Welcome to the third installment of WINE CRUSH,
a bi-monthly-ish newsletter.
This space is for the viticulture geeks, cellar rats and glass swirlers.
Read on as Jason Bise and Kelly McGrath share their thoughts on seasonal wine trends, ancient grapes, and mystical producers.
by Jason Bise
Hallowed ground and
a wine with no equals.
It is a region and a wine, but not a grape or a classification. It has been the most fought over and sol sanglant ground in France. Nothing tastes like it although everyone that makes sparkling wine has one fixed point of reference. Champagne stands alone at the top of France and the sparkling wine pyramid.
The Champenois have been great vignerons for centuries. To turn the most Northerly European growing area into the home of one of the most delicious and sought after wines, is also to speak to their real genius; marketing. Since the beginning of sparkling wine production they have carved out a place in the public mind for special occasions and festivities. As they are known in France the most marketed and typically sought after brands are known as the Grands Marques. These include Moet et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Roederer, Krug and any other champagne brands that you are likely to know by name. These have been the largest producers and the primary exporters of the wine and brand image that has brought so much attention to Champagne. This marketing has allowed most of the larger Champagne houses to rely on thousands of growers without directly farming or owning the majority of the land they source grapes from.
This benefit is two-fold. Farmers have direct control of their land and are paid very well for their grapes. The Eschelle des Cru is in need of an update, but the ranking of their vineyards allows the small families to be paid well for their grapes and better for the quality of their farming. The land is divided into villages that are rated from Grand Cru at 100%, down to the Aube where the fallout from the Champagne riots are still felt in a snub of an 80% rating.
Champagne was named by the Romans for its similarity to the campania; the hills surrounding Rome. Three grapes and five major regions sum up the majority of wines from these hills.
The major interaction of these is right in the city of Epernay.
Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier (the white dusting on the grape leaves look like they have been dusted with millers’ flour) and Chardonnay are the three main grape varieties that give endless variations of these wines. Pinot Noir has its natural home in the mixture of clay & limestone that stretches North in La Montagne de Reims in the hills around the grand cathedral of Reims. Flowing west towards Paris, the Grande Vallée de la Marne is home to most of the great states and one of the best expressions of pinot meunier on the planet. From Epernay to the south-east is the La Côte des Blancs where chardonnay shows-off one of its greatest expressions in these limestone hills. Continuing south from here you find Cote de Sezanne, with more sunshine and limestone outcroppings, a more affordable version of their neighbors in the Cote des Blancs. From here, heading towards Burgundy, you will cross a wide valley of cereals before you come to the Aube (Cote des Bar). Here all three grapes grow on a mixture of Kimmeridgean limestone like that found in Sancerre and Chablis.
Many growers have decided to take their farming directly to market and in the last 30 years we have had a new class of Champagnes where quality and place are the primary focus. If a grower uses exclusively grapes which they grow they can trade under the moniker of ‘R.M.’ (Recoltant Manipulant) and this has become synonymous with ‘Grower Champagnes’. They have worked tirelessly to up the game for the whole region and greatly increase the diversity of wines from the region. If you buy any of the grapes you make wine from (even from your mother or your brother, and farm them yourself!) you will fall into the category of ‘N.M.’ (Negociant Manipulant). This is the area where most of the small families and houses work; being able to control all of their resources and have enough wine to take to market and make a living.
We are working to represent both of these categories at the Locke Store and have a great selection from each designation that covers the entirety of the Champagne footprint.
Come in and don’t let your holidays go by without a bottle!
MONTAGNE de REIMS
Boudaire-Gallois Rose
NV $59.95 Montagne de Reims
Fresene Ducret 'Les Nouveaux Explorateurs'
NV $44.95 Montagne de ReimsFresne Ducret No.3 Arquemie Blanc de Noirs
NV $74.95 Montagne de Reims
Trouillard 'Extra Selection' Brut
NV $34.95 Montagne de Reims
AR Lenoble 'INTENSE' Brut
mag16 $41.95 Grande Vallée de la MarneAR Lenoble 'INTENSE' Brut -Half
mag18 $22.95 Grande Vallée de la MarneAR Lenoble Rose Terroirs
mag14 $47.95 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Grande Vallée de la Marne
Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose - Half
NV $54.95 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Billecart-Salmon 'Cuvee Elizabeth Salmon' Rose
2008 $250.00 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Billecart-Salmon Brut Nature - Magnum
NV $168.00 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Billecart-Salmon 'Brut Sous Bois' - Magnum
NV $240.00 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Jacquesson Cuvee No744
MV $99.00 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Jose Michel Brut Tradition
NV $39.95 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Jose Michel 'La Cuvee du Pere Houdart'
NV $89.95 Grande Vallée de la MarneJose Michel 'Special Club' 2013
2013 $71.95 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Laherte Freres Petit Meslier Extra Brut
NV $150.00 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Laherte Freres 'Les Grande Crayeres' Blanc de Blancs
2016 $99.95 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Laherte Freres Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature
NV $59.95 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Laherte Freres 'Ultradition' Brut - Magnum
NV $120.00 Grande Vallée de la Marne
Cotes des Blancs
Delamotte Blanc de Blancs
2012 $132.00 Cotes des Blancs
Delamotte Rose
NV $105.00 Cotes des Blancs
Jean Pernet ''le Mesnil Sur Oger' Grand Cru
NV $68.95 Cotes des Blancs
Pierre Moncuit 'Pierre Moncuit-Delos' Grand Crut
NV $62.95 Cotes des Blancs
Pierre-Moncuit Millesime 2006 Grand Cru
2006 $99.00 Cotes des Blancs
Pierre-Peters Cuvee de Reserve Grand Cru
NV $69.95 Cotes des Blancs
Pierre-Peters 'Cuvee de Reserve' Grand Cru - Magnum
NV $150.00 Cotes des Blancs
Cote de Sezanne
Thierry Triolet Millesime 2016 'Les Vielle Vignes'
2016 $45.95 Cote de SezanneThierry Triolet Brut
NV $35.95 Cote de Sezanne
Cote des Bar
Charles Dufour Bulles de Comptoir #9
NV $59.95 Cote des Bar
R. Dumont & Fils 'SOLERA Reserve'
MV $47.95 Cote des Bar
Producer Spotlight
Champagne Fresne-Ducret
Montagne de Reims
The Fresne Ducret domaine consists of 6 hectares of 1er Cru vineyards divided among 25 parcels, which are, with one exception, all in the village of Villedommange. According to the champagne authority, Richard Juhlin, Villedommange, along with the village of Sacy, has the best vineyards in the northern part of the Montagne de Reims, known as the Petite Montagne. The Fresne family have lived and farmed in Villedommange for 180 years and since 2007 it has been Pierre Fresne and his wife Daniella writing the current chapter. Losing little time, Pierre and Daniella began estate-bottling their champagnes with the 2008 vintage. In 2018, after a decade of working towards organic farming, they officially entered into conversion for organic certification
Champagne R. Dumont & Fils
Aube
The Champagne house of the Dumont family is situated in Champignol-lez-Mondeville, a village in the southern Champagne region of the Aube, some 90 miles southeast of Reims and Epernay. Characterized by forested hills, streams and vineyards, it is a natural and reflective environment that has attracted people such as Saint Bernard (Clairvaux) and Renoir (Essoyes). The Dumonts have owned vineyards in this area for over two hundred years and today Bernard Dumont, along with his cousin and his nephew, work together to produce champagne exclusively from their own 22 hectares. The soils are a geological extension of those in Chablis, namely kimmeridgian chalky clay. The vineyard is planted with 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay. As Bernard Dumont says with amusement, “we grow grapes on the same soils as the vine growers in the Chablis region. There, they produce white wine from white grapes and here we produce white wine from red grapes.”
The Dumonts farm bio-dynamically and are in conversion to organic certification.
Champagne Jose Michel
Côtes d’Epernay
José Michel made his first vintage in 1955 and thanks in part to his cellar of very old bottles of Pinot Meunier, he developed a cult following for his Champagnes. José passed away in 2019 and this “Maison de Tradition” which began in 1847 is now, seven generations later, run by José and Nicole’s grandson, Antonin. Antonin is brilliantly refining the work that José accomplished over six decades and developing his own ideas. As he says, “José and I agreed on practically everything”.
The Champagne house is located in Moussy, a small village just south of Epernay. The 11 hectares of vineyards are spread throughout a number of villages, both in the Cotes D’Epernay and in the Vallée de la Marne. The vineyard sights with a richer clay soil are planted to Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The slopes which have a calcareous soil are planted to Chardonnay. José Michel was the first in his family to plant Chardonnay which he did beginning in 1958. Fermentations are carried out in old oak casks or enameled steel vats and the wines go through a malolactic fermentation. José Michel is certified “Level 3” the top level of certification in Haute Valeur Environmentale. The Michels are a founding member of the group, “Tresors de Champagne” known as the “Special Club”.
Champagne Bourdaire-Gallois
Massif Saint Thierry
David Bourdaire farms 8 hectares situated in and around the village of Pouillon. Pouillon is one of a dozen, or so villages in the Massif Saint-Thierry, a group of undulating hills and forests that slope off toward the vast plain, northwest of the city of Reims. This Massif is the northern most part of the Champagne appellation and is home to some 900 hectares of vineyards which are spread throughout the dozen villages. Due to the challenging climate, it is the late budding Pinot Meunier which is the favored grape type. The soils have a large portion of sandy clays which offer a distinguishing expression to the area’s champagnes.
David’s family began estate bottling their champagnes in 2001 when they left the coop that David’s grandfather founded in 1951. The vineyard is comprised of 85% Pinot Meunier, 10% Chardonnay and 5% Pinot Noir. The vines have an average age of 43 years with a few rows of Chardonnay planted at 11,000 plants per hectare that date back to 1923. David farms organically and is in conversion to obtaining certification. The vineyard is planted on low yielding root stocks and David cultivates natural grasses between the vine rows to further limit yields. He vinifies each parcel separately according to the specific rootstock “porte-greffe”. After years of adjusting the dosage level with each disgorgement, David has settled on finishing all of his Champagnes with a dosage of 0g/l.
