Champagne

Cédric Bouchard has been making wine on his own since 2000 on his newly created Roses de Jeanne estate.

Cédric doesn’t use any wood for his champagnes, preferring to ferment all of his wines in stainless or enamel-lined steel, since as a purist he thinks that the wood would ultimately add something that was not supposed to be there. The wines are made from hand-harvested fruit, crushed by foot and only the finest juice is retained (the rest of the less qualitative production being sold to the négoce). All of his wines are fermented with natural yeasts and see neither chaptalisation or dosage. The wines will go through malolactic fermentation and be racked only once prior to bottling.

Each wine comes from tiny parcels around Celles-Sur-Ources, the village where Cédric bouchard vinifies his wines.

He has also a very rare parcel of old Pinot Blanc vines called ‘La Bolorée’ with a very uncommon chalky soil for Celles-Sur-Ources and from which he makes an outstanding Cuvée, of which less than 1000 bottles are released per year. The smallest plot of the estate, however, is the Creux d'Enfer with only 4 little rows of vines making around 500 bottles a year. In 2014 he started to release a cuvee from ‘La Presle’, a small parcel in which he planted 10 different Pinot Noir rootstocks.

1.37 ha

David Léclapart is the fourth-generation vigneron, running his domaine located in the premier cru village of Trépail in the Montagne de Reims. When his father passed away in 1996 and his mother asked him to take over the estate, he agreed to do so only on the condition that he would be able to farm biodynamically. Since the 2000 vintage the estate has been certified biodynamic by both Ecocert and Demeter. David himself farms his three hectares of land divided among 20 parcels, guided by the principles of purity, energy, pleasure and ecology.

Dedicated to transmitting the individual characteristics of each vintage and vineyard into his wines, David does not use any reserve wines, and all of his wines bottled without dosage. While the cuvee Amateur and half of Artiste are made in steel tanks, the rest of the wines are vinified in old oak barrels, purchased from Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy. Malolactic fermentation is completed for all of the cuvées, in order to stabilise the wines and to minimise the use of sulfur. The wines are left on their fine lees until the following August or September, just before the next year’s harvest, and they are bottled without fining, filtration or cold-stabilisation.

🍀 ORGANIC / 🌙 BIODYNAMIC

3 ha

Françoise Bedel is one of the most emblematic figures of the Champagne biodynamic movement. Crouttes-sur-Marne in the far west of the Vallée de la Marne is far from being a famous part Champagne, but Francoise has made the most of the terroir and she gives to Pinot Meunier a unique taste. The vineyards are planted at 79% of Pinot Meunier, 14% of Chardonnay and the rest being Pinot Noir.

She relies on traditional and manual methods only, from the pressing of the grapes to the remuage.

Vinification takes place either in barrel or in enameled steel tanks, the wines are also strongly influenced by their long lees ageing: even the non-Vintage entry level Cuvée Origin’elle is aged for six years before disgorgement, explaining the markedly leesy character of her wines. She tries to produce less standardised wines and uses little reserve wine, so as to show the characteristics of the vintage..

The predominance of Meunier in these champagnes provides them with a certain breadth and roundness, and their long aging on the lees enhances their sense of depth.

🍀 ORGANIC / 🌙 BIODYNAMIC

8.4 ha