory, the Lagrange estate expanded beyond Saint-Julien, bottling Haut Médoc and Bordeaux Blanc, and today, rather remarkably, it is the largest of the great Crus classified in 1855. With plantings that are 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, and 7% Petit Verdot, the estate has undergone significant improvements over the past few decades; under the direction of Marcel Ducasse, Château Lagrange’s director from 1993 to 2007, the vineyard grew from 118 planted acres to 340 planted acres. The vine density was also increased as more than 100,000 new vines were added. Today, the average age of the vines is more than 35 years of age. The terroir is gravel, sand and clay soils. There are also parcels with deposits of iron. The vineyard is planted to a vine density of 8,500 vines per hectare. They use optical sorting technology during the harvest.
The slopes are well placed in the west of the Saint-Julien appellation, close to Château Gruaud-Larose and Château Branaire-Ducru. At the peak of their vineyards, the hillsides reach nearly a hundred feet in elevation which puts their vines at the highest elevation in the entire Saint-Julien appellation.
In 1985, the new owners also began producing a second wine, ‘Les Fief de Lagrange.’
2022 Château Lagrange ‘Les Fiefs de Lagrange’ Saint-Julien ($36)
68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot, made with similar production methods as the Grand Vin, combining tradition and modernity with a density of plantation ranging from 7700 to 10000 feet per hectare, controlled yields and manual harvesting. Les Fiefs ’22 reveals vibrant flavors of ripe cherry, cranberry and wild herbs framed by bright acidity and smooth, youthful tannins.
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
If ever an estate has enshrined within its very name the fact that grapes thrive where other crops fail, it is Château Ducru-Beaucaillou: The famous lieu-dit of Beaucaillou (good pebbles) was once called Maucaillou (bad pebbles) when they tried to grow cereal crops instead of grapevines. It is the deep Günzian gravel that earns the terroir both scorn and praise from farmers (depending on crop; along with soil, a favorable climate and the general wherewithal of generations of vignerons, Ducru-Beaucaillou’s reputation has held strong—and grown—for three centuries.
Ducru-Beaucaillou’s vineyards consist of 125 well-drained acres planted to 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, previous plantings of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot having been uprooted. The vines’ average age is nearly 60 years. The estate produces three wines—the Grand Vin, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou; a second wine called La Croix de Beaucaillou, produced since 1995, and a third wine, Le Petit Ducru de Ducru-Beaucaillou, produced since 2019, comprising the former Château Lalande-Borie. The wines are aged for 18 months in 50% to 80% new oak barrels according to the richness of the vintage, fined with egg whites and lightly filtered before bottling.
2020 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou ‘La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou’ Saint-Julien ($60)
52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot. The estate does not market La Croix as a ‘second wine’ because it comes from a different source: an inland vineyard on the south bank of the La Moline stream close to Château Talbot; it was previously sold as Château Terrey-Gros-Caillou. It is muscular yet fresh, displaying a full range of berry, lavender rose petal, mint, spice and gravel inflections.
Margaux
Encompassing nearly four thousand acres of vines, Margaux is the second largest appellation in the Haut-Médoc (after Saint-Estèphe), but the irony remains: The quintessential character of Margaux relies not on size, but on finesse. In Margaux, makers of the supple, perfumed Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines have adhered to tradition as faithfully as in any appellation, and perhaps, too much, as a modern understanding of the complexity of Margaux-specific terroir evolves. Says Jean-Henri Schÿler, former president of the Syndicat of Margaux: “The vineyards here have thick bands of clay beneath some parts of gravelly soil, and these can block the descent of roots. Tractors often cut the roots, which lie near the surface, compounding the problem. And the clay can encourage the formation of underground pools of water. Proper drainage can solve the problem but it’s a major investment.”
In part with assistance from the Syndicat, changes are happening at a faster pace, and a new guard of winemaker is losing some of the baggage left them by their forebears, creating a Margaux renaissance that is well worth exploring.
* In tasting Margaux, note that the velvet and silk that the wine exhibits on the palate combined with the ripe plum and violet aromas that dominate the nose may confuse you into thinking that there is a higher percentage of Merlot in the cuvée, but geography gives rise to this softness, built primarily around Cabernet Sauvignon. Margaux is the warmest major appellation in the Left Bank and it is almost always the first to harvest, so floral, red-fruit freshness remains in Margaux, while it may turn into black currant and mulberry notes in other prestigious Left Bank appellations.
Château d’Issan
The roots of Château d’Issan’ vines delve deeply into Margaux’s gravel, but not as deeply as the roots of the estate delve into history. One of the oldest producing châteaux in Bordeaux, wines from d’Issan vineyards were used to toast the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry the Second. Oddly perhaps, although Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety today, when d’Issan was classified as a Third Growth in 1855, the wine was produced entirely from a grape that is now all but extinct in Bordeaux: Tarney Coulant.
In 2013, Château d’Issan sold a 50% stake to Jacky Lorenzetti of Château Lilian Ladouys, Château Lafon in St. Estèphe and Château Pedesclaux in Pauillac. Along with Emmanuel Cruse, the winemaking has been upgraded to include sorting tables and a new pneumatic press along with an increase of the proportion of new French oak barrels used to age the wine; currently an average of 50%.
2022 Château d’Issan ‘Blason d’Essan’, Margaux ($36)
55% Merlot, 44% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Petit Verdot. D’Issan’s second wine, introduced in 1995, and made from the estate’s youngest vines. It is fruity and accessible, offering a bouquet of blackberry and cranberry laced with undergrowth, mint, lavender and tobacco leading to full, fruity mid-palate and a mineral-driven finish.
Château Palmer
Originally part of the vast estate of Château d’Issan, the estate’s legacy truly began in 1816 when Englishman General Charles Palmer first acquired the château—a point its renown grew until it reached Third Growth status in the 1855 Classification. Not only that, but Palmer is often listed is among a select group of estates known as ‘Super Seconds’—a title bestowed upon properties that consistently perform above this nineteenth century classification.
Under the guidance of Thomas Duroux, former winemaker of Tuscany’s famous Ornellaia, Château Palmer continues to innovate and evolve. Departing from tradition, Duroux has introduced groundbreaking changes that have revolutionized the barreling and aging process. Bordeaux wines are traditionally aged in 225-liter barrels, but under Duroux, Château Palmer takes a different path: After spending their initial year in 225-liter barrels, the wines are then transferred to 3000-liter foudres. Likewise, Duroux spearheaded a significant cellar renovation, upgrading the pumping system to a gravity-fed one, modernizing sorting and bottling lines and adding 42 temperature-controlled vats specifically designed to facilitate precise, parcel-by-parcel vinification.
The 136-acre vineyard is planted to 47% with Cabernet Sauvignon, 47% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot. One of the distinguishing features of Château Palmer lies in the composition of its Grand Vin. A remarkable blend that mirrors the vineyard composition, this is unconventional reliance on Merlot for a Left Bank Bordeaux, and helps explain Palmer’s distinct elegance.
The annual production of the Grand Vin Château Palmer is 11,000-12,000 cases; of the second wine, Alter Ego de Palmer, 7,000-8,000 cases.
2019 Château Palmer ‘Alter Ego’ Margaux ($120)
51% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot. The wine’s deeply purple hue and intense aromatics suggests that it may be one of the most concentrated and age-worth Second Wines from this collection. It displays flavors of ripe black cherries, blackcurrants, fresh tobacco leaf, pencil lead and mocha.
2022 Château Palmer ‘Alter Ego de Palmer’ Margaux ($120)
61% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 8% Petit Verdot, aged in 25% new oak, Palmer’s renowned second wine is a sensuous and caressing version of the big brother, filled with rich blueberry tones, nice spice and acidity with the vintage’s massive concentration on full display. Dig deep enough and find some mint and orange peel, but no nuance will dominate because the wine is beautifully balanced.
Château Durfort-Vivens
Château Durfort-Vivens produces wine from a 150-acre vineyard that sits on deep gravel with a sandy-clay subsoil and in 2016, became the first of the Margaux Classified Growths to obtain both organic farming and biodynamic certifications. While the wines have been labeled ‘zero residue’ since 2014, the property has also been HVE and SME certified since 2019. This primarily due to the input of winemaker Gonzague Lurton, who adds, “The mild air of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde, along with shelter from the surrounding Landes forest, give us our temperate climate. Each of our plots is vinified separately and fermented in wooden and concrete vats. Aging then occurs for an average of 18 months in fine-grain French oak.”
Château Margaux purchased Durfort-Vivens in 1961, controlled by the Lurton family who also owns Château Brane-Cantenac and Château Climens. Until that time, the wine was produced at Château Margaux. Gonzague Lurton, became the head of operations 1992. The estate has 86.5 acres under vine.
2019 Château Durfort-Vivens ‘Les Plantes’ Margaux ($44)
88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc from the youngest biodynamically grown grapes on the estate. Aged 80% in clay amphora and 20% in barrels, the wine is fresh and energetic with bright tones of sour cherry and blackberry behind violets and lilacs wrapped in supple tannins.
Pessac-Léognan
The same novice who may not grok the diversity of terroirs within Bordeaux may also admit that they are not familiar with Pessac-Léognan as a stand-alone appellation. This is understandable considering it has existed as such for only thirty-five years, although the soil beneath is the product of millions of years of geology that have deposited a harmonious mixture of ocher, white, red and pink quartz and quartzites, jaspers, flints and Lydians.
Extending over ten communes—Cadaujac, Canéjan, Gradignan, Léognan, Martillac, Mérignac, Pessac, Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans, Talence and Villenave-d’Ornon—the appellation decree was signed on September 9, 1987, marking the recognition of several unique qualities in the terroir that gave birth to the ‘New French Claret’ of Château Haut-Brion, one of the Grand Cru Classé estates in the famous 1855 valuation.
With the replanting of more than two thousand acres of vines, winegrowers have regained the Pessac-Léognan vineyard region that it had in 1935, resisting the urban expansion of the nearby city of Bordeaux. Today, the total surface area exceeds 4000 of production, with vines and intensely urban landscapes co-existing.
* The inherent weight in the wines of Pessac-Léognan are balanced with minerality, and the best are imminently age-worthy. Look for smoke, truffle and tar scents mingled with the dark fruit, notably sweet cherry and currant. There is often a spicy edge that becomes more pronounced with a few years in the bottle.
Château Haut Bailly
At just under 75 acres, Haut Bailly is a moderate-sized estate that produces about 80,000 bottles per year. The grapes line up in the vineyard in an order typical for Haut-Médoc, 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 3% Cabernet franc and 3% Petit Verdot, although it is located in the commune of Léognan, which is usually more associated with white wine production. Since being purchased in 1998 by American banker Robert G. Wilmers, Bailly has steadily improved its output and now numbers in the upper echelon of Pessac-Léognan.
The terroir consists of sand mixed with the gravel that gives the Graves appellation its name. The grapes used in production are hand-harvested and fermented for ten days in temperature controlled stainless steel and concrete vats of varying sizes. After maceration the wines are aged for eighteen months in oak barrels, a high percentage of which are new. In total the estate produces 150,000 bottles annually. In a typical vintage, between thirty and forty percent of the wine is relegated to the estate’s second wine, Haut-Bailly II, produced since 1967, under the name Domaine de la Parde until 1979, then La Parde de Haut-Bailly until 2018.
Unlike many producers from the Graves appellation, no white wine is made at Haut-Bailly.
2022 Château Haut Bailly ‘Haut-Bailly II’, Pessac-Léognan Rouge ($60)
65% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Malbec. Hazelnut and blackberry on the bouquet with mocha, cassis and a touch of mint on the palate.
Château Smith Haut Lafitte
Rated as a red wine ‘Grand Cru Classé’ in the 1959 Classification of Graves, the château sit on a low hill of pebbles and sand deposited by the Garonne River, offering grape vines not only superb drainage, but also reflected sunshine to lengthen the day’s ripening period. The estate is not to be confused with Château Lafite Rothschild (the Pauillac superstar) with which it has no connection, but both were named for their elevated physical status—‘la fite’ is an ancient dialectical word for hill.
The vineyards consists of 170 acres, about half of which are planted at a ratio of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The remaining acres are cultivated with white varieties of 90% Sauvignon blanc, 5% Sémillon and 5% Sauvignon Gris.
Château Smith Haut Lafitte produced about 10,000 cases of the Grand Vin annually and 2,500 cases of dry white while releasing two Second wines; the blends are what differentiates them. Les Hauts de Smith is produced from an average blend of 55% Merlot and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon while an alternate Second, Le Petit Haut Lafitte is produced as a red wine, with a higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend for a more Left Bank feel.
2022 Château Smith Haut Lafitte ‘Le Petit Haut Lafitte’, Pessac-Léognan Rouge ($45)
60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot; grapes are sorted twice, before and after destemming, and are not pressed before undergoing fermentation in vats. Tannins and color are extracted by punching down and/or pumping over. The wine is aged in 20% barrels made in house for 14 months and displays nice earthy tones—cigar box and cedar—as well as rich dark berries, some floral notes and fine but supple tannins.
2022 Château Smith Haut Lafitte ‘Le Petit Haut Lafitte’, Pessac-Léognan Blanc ($58)
80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon, the wine expresses a delightfully tropical bouquet of honeyed grapefruit and lemon oil. Full-bodied and dry, the wine picks up a flinty edge by the finish.
Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion
Named after a group of friars who managed the estate from 1584 until the French Revolution in 1789 (and of course, for Château Haut-Brion), Les Carmes originated as a windmill and the surrounding land gifted by Jean de Pontac of Haut-Brion. When it was sold in 2010 for €1.54 millions per acre, it represented a new record for Bordeaux vineyard land. Shortly after selling to Patrice Pichet, the vineyard of Les Carmes Haut Brion was expanded by the purchase of another fifteen acres of vines.
Pichet has continued adding to their holdings of Les Carmes; in 2012, the group made another 40-acre purchase of vines from the Briest family, the owners of Château Haut Nouchet. Patrice Pichet has said they plan to completely replant the vineyard at a much higher vine density of 10,000 vines per hectare. Initially, the young vines will be used in the production of the second wine of Les Carmes Haut Brion, Le Clos de Carmes Haut Brion, and in time, it is expected the better vines will be added to increase the quantity of the Grand Vin.
Le Clos des Carmes Haut Brion (Les C, as it is called) is made from the majority of the vineyard, so it is a much larger production. The vineyard is planted to 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot, emphasizing Cabernet Sauvignon more than most other second wines.
2020 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion ‘Le C des Carmes Haut-Brion’ Pessac-Léognan Rouge ($39)
Considered less a ‘second wine’ and more ‘another featured wine’, Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Les C (short for ‘Les Clos’) relies on a more traditional blend that focuses on Merlot subtly complemented by Cabernet Sauvignon and a much larger emphases on Cabernet Franc. It is made in a separate winery about a half an hour from where in the Grand Vin is made in Pessac. Assertive percentage of Cab Franc creates a wine that shows an oceanic edge with nuances of sea salt minerality beneath notes of flowers, tobacco leaves, thyme, red and black currant, mint, and an array of spices, finishing with cocoa and espresso.
Château Malartic-Lagravière
Originally Domaine de Lagravière, Château Malartic-Lagravière—situated on the finest gravel hilltop in Léognan—is one of only six estates in Bordeaux classified for both white and red wines. 100 acres are given over to red grape varieties (45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, with 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot) and 15 acres to whites (80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon). The estate has belonged to the Bonnie family since 1997, originally with oenologists Michel Rolland (replaced by Eric Boissenot in 2020) and Athanase Fakorellis as consultants.
The terroir is typical of the region; superficially there is a high platform of gravel as much as 30 feet deep in places. Beneath this is limestone bedrock peppered with ancient shells, fossils of the sea-creatures that once drifted here in an ancient sea. There are also a few streaks of clay scattered throughout the estate.
At the core of the winemaking, in the field and in the cellar, is an ecological commitment. An eco-demanding environmental commitment implemented since 1997, for sustainable practices that respect a global ecosystem.
Véronique Bonnie, President of Vignobles Malartic, says, “Our wine estate is a vast environmental territory. We preserve its balance by ensuring the harmony of its biodiversity: vines, hedges, woods, meadows, gardens and vegetable garden, beehives and animals on our farm. With this global agro-ecological vision, our main mission is to take care of the soil with limited, measured human intervention that respects living things.”
2019 Château Malartic-Lagravière ‘La Réserve de Malartic’ Pessac-Léognan Rouge ($26)
83% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot. The wine was aged in French oak (25% new) for 15 months and shows plump black raspberries, gravelly earth and tobacco.
Saint-Émilion
Nowhere in Bordeaux is a genuflection to history more obvious than in Saint-Émilion, which is speckled with Roman ruins and at whose center stands a limestone church built by the region’s namesake, Saint Emilian of Lagny. The vineyards are numerous and small, averaging around fifteen acres and spread across a triad of terroirs that can be roughly defined as a central limestone plateau, the clay and chalk-rich slopes of that plateau and the flatland beyond. What all three topographical areas have in common is cooler soils better suited to Merlot and Cabernet Franc. For the most part, Cabernet Sauvignon does not ripen well in Saint-Émilion except in small pockets, most notably on an ancient alluvial terrace in the northwest, where free-draining gravel soils are similar to those found in the best properties of the Graves and Médoc.
* The wines of Saint-Émilion are presented two different styles, the lighter of which offer silky tannins and a red-fruit mixture of ripe cherries and currants with notes of spice. The rich, full-bodied blend—often labeled Grand Cru—is meatier, more richly colored and filled with darker fruits like plums and blackberries.
Château Quintus
Formerly called Château Tertre Daugay, the Quintus estate was purchased by Domaine Clarence Dillon in 2011. Dillon already owned four other domains, and in the Roman tradition of naming the fifth child ‘Quintus,’ the estate was thus renamed. The property sits on a high promontory at the end of the Saint-Émilion plateau, a terroir encompassing various slopes, soils and orientation. Of the vista, François Guillaume Dumas wrote in 1899: “One cannot imagine a more beautiful situation for an estate, or one more favorable for the production of a First Growth wine.”
At the time of purchase, the Quintus vineyards stood at 37 acres. In 2013, it was announced that the vines from Château L’Arrosee would be merged with Quintus, doubling the vineyard size. With the 2021 purchase of Château Grand Pontet, Quintus became larger still. The vineyards sit on two different types of limestone, the best on the slope, which is used for Quintus. The vines at the bottom of the slopes are more clay-rich and are reserved for their second wine, ‘Le Dragon de Quintus.’ Although many of the Cabernet Sauvignon vines were ripped out and replanted, a few remain that are more than a hundred years old. In general, the vineyards are 67% Merlot and 33% Cabernet Franc.
2022 Château Quintus ‘Le Dragon de Quintus’ Saint-Émilion Grand Cru ($60)
The name originates from the dragon statue that perches on the promontory above the estate. The 2022 is a blend of 82% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 7% Malbec. Polished and silky with dark cherry, plum puree, black tea and persistent echoes of warm stone, violet and bay leaf on the finish.
Château-Figeac
Figeac is the largest estate of Saint-Émilion, covering 133 acres, of which around a hundred are under vine. It is known as the ‘most Médoc’ of the Right Bank, blending mostly Cabernet grapes over Merlot. The wine’s distinctive old Bordeaux style comes from complex soils: Three warm gravel hills surrounding the estate and offer natural drainage, while cooler blue clay subsoil provides nutrients for deep vine roots. Several microclimates and older vines lend character. Frédéric Faye, winemaker and managing director of Château-Figeac, says the estate has ‘always produced great wines’ but in recent vintages, fine-tuning has paid off: “The scope for qualitative improvement lies in details that go even further to highlight the uniqueness of the Cru and its terroir purity. Such refinement includes improving tannin texture, aromatic expression and the power of seduction in youth while preserving the ageing potential and identity.”
2020 Château-Figeac ‘Petit-Figeac’ Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru ($81)
71% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 14-15 months in 40% new oak, it offers up youthful herbaceousness with lush, textured flavors of cherry compote, mulberry and cassis with sweet spice, mineral and a hint of oak vanilla.
Château Monbousquet
Having fallen into disrepair at the end of the 19th century, the Monbousquet estate saw a slow rebuild after World War II that culminated in the 1993 purchase by Chantal and Gérard Perse of Château Pavie. Credited with ushering in a ‘leap in quality,’ the couple planted the first white grapes in the vineyard and pushed production standards to the ceiling; they drained vineyards and added state-of-the-art installations in the cellar. These efforts were formerly recognized in 2006 as Château Monbousquet was elevated to the rank of Grand Cru Classé.
Says Gérard, “The first vintage of Château Monbousquet was the difficult 1997. We only made two barrels out of the entire harvest. To keep that in perspective, that means somewhere between 300 and 600 bottles were made that year. One of the first things we tackled was the water problem, which unlike much of France, was not a lack of it. We analyzed and drained most of our 80 acres to limit rises in the water table during prolonged wet spells.”
Even Gérard admits that his vineyard—planted to planted to 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon—do not sit on Saint-Émilion’s most lauded terroir. He says, “The vines are planted at a density of 5,500 vines per hectare; the average age of the vines is 40 years. For the red wines, we rely on more sand and clay in the north and more gravel with sand in the south. In part, intentionally striving for low yields is one method to increase concentration and improve quality. For example, in 2009, our yields were only 28 hectoliters per hectare. We have learned the technique of getting the most out of the land.”
2019 Château Monbousquet ‘Angélique de Monbousquet’ Saint-Émilion Grand Cru ($35)
60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine has a ripe, black-fruited aroma with touches of pencil shavings, licorice and cherry preserves and finishes crisp and savory.
Château Angélus
Storied Château Angélus is an estate with celestial aspirations; it is said to be the only winery where the voices of angels—l’angélus—can be heard from three proximate chapels; the Mazerat chapel, the church of Saint-Martin and the church of Saint-Émilion. Named Grand Cru Classé when the Saint-Emilion classification was created in 1955, it reached the pinnacle, ( Premier Grand Cru Classé A), a distinction it held between the 2012 and 2021 vintages. At the start of 2022, the domain opted to withdraw from the classification, the next edition of which was due to be made official in September of the same year. As a result, from the 2022 vintage onwards, the label of Château Angélus mentions only the Saint-Émilion Grand Cru.
Château Angélus is planted on a 67 acre vineyard on clay-rich slopes as well as on a ‘pied de côte’ with clay-limestone soils. This vineyard is planted 50% Merlot, 47% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon.
2020 Château Angélus ‘Carillon d’Angélus’ Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru ($131)
The 2020 Le Carillon is Merlot top-heavy at 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Drawn from three locations (Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes, the Cheval Blanc/Figeac sector and vineyards around the château), the wine is aged with 60% in new oak and 40% in stainless steel. The Merlot offers formidable flesh and the nose is elegant—crushed flowers and blackberry pie. Long and luxurious in the mouth, it has wonderful tannins, nicely integrated acidity and a clean finish.
Pomerol
Lacking a detail-laden history, a focal-point eponymous town, a château-laden landscape or an ancient classification system, Pomerol does not conform to the accepted image of a Bordeaux wine district. Still despite its tiny size (under 2000 acres), Pomerol has wormed its way onto a prominent perch among the world’s most revered wine regions. Merlot is the dominant grape variety in Pomerol and as a result, the wines tend to be rich, silky and approachable at an early age, while also being capable of extended aging. Cabernet Franc is also often present, adding structure and an element of savory spice to the blend. The best wines come from the eastern section of the appellation on the marginally higher land where Pomerol meets Saint-Émilion. It is here that the most famous Pomerol is found, including the château that is more famous than the appellation itself, Pétrus.
* Pomerol is texture wine; the appellation’s unique terroir, consisting of a clay-based subsoil with high iron content, creates an ideal environment for the development of Merlot, which thrives in the region. Pomerol wines are typically full-bodied and deeply colored, with blackberry, crème de cassis notes and especially, overtones of chocolate and coffee.
Clos du Clocher
Good fences may make good neighbors, but good terroirs make better ones. Founded in 1924 by Jean Baptiste Audy, a négociant who wanted to dip a toe in the winemaking trade, the land he purchased piecemeal, vine row by vine row, was proximate to vines owned by Château Latour à Pomerol and Château La Fleur-Pétrus. Additional vines planted next to Trotanoy are used to produce their Grand Vin. Old Audy clearly knew his stuff.
The estate, tiny by Bordeaux standards, is divided into four parcels. Most are planted on clay-loam soils resting on blue clay and deep gravel subsoils at a ratio of 70% Merlot to 30% Cabernet Franc, none at elevations higher than a hundred feet.
2020 Clos du Clocher ‘Château Monregard La Croix’ Pomerol ($49)
100% Merlot, but unlike Clocher’s Grand Vin, which is grown in clay, La Croix hails from Merlot grown sandy soils. The harvest undergoes plot by plot vinification with manual pump-overs with long maceration offer spicy raspberries, smoke and plushily-textured tannins and loads of truffle-accented fruit, finishing with dark chocolate and espresso notes.
Castillon – Côtes de Bordeaux
The creation of the Côtes de Bordeaux appellation in 2009 was an attempt to unite four lesser-known wine producing areas (Premieres Côtes de Blaye, Côtes de Castillon, Côtes de Francs, and the red wines from the Cadillac district) under a single commercial network. The move has had mixed results, primarily because the identities of each were already well-established locally and these regions are not necessarily near one another. Francs and Castillon are located at the eastern end of the Bordeaux region, while Blaye is in the west and Cadillac in the south. The banner of each remains distinct, therefore, and the qualities of their individual terroirs are not amenable to a generic appellation name. That can only be determined by a judicious examination of their wines.
Castillion is Merlot country; the district, at the very eastern edge of Bordeaux between Libourne and Bergerac (abutting Saint-Émilion) contains multiple clay-rich sites in the foothills of the limestone plateau on which the town Saint-Émilion is located. With over 7000 acres under vine (70% of which is Merlot) the appellation produces only red wine, and nearly all blends with the satellite variety Cabernet Franc, which accounts for 28% of the harvest, and Cabernet Sauvignon, making up a scant 2%.
Geologically, much of the area is an extension of the limestone ridge that runs through Saint-Émilion’s greatest estates, while some sites boast the soil structures of Pomerol. Since the price of land in Castillon remains reasonable, many of the top estates from these storied Bordeaux regions have bought land here and raised the overall quality of the wine. As an example, vineland in Castillon sells for around $10,000 per acre, while in the Grand Cru climats of Saint-Émilion, that same amount of space easily exceeds a million dollars. In total, 230 vignerons and vigneronnes work Castillon terroir.
Château l’Hétre
L’Hêtre, formerly Château Goubau and neighboring property Château Montagne, sits on a varied and rich biotope on the Saint Philippe d’Aiguilhe plateau, the highest point in Bordeaux. Jacques Thienpont, proprietor of the tiny (6 acres) Château Le Pin, visited the properties in 2015 and fell in love with the southeasterly exposures, the continuous gentle breeze and the terroirs, divided between the limestone plateau and a mixture of clay, limestone and chalk soil slopes. With his sister Anne De Raeymaeker, Jacques decided to purchase the estate as an investment for the two branches of the Thienpont family; they hired their nephew Maxime Thienpont, who had grown up at another family estate Château Labégorce Zédé in Margaux, to manage the estate. They renamed the property ‘L’Hêtre,’ a species of French beech, thus continuing the arboreal theme that Jacques uses for all his estates.
L’Hêtre plantings of Merlot and Cabernet Franc have great exposures with gentle breezes to protect them from excess humidity. The vines are harvested and fermented in a mixture of concrete and oak. The concrete is used to preserve freshness and oak is used to add structure to the wine. The terroir is a limestone plateau with very good elevation and a great slope for drainage. It is similar to the more publicized appellation of Saint-Émilion and L’Hêtre has vineyards that actually mirror some of the premier vineyards from the appellation.
The 2016 vintage was the first one made entirely by the new owners and is therefore the first to carry the name L’Hêtre. The striking artwork for the labels was created by Belgian artist Anne Van Hereweghen.
2020 Château l’Hêtre ‘La Raison d’Hêtre’ Castillon – Côtes de Bordeaux ($21)
A blend of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc from the young vines grown on parcels of clay-limestone on the lower slopes of the vineyard; the wine displays dark plum and black currant with hints of clove and allspice.
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Champagne by Any Other Name: Two-Dozen Rose-Tinted Champagne by Two-Dozen Producers Show Different Styles and Unlock the Full Depth and Diversity of the Region’s Terroir.
Sugar and spice are nice, but you prefer a bit more ‘brut’ with your Valentine’s Day sparkle, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that Champagne Rosé is often drier than its golden counterpart. Sweeter rosé styles exist, of course, but they are the minority, and for the most part, the candy-pink hue is a saccharin illusion.
Not only that, but creating a rosé is more labor intensive than a standard blend, and given that méthode champenoise is already an arduous and exacting process, this explains the prestige, rarity and associated price tags of the top cuvées.
This year, we are rolling out the pink carpet for our entire ‘dry suite’ of Rosé Champagnes. Many are from our favorite smaller Houses—grower Champagnes made by Chefs de Cave who do not seek to compete with the window-dressers (Taittinger, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, et al) on any level but quality. Where terroir cooperates, an obscure but dedicated cellar master can often match (and even outdo) a famous one, and without the notoriety, the final tariff on the bottle may be more in line with baseline sanity.
These Champagnes are year-round gems, but are particularly appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Our list is arranged geographically, east to west, to offer a palatable overview of the entire growing region, especially as it relates to the cultivation of rosé’s workhorse duo, Pinot Noir and Munier. Tracking this path across Champagne’s diverse landscape is an educational journey; we’d say that sampling the wares is a little sugar to help the medicine go down, but since these wines are exquisitely dry, we can’t.
The Champagne Grape Palette: Showtime For The Two Red Varieties, Pinot Noir and Meunier
99% of the vineyard space in Champagne is given over to a trio of grape varieties, and of these acres, 72% are planted to red-skinned grapes. Folks less familiar with the styles and methodology behind Champagne produced entirely from Pinot Noir and/or Meunier, may find it incongruous that even in the absence of Chardonnay, the resulting wines are white.
But like most red-skinned grapes, both Pinot and Munier produce clear juice, and with minimal skin contact to leech out color, the end wine is also white. This holds true in regions outside of Champagne as well, but the relatively cool northern climate tends to produce less anthocyanins—red pigment—which exaggerates the effect.
As a result, Champagne produces much ‘Blanc de Noirs’ and no ‘Noir de Noirs.’
Though cool, Champagne’s climate is not homogenous, and certain areas are much better suited for its red-skinned stars. Pinot Noir is the dominant grape in Montagne de Reims and Côte des Bar, thriving so well in the cool, chalky soil that it is nick-named ‘Précoce’ for its ability to ripen early. Munier, on the other hand, prefers a different habitat, doing well in soils that contain more clay, such as in the Marne Valley, and being less susceptible to frost, may cope well under harsher climatic conditions.
The Different Shades Of Rosé
Not all pink is created equal and the color palette of Champagne Rosé is a varied as there are producers. Much is the result of the mode of production—easily broken down into two approaches: The more common method is to simply add a bit of still red wine to the blend, generally between 7% and 15%; this is referred to as ‘assemblage.’ ‘Saignée’ is a technique that involves bleeding a bit of color from the skins of the red grapes when they are pressed.
Both styles serve their purpose well and one does not necessarily yield a fuller-bodied style than the other, although saignée Champagnes may show brighter colors in the glass and taste more ‘vinous’ on the palate.
Not only can Champagne Rosé be made in infinite shades, even these are subject to change. After a couple of days in the tank, color starts to fade as anthocyanins bind to other molecules, generally tannins or sulfites. Acidity may affects this balance as an acidic wine tends to be brighter, while a less acidic wine tends to showcase darker shades. And then, of course, since a well-made rosé may have notable aging potential, there is the inevitable color mutations that cellaring brings as youthful pink tones move into the orange spectrum.
The Bigger Picture: Champagne’s Landscape
Having been defined and delimited by laws passed in 1927, the geography of Champagne is easily explained in a paragraph, but it takes a lifetime to understand it.
Ninety-three miles east of Paris, Champagne’s production zone spreads across 319 villages and encompasses roughly 85,000 acres. 17 of those villages have a legal entitlement to Grand Cru ranking, while 42 may label their bottles ‘Premier Cru.’ Four main growing areas (Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, the Côte des Blancs and the Côte des Bar) encompass nearly 280,000 individual plots of vines, each measuring a little over one thousand square feet.
Beyond the overview lies a permutation of particulars; there are nearly as many micro-terroirs in Champagne as there are vineyard plots. Climate, subsoil and elevation are immutable; the talent, philosophies and techniques of the growers and producers are not. Ideally, every plot is worked according to its individual profile to establish a stamp of origin, creating unique wines that compliment or contrast when final cuvées are created.
Champagne is predominantly made up of relatively flat countryside where cereal grain is the agricultural mainstay. Gently undulating hills are higher and more pronounced in the north, near the Ardennes, and in the south, an area known as the Plateau de Langres, and the most renowned vineyards lie on the chalky hills to the southwest of Reims and around the town of Épernay. Moderately steep terrain creates ideal vineyard sites by combining the superb drainage characteristic of chalky soils with excellent sun exposure, especially on south and east facing slopes.
The Villages of
The Côte des Bar
Reims lies at Latitude 49°5, and Épernay at 49°; in the northern hemisphere, it is generally considered difficult to obtain quality grapes above the 50th parallel. The ninety mile cushion enjoyed by Côte des Bar has a pronounced effect on the grower’s ability to ripen Pinot Noir; as a result, 86% of the vineyards are planted to this varietal. Despite this, the soils of the Côte des Bar is closer to that of Chablis—Kimmeridgian marl topped by Portlandian limestone, whereas the vines near Épernay and Reims tend to be planted in Cretaceous chalk. Chablis, of course, is ground zero for Chardonnay, and it is humidity coming from the Atlantic in the west as well as continental influences with higher temperatures that make the Côte des Bar Pinot Noir country through and through. That said, local climate conditions, slope and orientation are extremely varied throughout region, and produces many individual micro-climates, so each vigneron needs to be fully attentive to his own terroir in order to make the most of it. Côte des Bar features a host of small producers whose output varies almost as much as the local landscape.
Champagne Dosnon (Village Avirey-Lingey)
* Avirey-Lingey is a small village (population 217) in the Barséquenais, located at the Sarce river which empties into Seine to the north at Virey-sous-Bar and Courtenot. With slightly under four hundred acres planted to vines, it is solidly Pinot Noir country, with about 90% of the crop belonging to this variety.
Davy Dosnon of Champagne Dosnon tends five acres in Avirey-Lingey and purchases grapes from around 12 more. Having been born and raised among these rolling hills—a patchwork of vines intermixed with forest and fields of grain—he is descended from growers who spent centuries identifying the rockiest and most suitable places to grow vines. In fact, he preserves many of their tools and records in his cellar.
Davy studied viticulture in Dijon and worked in top Burgundy wine houses before moving back to the village of Lingey, intending to reassemble his family’s vineyards. Here the terroir is starkly different from northern Champagne and its famed chalky soils; in the Aube the terroir is closer to that of Chablis—clay over Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone, soils produce wines of great delineation, power and purity.
Central to Dosnon’s modus operandi is fermenting entirely in former Puligny-Montrachet barrels. Dosages are very low (if any) and the wines benefit from the restraint. None are fined or filtered.
Oak in Champagne remains controversial; when done at all, it must be done gently, without drawing attention to itself. In Dosnan’s cellar, it is meant to add creaminess, complexity and weight, not tannins.
Champagne Dosnon ‘Récolte Rosé’, Côte-des-Bar Rosé Brut ($87)
95% Pinot Noir and 5% Meunier. Meunier is not common in the Côte-des-Bar, but Dosnon feels that it adds spice and fruit to the party. The base wine fermented and aged in used Puligny-Montrachet barrels and a minimum of 2 years aging in bottle with a dosage of 7 gram/liter. The wine bears all the hallmarks of the Donson style—a pure, focused, intensely mineral backbone with a clear, spicy, red-fruit and orange peel lift to the flavors. Disgorged September, 2021.
Champagne Fleury (Village Courteron)
If any estate is anchored to the Côte des Bar it is Champagne Fleury, whose Courteron vineyards span 38 acres on a clay-limestone hillside along a tributary of the Seine. But, as the first Champagne house to convert to biodynamics (1989), Jean-Pierre Fleury proved that a producer could have roots in the earth while raising the mainsail to innovation.
Today, his son Jean-Sébastien Fleury has taken the winemaking rudder, and is tacking toward the future with respect for the unique situation of the Côte des Bar, which is closer to Chablis than to Reims: “The key is soil health,” he says. “We must keep the earth healthy. The structure of the soil gives back the essence of the terroir.”
In this endeavor, he is joined by his younger brother Benoît, who came on board in 2010 to manage the vineyards, intent not only on maintaining biodynamics, but also researching soil biology, biodiversity and experimenting with agro-forestry. A third sibling, Morgane, initially studied to be an actress and a sommelier in Suze-la-Rousse, runs ‘My Cave Fleury’ in Les Halles (made famous by Émile Zola’s famous novel of the same name) where she specializes in biodynamic wines.
The estate encompasses ten plots planted primarily to Pinot Noir, the oldest planted in 1970, and new cuttings are established every year to maintain the vitality that younger vines bring to Champagne. The ultimate goal, according to Jean-Sébastien is a wish “to let the nature and its rhythms express themselves.”
Champagne Fleury ‘Rosé de Saignée’, Côte-des-Bar Rosé Extra-Brut ($76)
The grapes see a short period of maceration before pressing, the saignée, or bleeding, method. Fleury style leans toward a light, lyrical sparkling wine whose dosage has been gradually reduced over the years. The wine is 100% Pinot Noir from the 2019 harvest, from vines with an average age of 30 years.
The wine is redolent of strawberry compote and vanilla, with a rich palate that maintains both elegance and delicacy.
Bottled July, 2020; disgorged October, 2023; dosage 3.4 grams/liter.
Champagne Jean Josselin (Village Gyé-sur-Seine)
Gyé-sur-Seine is a small village in the Aube department with a population under 500 and about the same number of acres planted to Pinot Noir. The commune is as picturesque as its name, as are the hillsides where Jean Josselin worked the soil—Beauregard, Davasgné, Cosvigne—before founding the house in 1957.
Today, the estate is run by his son Jean-Pierre, grandson Jean-Félix and granddaughter Lucile, who have maintained the rigid standards of their forebears. At times, admittedly, they have struggled to remain independent producers rather than succumb to the temptations dangled in front of them by the grand marques; financial incentives that saw one producer in the village recently sold to Moët & Chandon. Remaining independent has involved extensive upgrades, including the new production facilities—a modern building about a mile away from the old domain. The family also takes pride in its commitment to sustainable viticulture, and is proud to be certified to ‘Terra Vitis’, a label that subjects the estate to regular audits scalable to the size of the property—in the case of Champagne Josselin,18 parcels scattered over 30 acres.
Says Jean-Pierre: “In the past, Josselin Champagnes were mostly made from Pinot Noir, but we have expanded our range with a blend of the three traditional varietals as our Blanc de Blancs, thus exploring the other varietals that grow well in specific locations. We are a small producer—no more than 100,000 bottles a year—but we are always looking to improve. For instance, my son Jean-Félix, who joined the family operation in 2010, has created a new cuvée, as yet unnamed. It’s a secret waiting to be uncovered, as many ideas arise and provoke discussion between father and son! The adventure is far from over!”
Champagne Jean Josselin ‘Audace R.19’, Harvest 2019 Côte-des-Bar Rosé Brut ($62)
An audaciously dark rosé made with 100% Pinot Noir from the Gyé-sur-Seine lieu-dit ‘Beauregard’ using the 2019 vintage. The color is the result of a two-and-a-half day maceration period prior to pressing followed by complete malolactic fermentation, three extractions and one filtration carried out before bottling. The wine is textured with layers of red currants and raspberries and touch of licorice offset by puckery Pinot tannin and shivery acidity.
Bottled July, 2020; disgorged September, 2021.
Champagne Vincent Couche (Village Buxeuil)
With three generations of Champagne-makers behind him, Vincent Couche has plenty of laurels on which to rest—if he was so inclined. He’s not; when he took over the family estate in 1999, he began immediately to restructure the 32 acres and reassess the cellar work, first by replanting his vineyard under the direction of terroir specialist Claude Bourguignon. The overarching philosophy that drove all the improvements is biodynamics.
Vincent explains, “Embracing biodynamics has been the name of the game since 1999, but certification takes time, and it wasn’t until 2008 that we were certified biodynamic—the first cellar and fields to receive Demeter certification in Champagne. Healthy soils and healthy vines is an obsession of mine, as is making wine without additives. At harvest, I pick by taste and touch, generally a week or more than my neighbors; I refuse to chaptalize and look for need sugar levels than is the norm. in the cool deep cellar wines are fermented and aged in oak and stainless steel without added yeast or nutrients and the wines don’t see any additions.”
Champagne Vincent Couche ‘Rosé Désir’, Côte-des-Bar Rosé Extra-Brut ($62)
A rosé d’assemblage, 95% Pinot Noir with 5% Chardonnay grown in the villages Montgueux and Buxeuil—the Pinot is vinified via carbonic maceration and the wine was disgorged 07/2022; dosage at level of Extra Brut and bottled without sulfite. A bright, full-bodied rosé showing ripe pie cherries, pomegranate and pink grapefruit.
Disgorged July, 2022.
Champagne Drappier (Village Urville)
“Our vineyards are like family archives that perpetuate our history,” says Michel Drappier. “We grow heirloom grape varieties that deserve to be remembered: Fromenteau, Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Blanc Vrai.”
His son Hugo, who is responsible for viticulture and oenology at the estate, adds, “But since we planted our vineyard in Urville with Pinot Noir, this has become the variety that now runs in our veins and we manage it according to organic and natural practices.”
The vineyards, which the family considers ‘the heart of the Drappier identity’, spans 150 acres (with more under contractual arrangements with other growers) and reflects this passion for Pinot: 70% of the estate is planted to Pinot Noir, supplemented by Pinot Meunier at 15%, Chardonnay at 9% and old grape varieties at 6%.
Hugo says, “Proximity to the vines is necessary to keep a close eye on how they evolve and interact with their environment. Because our vineyards are all local, we have stepped up our sustainable approach to viticulture. In the cellar, we work with Chef de Cave Elysé Brigandat; the blending process is the meticulous, respecting the style of each grape variety, the spirit of each terroir and sometimes even the whisper of each individual climat. Unlike many houses, we do not focus on keeping the wine the same each vintage; instead we seek to bring out the maximum of each wine as it is produced. A portion of the yeasts used in the fermentation stage are selected and cultivated at the estate and have been baptized ‘Drappier Fermentum Meum.’”
Champagne Drappier ‘Rosé de Saignée’, Côte-des-Bar Rosé Brut ($69)
100% Pinot Noir is used for this saignée rosé in which two days of maceration are followed by low-pressure pressing, then natural settling and malolactic fermentation. 5% of the wine is aged in foudre. On the nose, the wine reveals notes of brioche, sweet pastry and vanilla alongside aromas of ripe berries and raspberry coulis. A crisp, rounded palate leading into a mineral-tinged finish.
Dosage 6 gram/liter.
The Villages of
The Côte des Blancs
One of the 17 areas that parcel out the Champagne region into terroirs (at least according to the scheme used by the Union de Maisons de Champagne), the Côte des Blancs derives its name from the white chalk that makes up its hillsides. It is perhaps poetic that the predominant grape variety here is Chardonnay in all but a small corner in the extreme south called Vertus, where Chardonnay’s supremacy is challenged by Pinot Noir. And even in Vertus, Pinot Noir makes up less than 10% of the vineyards.
There is a commercial reason for this, according to local vineyard owner Pascal Doquet: “A hundred years ago, 80% of the vineyards in Vertus were Pinot Noir. People replanted as fashion changed and they realized they could earn more money from Chardonnay. A hundred years from now, who knows?”
Champagne Pertois-Moriset (Grand Cru Le Mesnil-sur-Oger)
For some of us, a match made in Champagne is synonymous to one made in heaven, and for Champagne Pertois-Moriset, it is family history. The house was born in 1951 with the nuptials of Yves Pertois from Cramant and Janine Moriset from Mesnil, both third-generation growers, who soon began bottling under their own label.
Today, the couple’s granddaughter Cécile and her husband Vincent Bauchet manage 50 acres divided between Chardonnay grown on Grand Cru sites in the Côtes de Blancs, plus a 60/40 split of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Côte de Sézanne (including one parcel that borders Olivier Collin’s famed Les Maillons). Joined at the hip to organic and sustainable practices, Pertois-Moriset has become known for single-village expressions of renowned terroirs like Oger, Villeneuve, Cramant, and Chouilly, plus single-parcel bottlings from lieux-dits including Les Jeamprins, Les Jutées, and Les Hauts d’Aillerands. Vincent maintains that in every endeavor, the estate is attentive to the biodiversity that surrounds it: “If the years allow it,” he says,” no chemical inputs are applied on the vine. The vines are naturally grassed in winter, and in summer the soil is ploughed.”
Champagne Pertois-Moriset ‘Rosé Blanc Collection’, Côte-des-Blancs Grand Cru Rosé Brut ($72)
And interesting assemblage of 92% Chardonnay from Grand Cru vineyards in Le Mesnil sur Oger, Oger, Cramant and Chouilly, and 8% Pinot Noir from Grand Cru vineyards in Bouzy. Aging is done in the cellar for 36 months and dosage is 3 grams/liter. A fine bead and an elegant color, the wine has a bouquet of creamy strawberries and Morello cherries and is forthright on the palate slightly sharp with a beautiful combination of structure and freshness.
Champagne JL Vergnon (Grand Cru Les Mesnil-sur-Oger)
In this small 12-acre estate in the heart of the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Didier Vergnon and his son Clément have worked tirelessly to organic farming, harvesting only balanced and ripe grapes. They have eliminated both chaptalization and malolactic fermentation, and prefer a low or zero dosage. The brilliant winemaker Christophe Constant has been at their side, both as cellar master and now, as consultant.
Of the property, Didier says, “Our domain extends over several terroirs, the majority in le Mesnil sur Oger, classified Grand Cru, Blanc de Blancs. We also draw from vineyards in Oger and Avize, and also vines in surrounding Premier Cru villages Vertus and Villeneuve.”
Champagne JL Vergnon ‘Rosémotion’, Grand Cru Rosé Extra-Brut ($89)
A scant 2000 bottles of this Grand Cru rosé were produced; 90% Chardonnay from Mesnil s/ Oger, Oger and Avize and 10% Pinot Noir from Mailly Grand Cru. 20% of reserve wine was aged 3 months in oak barrels and 80% of single-year in steel tank. The wine is a delicate Creamsicle color and shows currants and pomelos on the nose, with notes of strawberries, saffron and biscuits reflecting the long aging on lees.
Disgorged June, 2019.
The Villages of
The Coteaux Sud d’Épernay
The Coteaux Sud d’Épernay is Meunier-rich, with 47% of its 3000 acres planted to this variety, which is sometimes imagined as an ‘also ran’ in Champagne. In fact, Meunier is suited for soils that contain more clay and in terroirs with harsher climatic conditions since it buds late and makes it more resistant to frost. Sandwiched between the powerhouse wine regions Côte des Blancs and Vallée de la Marne, the Coteaux has an identity removed from either one; its terroir is distinctly different from the clay-heavy soils of the Marne and lacks the chalk of that puts the ‘blanc’ in the Côte des Blancs.
Phrasing it succinctly is Laherte Frères proprietor Aurélien Laherte: “Our wines show more clay influence than those of the Côte des Blancs and they are chalkier than the wines of the Vallée de la Marne.”
In short, these Champagnes are uniquely situated to offer the best of both worlds. As a result, the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay has long fought for recognition as entity unto itself, not necessarily a sub-region of its big brothers on either side.
Champagne Leclerc Briant (Épernay)
Founded by Lucien Leclerc in 1872 in the village of Cumières (the western outpost of the Grande Vallée de la Marne), the business moved to its current home on the Chemin de la Chaude Ruelle in Epernay in 1955. Bertrand Leclerc (the great grandson of the founder) and of his wife Jacqueline Briant, that the estate-based business changed its status to from an estate-based business to that of a Maison de Négoce, or trading house. And so it remained until 2012, when Leclerc Briant was acquired by Mark Nunelly and Denise Dupré, an American couple who are great enthusiasts of the French ‘art de vivre’ and who fell in love with the nonconformist character of the House.
They are joined by Champagne native Frédéric Zeimett, who has led the House to the marches of Champagne codes, serving the expression of a unique style that is now internationally recognized. The vineyard estate houses a single plot, La Croisette, a 1.5-acre parcel in the heart of Épernay; it produces one of the most outstanding champagnes in the House’s ‘Sélections Parcellaires’ (single vineyard) range. Beyond, the House maintains 25 acres spread between the Premier Cru villages of Cumières, Hautvillers, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Bisseuil in the Vallée de la Marne, Villers-Allerand, Rilly la Montagne in Montagne de Reims and in the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in the Côte des Blancs.
The House of Leclerc Briant was one of the pioneers of biodynamics in Champagne—as early as the ‘50s Bertrand Leclerc was spreading the word about biodynamics and practicing what he preached in his vineyards. His son Pascal, the fifth generation of The House of Leclerc Briant was one of the pioneers of biodynamics in Champagne.
Champagne Leclerc Briant, (Harvest 2014) Brut Rosé ($75)
This salmon-tinted, 100% Pinot Noir rosé saw three days maceration and is dosed at 4 gram/liter, the slight sweetness balanced by beautifully textured acidity. 2014 was a tricky vintage that acquitted itself well: The nose shows red spring berries with whisps of caramel, chalk, cotton candy and cherry blossom. The palate enters on bright white cherry notes and closes with red cherry and chalky soil tones. Disgorged July 2017.
Champagne Laherte Frères (Village Chavot-Courcourt)
That Champagne is, above all, a style of wine should be obvious, but a common misinterpretation (fueled in part by tradition and in part by marketing) removes it from viniculture and places it on a pedestal of the imagination.
Nothing wrong with this, of course, so long as the ground floor remains intact.
Aurélien Laherte, along with his high school friend Raphael Bérèche, would like to see these ideas put into context. A group of Champagne’s more progressive producers, including Agrapart, Marie-Courtin, Vincent Laval and Benoît Lahaye, gathers each spring to taste the ‘vins clairs’—wines meant to become Champagne, but having not yet undergone the bubble-creation process. These are not necessarily ‘still wines’ in that they are not meant to stand on their own merits, but have terroir-transparency profiles to make them suitable for top-shelf sparkling versions.
Situated largely in the Côteaux Sud D’Épernay, Laherte vineyards themselves total 26 acres subdivided into 75 separate parcels. Seven of these are farmed biodynamically and certified organic, with the rest farmed either ‘uncertified organic’ or sustainably. Each produces detailed wines that the estate seeks to showcase individually.
Champagne Laherte Frères ‘Rosé de Meunier’, Rosé Extra-Brut ($61)
100% Meunier, the wine is sourced from vineyards in Chavot and Vallée de la Marne (lieux-dits Le Breuil and Boursault) with an average age of 25 years for the Meunier vinified white and more than 40 years for the parcels selected for the red wine. It is a blend of 30% macerated Meunier, 60% white wine from Meunier and 10% still red Meunier. As a result, it uses both methods of Champagne rosé creation, assemblage (blending) and saignée (bleeding).
Disgorged July, 2024; dosage 2.5 gram/liter.
Champagne Laherte Frères ‘Les Beaudiers’, Harvest 2020 Rosé de Saignée Extra-Brut ($91)
100% Meunier from the ‘Les Beaudiers’ lieu-dit, planted in 1953, 1958 and 1965 on shallow clay and silty soil with chalk beneath. As always, Laherte’s methods include organic maintenance, short pruning for a limited production and regular ploughing. Fermentation takes place in old Burgundy barrels and relies on old-school hand-disgorgement. The wine shows creamy red cherries, kirsch, buttered toast with strawberry jam and a bright, flinty spine.
Disgorged December, 2023; dosage at less than 5 gram/liter.
Champagne Pascal Lejeune (Village Moussy & Vinay, Premier Cru Pierry)
Beating swords into ploughshares is a Biblical injection that Pascal Lejeune takes literally—he left his career in the military and gave himself to the vine. It didn’t hurt that he fell in love with a Champagne grower’s daughter: Pascal’s wife Sandrine hails from a family that has been growing grapevines in Moussy (where more than half of the vineyard’s grapevines are located) on the south-facing slopes of Épernay since 1910. Originally a side operation, not an essential part of the family’s activities, Sandrine’s great grandfather Edmond played an active part in creating the Moussy cooperative.
In 1995, when Pascal and Sandrine took the reins, their aim was to usher in a new era by enlarging the vineyard area into nearby terroirs, and by enriching the range of offerings via new cuvées: As a brand, Champagne Pascal Lejeune was born. Says Pascal, “I believe I have a responsibility and commit myself collectively to our business and our terroir in order to perpetuate and monitor developments for our children and future generations. This requires a sincere respect for people, nature, our vines, our soils, and careful work in order to obtain quality grapes. To offer you the best that nature offers us, our vintages are very different, there is something for every occasion and taste… Nature does things well!”
Champagne Pascal Lejeune ‘N°6 – ANALOGIE’, Village Vinay ‘Les Longs Martins’ Rosé de Saignée Brut-Zéro ($74)
From the organic lieu-dit ‘Les Longs Martins’, this saignée is 100% Pinot Noir from vines that average 25 years old grown in clay, silt, sand and marne limestone. Maceration lasted ten hours, and no malolactic fermentation occurred, leaving the crisp acids intact along with notes of brioche, sweet pastry, vanilla, ripe forest berries and raspberry coulis.
Only 638 bottles made. Disgorged December, 2022.
The Villages of
The Grande Vallée
The Grande Vallée de la Marne is the eastern part of the Marne valley, but the appellation only covers the river’s right bank (the north side) where south-facing slopes create an ideal mise-en-scène for Pinot Noir. As a result, Champagne’s best Pinot Noir terroir is found here. Of the nine remarkable villages in the area, Aÿ (the crown jewel) is a Grand Cru while the other eight are Premier Cru villages. Champagnes from this area is typically powerful, and conditions are good enough to create respectable still red wines as well.
While Cellar Master Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon (of Roederer) acknowledges the strength of Pinot-based Champagnes from the Aÿ, he refers to its underlying elegance: “It’s reputation as the Wine of Kings is more about complexity and finesse. It is multifaceted wine with an infusing and persistent chalkiness, yet feels effortless in its harmony of components.
Champagne Gonet-Médeville (Premier Cru Bisseuil)
By the standards of the region, Gonet-Médeville is ‘new’ Champagne micro-house; it was formed in 2000 by Julie and Xavier Gonet-Médeville as Xavier’s family plots were being divided up. He opted for 30 acres of high quality Premier & Grand Cru vineyards located primarily in the three villages of Bisseuil, Ambonnay, & Mesnil-sur-Oger. The Gonet-Médevilles—sometimes referred to as ‘the first couple of French wines’—also have holdings in five other villages across Champagne.
Gonet-Médeville is part of the group Les Artisans du Champagne, which prides itself on uniting work in the vineyard with work in the cellar. “Being part of Champagne Artisans expresses our total involvement in all stages the production of our Champagnes,” says Xavier. “Growing practices, the choice of plant material—all phases from harvest to disgorging must reflect our knowledge and culture.
Champagne Gonet-Médeville, Premier Cru Rosé Extra Brut ($77)
The cuvée is 70% Chardonnay, 27% Pinot Noir and 3% still Ambonnay Rouge. The wine spends seven months in used barriques and 36 months in bottle without malolactic fermentation, dosed at 3 g/l. The minerality of the Bisseuil and le Mesnil terroirs are at the forefront of this dry, succulent, crisp, peach-toned Champagne; the mousse is delicate, elegant and refreshing. Only 650 cases produced.
Disgorged, May 2021.
Champagne Philipponnat (Premier Cru Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Grand Cru Aÿ)
Considered one of the best bargains in Champagne, Philipponnat is not only a venerable name in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, it is one of the last houses to be run by a member of its founding family; Charles Philipponnat is a true Champenois, descended from winemakers, cellarmasters and growers dating back nearly 600 years. His family grew grapes here as early as 1522, and his father René was Chef de Caves at Moët from 1949 to 1977, responsible for 1961 Dom Pérignon among other legends. And the house itself is legendary for having produced the iconic Clos des Goisses, which in the 1930s became the region’s first important single-vineyard Champagne.
Under Charles, Philipponnat has created a portfolio of great wines ranging from two of Champagne’s finest non-vintage Bruts to an expanding number of exceptional Champagnes de terroir. He is responsible for three site-specific cuvées of pure Pinot Noir and, of course, Clos des Goisses remains the heart of the family holdings.
Champagne Philipponnat ‘1522’, 2007 Premier Cru Rosé Brut ($162)
70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay, with the Pinot Noir coming from the Léon vineyard in Aÿ and the Chardonnay from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. A silky-textured gem loaded with dried herbs, fresh mint, almond butter and smoky black tea as savory notes and the fruit notes that include white peach, apple, grapefruit and lime.
Bottled June, 2008; disgorged June, 2016; dosage 4.5 grams/liter.
The Villages of
The Vallée de la Marne
Its name is a tip-off: This huge and vital Champagne sub-region follows the Marne River from Tours-sur-Marne to Château-Thierry, stretching over sixty miles and bisecting and two French départements (the Marne and the Aisne) all the way to the limits of Seine-et-Marne. Along the way it penetrates picturesque landscapes of rolling hills, small villages with narrow winding streets and colorful vineyards growing on limestone topsoil overlaying layers of Belemnite and Micraster chalk. More than a hundred villages dot the valley, two of which have been designated ‘Grand Cru’ (Aÿ and Tours-sur-Marne) and many more boast Premier Cru status.
This is Munier country. As with many river valleys, frost is a pronounced a hazard as cold air sinks and follows the flow of water. Temperature drops during bud break can devastate a vintage before it begins (it happened in 2012). Pinot Noir, which buds early, is at particular risk, followed by Chardonnay. Since Munier follows up to a week later, it frequently misses the worst of the frost and is also marginally more resistant to the mildews that thrive in the damp of river fogs.
Champagne Bourgeois-Diaz (Village Crouttes-sur-Marne)
For Jérôme Bourgeois, the easy life is not a life worth living. Born in 1977, Jérôme is the fourth generation of a champagne-growing family on his father’s side but it may well be his Spanish ancestry on his mother’s side that flavors the poetic passion of his approach: “Our wines have a different blood—no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, no violence; the vines are not just tended, they are loved, and over the years, they have recovered their essential nature. And how we work the land is how we work the cellar. We use a traditional press because, instead of extracting the juice of the grapes, it draws it out. More effort, more reward.”
Of Champagne Bourgeois-Diaz’s 17 acres vineyard southwest of Reims in the hills around the town of Crouttes-sur-Marne, old vine Munier and Pinot Noir make up the lion’s share of cultivars.
Champagne Bourgeois-Diaz ‘BD’RS’, Rosé de Saignée Brut-Nature ($108)
100% Meunier harvested from two old loamy plots, one planted in 1960 and the other in 1925. Maceration lasted 22 hours with subsequent vinification, 80% in steel and 20% in fût de chêne. No final dosage at bottling, making it a Brut Nature. Wild red currant shows on the nose with peach, brioche and rose petals; the finish is crushed stones and grapefruit peel offering a twinge of bitterness.
Disgorged June, 2022; dosage 0 grams/liter.
Champagne Vincent Charlot (Village Mardeuil)
Vincent Charlot, who took over his family business in 2001, describes his style as ‘a full concession to my terroirs.’ Spanning six communes, he farms 33 parcels inside the Coteaux d’Epernay, focusing on Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay planted within a complex microcosm rich in biodiversity; soils are ‘craie’ (chalk) with variations of clay and silex/chert.
Says Vincent: “All 33 parcels are hand-harvested and vinified separately, resulting in a multitude of cuvées each unique based on the alchemy of fermentation and yeast autolysis. Natural fermentations occur in amphoras and used French oak barrels, and most are free of malolactic fermentation. Secondary bottle fermentation is triggered by concentrated grape must, followed by long lees aging, minimal sulfites levels and low dosage.”
Vincent is one of the very few growers in the area to rely on his own biodynamic preparations; he is a strong advocate that any malady in the vineyard can be managed homeopathically. Adding to the organic approach, his vineyard hosts a rich biodiversity of specie, including wild strawberries and mushrooms that sprout between the vines. “Walking these vineyards is not only a visual experience,” he maintains, “but a spiritual one as well.”
Champagne Vincent Charlot ‘Rubis de la Dune’, 2014 Mardeuil Rosé Extra-Brut ($72)
20% Pinot Noir and 80% Meunier; Vincent Charlot refers to this style of Champagne as ‘en dentelle’—‘lacy’. The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed and macerated for 14 hours prior to being pressed and spontaneously fermented in neutral barrels. No malolactic fermentation is allowed; the wine rests in barrels on fine lees for about 9 months before being bottled with liqueur de tirage and aged on lees for at least 36 months for the secondary, disgorged and topped up with a dosage of 4 grams/liter. Vivacious and bright, the wine shows lively strawberry, cherry and graham cracker with crushed stone on the finish.
Bottled May, 2015; disgorged September, 2021.
Champagne Vincent Charlot ‘L’Écorché de la Genette’, 2014 Mardeuil Rosé de Saignée Extra-Brut ($99)
90% Meunier, 10% Pinot Noir hand-harvested and destemmed and macerated for around 14 hours. Once pressed, the wine ferments spontaneously in neutral barrels and rests on fine lees for about 11 months. Bottled with liqueur de tirage and aged on lees for seven years for the secondary fermentation (prise de mousse), disgorged, and topped up using the same wine with a dosage of 4 grams/liter. Charlot describes the wine as “complex, vinous, structured, round, with a distinctive ‘foresty’ terroir character—spice, leather and underwood. The nose evokes a red from Burgundy with elegant, refined fruit and touch of ‘sauvage.’”
Bottled August, 2015; disgorged February, 2022
Champagne Tarlant (Premier Cru Oeuilly)
Benoît and Mélanie Tarlant are the 12th consecutive generation working the family land, comprised of 35 acres within 31 lieu-dits. Pinot Noir represents half their cultivars followed by 30% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier along with lesser amounts of Champagne’s ‘forgotten’ grapes’, Pinot Blanc, Arbane and Petit Meslier.
The couple concedes that even their lieux-dits are not sufficiently specific to reflect their terroirs, and have singled out 63 parcels that they vinify individually each vintage, allowing laser-sharp precision in blending decisions for base and reserve wines. At the core of this is a commitment to organics. Says Benoît, “Our father fought to end city garbage being thrown down as a fertilizer, something that took five years. That was his fight. Organics seems to be the challenge of our generation.”
In the cellar, the grapes are gently pressed and racked by gravity to Burgundian barrels, where each parcel ferments and ages individually. Malolactic fermentation almost never occurs but is not blocked: Benoît feels that through careful pressing, attention to temperature and the correct viticultural practices, Champagne’s naturally cold climate gives them grapes with low PH and high acidity, a combo that does not incite malo. Sulfites are only added in microscopic doses at press and intermittently to casks of reserve wine. The wines are never filtered: “Disgorgement is sort of like filtration. If you’re going to take the time to do long élevages and letting the solids deposit themselves, you don’t need to filter. It requires a respect of the rhythm of the wine.”
Champagne Tarlant ‘Zéro’, Premier Cru Œuilly Rosé Brut-Nature ($63)
50% Chardonnay, 44% Pinot Noir, 6% Meunier with 14% still Pinot Noir and Meunier in the assemblage. Grapes originate in organically farmed, hand-harvested estate vines across 63 parcels in four villages near Œuilly in the Vallée de la Marne. The focus of Benoît Tarlant’s approach is ‘perfect’ Pinot Noir—the starting point of the wine rather than an addition to a white base. Impeccable in its balance, the wine shows red berries, orange peel, pastry and compelling acidity.
Base wine 2013 vintage; disgorged January, 2019.
Champagne Tarlant ‘l’Aérienne’, 2004 Premier Cru Œuilly Rosé ($126)
According to Tarlant, the name L’Aérienne evokes the airy, ethereal nature of the 2004 harvest: “It was a vintage that Chardonnay won,” he says.
70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir; the grapes originate from four parcels across the villages of Œuilly and Celles-lès-Condé on a mix of hard limestone, flint and Sparnacian clay soils with vines averaging 40 years old. The juice ferments spontaneously on native yeasts in Burgundy barrels; the wine does not go through malolactic fermentation and ages for a year in barrel. L’Aérienne was bottled in 2005, disgorged in 2018 and received zero dosage. It shows baked apple, honeycomb, mushroom and dried apricot with a bit of chalk on the finish.
Disgorged March, 2018.
The Villages of
The Montagne de Reims
Forming a broad and undulating headland that covers five thousand acres of thicket and vineyard, the Montagne de Reims stretches 30 miles east to west and, north to south, is about five miles wide. The vines hug the limestone slopes of the western and northern flanks and are planted in a huge semicircle that extends from Louvois to Villers-Allerand.
This is Pinot Noir country (except in Trépail and Villers-Marmery, where the Chardonnay can be found). The most northerly of Champagne’s four demarcated regions, the Montagne de Reims is also the most well-known, with more Grand Cru sites than anywhere else in the AOP. Tectonics gave the region mountains of chalk, and the Romans added their two cents by leaving behind huge limestone pits known as crayères. Within, the humidity remains at around 60% and temperatures at a steady 57°F; perfect cellaring conditions to soften the cold-climate acids of Champagne with time on lees. As a result, Louis Roederer, Ruinart, Veuve Clicquot, Krug, Taittinger and Mumm all store wine here.
Champagne Lacourte Godbillon (Premier Cru Écueil)
* Écueil is one of a string of Premier Cru villages that extend along the slopes of La Petite Montagne. The commune itself has a scant three hundred citizens and covers 1700 acres, of which slightly under four hundred are planted to grape vines. Unlike many of the surrounding villages, Écueil is a Pinot Noir stronghold; Pinot Noir represents 76% of the commune’s production, the remainder being split equally between Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.
The transition from simply growing grapes to becoming a winemaker who ferments their own crop is taking modern sensibilities by storm, but the family of Géraldine Lacourte took the leap in 1947. Géraldine says, “The Lacourtes on my father’s side and the Godbillons on my mother’s side once sold all their harvest to the major Champagne Houses. It was, perhaps, not a labor of love so much as a labor of survival—my grandmother talked about being in vineyards from five in the morning until eight at night, with the children joining them after school. Then in 1947, shortly after returning from the war, they began a new adventure: Producing and marketing champagne under the names Lacourte-Labasse and Godbillon-Marie. So popular was their wine that they were soon filling their customers’ car boots with bulk orders!”
Géraldine’s parents took the reins in 1968 and established the Champagne Lacourte-Godbillon label. “At first it was no more than a few thousand bottles. Bottling and disgorgement would be done at the back of a courtyard. But the most important thing was my father’s understanding that the best Champagne was made only from top quality work in the vineyard. His whole career was dedicated to this ethos.”
In 2006, she and her husband Richard Desvignes left urban jobs and returned to their ancestral roots: “Our 21 acres of vineyards is planted 85% to Pinot Noir and 15% to Chardonnay, all of it in Écueil except for just 1.2 acres in the neighboring village of Les Mesneux. Our vines have an average age of 30 years.”
The terroir is characterized by an incredibly diverse sub-soil. Some parts are predominantly sandy over the deep chalk, others composed of ‘sparnacian’ clay and shallow chalk at the bottom of the hillsides, similar to the soils of Les Mesneux.
Richard explains, “Winemakers from all over the Montagne district have long bought Pinot Noir vine plants from Écueil. There was even a school here where they could learn how to graft these stocks. Up until a few years ago we bought our Pinot Noir plants from the local nursery, but going forward, we will be implementing our own ‘massale selection’ of the best plants for cuttings in our own parcels of vines, in order to preserve this heritage.”
Champagne Lacourte Godbillon ‘R’, Petite Montagne-de-Reims Rosé Extra-Brut ($64)
‘R’ for rosé; 100% Pinot Noir with 6% vin rouge. 55% from the 2020 vintage, which spent nine months sur-lie—40% in large oak barrels—blended with 45% 2019 reserve wine. It was bottled in July, 2021 and disgorged June 16, 2023 with 3.5 gram/liter dosage. The wine shows spicy notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger mingling with blood orange and raspberries.
Production: 4700 Bottles. Disgorged May 2024.
Champagne Marguet (Grand Cru Ambonnay)
Champagne Marguet has been a bellwether for innovation since 1883, the year that Émile Marguet began to graft his vines onto American rootstocks in the face of the impending invasion of phylloxera. Alas, so ridiculed was the notion throughout Champagne that Marguet wound up tearing out the grafted vines and promptly declared bankruptcy.
Ratchet forward a century and a half: In 2006, Émile Marguet’s distant scion Benoît Marguet joined forces with Hervé Jestin, the former chef de cave of Duval-Leroy, and began to produce a special homeopathic and biodynamic super-cuvée called ‘Sapience’, first released in 2013. Being on the cutting edge of trends has finally paid dividends. Today, Benoît farms 25 acres of vines, all using biodynamic practices. Most are owned by Marguet himself while the rest are leased from relatives. Among them are eight different lieux-dits with an average vine age of 42 years; each is bottled under the name of the plot and reflects the minute soil differences that exist throughout his holdings as well as the massal-select varieties he suits to his various terroirs—among them Les Crayères, Les Bermonts, Le Parc and Les Saints Rémys.
Champagne Marguet ‘Shaman 19’, Harvest 2019 Grand Cru Rosé Brut-Nature ($60)
23% Pinot Noir, 77% Chardonnay, bottled with no dosage and drawn entirely from Grand Cru parcels in Ambonnay in Bouzy. ‘Shaman’ is a suitably cosmic name for Biodynamic Benoît’s NV line-up, but it’s fairly recent: Formerly called ‘Elements’, there was a trademark conflict with California’s Artesa that drove the name change. The base wine comes from the abbreviated 2017 vintage, which saw rainfall in August that caused a hurry-up harvest to prevent botrytis. The nose is ripe with notes of cherry blossom, white peach and spice while the palate is broad and expansive with rich stone fruit and a firm, concentrated mineral core.
Bottled July, 2020; disgorged October, 2022; dosage 0 grams/liter.
Champagne Pierre Paillard (Grand Cru Bouzy)
Paillard is a familiar name to fans of Champagne; Maison Bruno Paillard, the Reims-based producer, was founded in 1981 by Bruno Paillard and financed by the sale of Bruno’s Mark II Jaguar. The Bouzy branch of the family (they are cousins) have been at it a bit longer; Antoine Paillard first bought Bouzy vineyards in 1768. Antoine and Quentin Paillard represent the eighth generation in the family and the fourth generation to produce and bottle Champagne under the family name.
Bouzy is renowned for producing some of the finest Pinot Noir in Champagne, due in the main to its situation on the south-facing side of the Montagne de Reims, ideal for the difficult to ripen Pinot Noir grape. Nevertheless, unlike most other growers in the appellation, the 25 Paillard acres are planted with 40% Chardonnay, giving their wines both finesse and elegance.
Interestingly, the Paillards exclusively cultivate their own selection of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, without a single clone on the estate, a diverse Selection Massale. Each plot is harvested and vinified separately in stainless steel vats and fermentation is carried out at lower temperatures to retain the aromatics. Each spring, a long process of tasting and blending is undertaken by Antoine and Quentin; the still wine is tasted, marked and discussed until there is consensus on the profile of the vintage. Blind tastings continue until the creation of each final cuvée. In June they are put into bottle for the second fermentation and cellared for a minimum of 3 years and as much as 10 years before being disgorged.
Champagne Pierre Paillard ‘Les Terres Roses XVII’, Grand Cru Bouzy Rosé Extra-Brut ($66)
64% Chardonnay and 36% Pinot Noir harvested from separate plots, each vinified separately. Fermentations are kept cool and wines age on fine lees in combo of steel and neutral barrel until the early summer to maximize the influence of the oak and to allow natural malolactic fermentation. Secondary fermentation takes place over three years. Elegant rose petal appears on the floral nose, and the palate is ripe with strawberry and watermelon; a fine, creamy mousse showing hints of marzipan.
Base wine, 2017 vintage; disgorged April, 2020; dosage 2 grams/liter.
Champagne André Clouet (Grand Cru Bouzy)
Long known for its sublime Pinot Noir-based Champagnes, the Clouets are a family of winemakers whose origins are lost in the mists of time. What we can say for certain is that it was founded by a printer in the Versailles court of Louis XV and that the phrase that graces the winery’s labels (‘Ancien Regime’) is a tribute to this legacy. It took more than two centuries and several generations of Clouets to find and purchase land in the exquisite terroir of Bouzy in the southern part of the Mountain of Reims.
Under the mastery of Jean-François Clouet, André Clouet has modernized, but the team is inspired to preserve the personality of its Champagne as expressed through the personality of its terroir. Says Jean-François, “During Creation, when God grew weary of sculpting the mountains, razing the deserts and firing up the volcanoes, he treated himself to a few moments of pleasure and designed a little earthly paradise called Bouzy.”
Champagne André Clouet ‘No 3’, Grand Cru Bouzy Rosé Brut ($58)
92% Pinot Noir, 8% vin rouge from Bouzy; the ‘3’ represents the style of the wine on an odd Clouet scale (inspired by Coco Chanel) where 1 is the lightest wine and 10, the richest. Driven by the chalky minerality of the terroir, the wine offers seductive notes of wild strawberry, raspberry, pomegranate, cherry blossoms, fresh red and pink flowers, crushed chalk, and orange zest.
Champagne André Clouet ‘No 3’, Grand Cru Bouzy Rosé Brut ($119) Magnum
Champagne Lelarge-Pugeot (Premier Cru Vrigny)
The Lelarge family became vineyard owners in 1799, after Pierre-Henri Lelarge married Madeleine Dravigny, the daughter of a winegrower family in Vrigny. They have been producing Champagne since 1930 and today the estate is headed up by seventh-generation Dominique Lelarge along with his wife Dominique Pugeot (no typo; same first name) and their children, who have joined the business.
The family believes in letting the grapes thrive as naturally as possible in order to express the pure essence of terroir. Biodynamic principles are practiced in the vineyard and they were certified organic in 2013. Dominique says, “Soil is alive. The quality of the wine starts in the vineyard. To produce wines of quality and with character, it is vital to respect the life in the soil! This is why, over the last 20 years, step by step, we moved towards organic and biodynamic farming and producing Champagne which respect nature and humans.”
Champagne Lelarge-Pugeot ‘Lùna Volume III’, 2018 Premier Cru Vrigny Rosé Brut-Nature ($144)
Third in a trio of sparkling wines based on the lunar cycles; the Lelarge-Pugeot family claim that it represents their work at its deepest level, being the culmination of biodynamics viticulture and highlighting their continued experiments in natural vinification using only indigenous yeast and natural sugar and no added sulfur. Vol. 3 is a blend of 85% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Noir from a sunny vintage. A short maceration and nine months of barrel-aging are followed by six years on the lees, resulting in a complex Champagne with aromas of candied strawberry and a long, rich mineral-driven finish.
Disgorged April, 2022; dosage 0 grams/liter.
Champagne Roger Coulon (Premier Cru Vrigny)
Éric and Isabelle Coulon represent the eighth generation of the Coulon family to be engaged as Récoltant-Manipulants, producing Champagne from Vrigny and surrounding villages in the northwest corner of the Montagne de Reims. Says Eric, “Cultivating our vines is a beautiful and proud tradition. The source of our family’s inspiration is here in our vineyards cultivated with organic and agroforestry techniques. This is the place where we Coulons—myself, Éric, Isabelle and our children, Edgar and Louise, all have our roots.”
Using entirely estate fruit, the Coulons draw from the 26 acres they currently have under vine, nearly all located within the Premier Cru rated villages of Vrigny, Coulommes and Pargny, where soils are soft limestone, Sparnacian clay and Thanetian sand. This is only the start of the journey for these grapes: “Fashionable style does not impede the relationship between the terroir, the vines and the wine,” Éric points out. “The ingredients of our success include natural yeasts used for all 109 plots, slow and spontaneous fermentation; seasons reflected in our wines, measured effervescence with dosage only in the Extra-Brut and otherwise un-dosed vintages.”
“Most importantly,” Isabelle adds, “our wine has kept its identity over time, revealing both the unique character of our natural environment and its own particular style.”
Champagne Roger Coulon ‘Rosélie’, Premier Cru Vrigny Rosé de Saignée Brut ($108)
80% Pinot Munier and 20% Pinot Noir from two parcels of old vines, ‘Les Limons’ and ‘Les Linguets’ located in Vrigny and Gueux. The wine ages on fine lees for eight to 10 months in vats and small barrels and the bottles spend up to 5 years on laths. The wine is dry and slightly piquant, with rich tones of ripe strawberry and blackberry followed by warmer aromas of baked bread and a clear, fresh and salty finish.
Disgorged January, 2021; dosage 3 grams/liter.
Champagne Palmer & Co (Montagne-de-Reims)
The Palmer and Co backstory is a bit different than the family-legacy histories of many of our other featured houses; it was established in 1947 by seven grower-families with prized Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards in the Montagne de Reims including Mailly, Verzenay, Chigny, Trépail and Villers-Marmery The seven shared a desire for perfection and a vision to create a Champagne known for its passion for harmony, balance, and the pursuit of excellence. Today, over seventy years later, Palmer & Co maintains that these qualities still define the Palmer house style.
In total, Palmer & Co holds almost 500 acres classified as Grand and Premier Crus; grapes from the Côte de Sézanne, Côte des Bars and Vallée de la Marne complete their blends, all contributing the specific sought-after characteristics of the individual cuvées.
Champagne Palmer & Co ‘Solera’, Rosé Brut ($87)
46% Chardonnay, 37% Pinot Noir, 17% Meunier; 8% Solera red, 33% Reserve, dosed at 6 grams/liter.
The heart of this cuvée is the winery’s unique Pinot Noir ‘solera’—a perpetual reserve of wine going back several decades. The solera represents 8% of the blend while reserve wines account for another third, leading to an intense nose dominated by wild berries overlayed with delicate notes of vanilla and cinnamon. Fresh and full-bodied on the palate, it extends itself though a finely tannic and succulent finish.
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Posted on 2025.02.06 in France, Champagne, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
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