Producers Flashcards
Agrapart et Fils
“Mineral”
“Venus”
Avize, Cote de Blancs
Agrapart was established in 1894 by Arthur Agrapart. Today the house is run by the Agrapart brothers, Pascal and Fabrice. They own nine and a half hectares of chardonnay vineyards, the vast majority Grand Cru, in the heart of the Côte de Blancs (primarily located in the villages of Avize, Oger, Cramant and Oiry). Vine age is amongst the oldest in the Côte de Blancs, (35-60+ yrs). The estate has also farmed organically for years.To emphasize these terroir differences, he vinifies all three cuvées exactly the same way (fermented in used 600-liter barrels) and finishes the wines with little or no dosage.
“Minéral” - This is a single vintage blend of téte de cuvée selections from two parcels located at the top of the hillside, planted in pure chalk; Les Champboutons in Avize and Les Bionnes in Cramant. These vineyards have 40+ year old vines and produce the most mineral-driven, laser-like wine of the Agrapart lineup. Bright and taught.
“Vénus” - Vintage cuvee made from a single, 0.3 hectare vineyard named La Fosse that was planted in 1959. It is located in the middle of the hillside and has both the chalk of the hillsides at the top of the parcel and the heavier clay over limestone at the bottom. The soils are tilled by a horse named Vénus. The wine shows stunning depth and richness combined with exceptional freshness and minerality. Considered to be the ultimate expression of Avize.
Emmanuel Brochet
“Le Mont Benoit”
Le Mont Benoit (lieu- dit), Villers-Aux-Noeux (village), Montagne de Reims
First generation wine grower in Champagne, and began in 1997. The single vineyard of 2.5ha is planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier and situated on a slope divided in two parts; on the upper level the oldest vines were planted in 1962, on the lower level the youngest in 1984. Emmanuel’s approach is artisanal in the vineyards and in the cellar, all the work is done by him and almost entirely by hand. Certified organic as of 2011. All the wines are Extra-Brut and the production is around 7,000 to 8,000 bottles. His main cuvee called Le Mont Benoit Extra Brut is an assemblage of 2 vintages, using all 3 champagne grapes. His wines are really pure, precise and showing minerality combined with ripeness and great pleasure.
Ulysse-Colin
“Les Maillons”; “Les Maillons Rose”
“Les Enfers”
“‘Les Roises”
Cogny, Cote de Blancs
Olivier is a grower making single-vineyard, ultra terroir specific wines. Collin gives credit to Anselme Selosse for inspiring him to become a winemaker. He describes his stage with Selosse in 2001 as “one of those encounters that changes your life,” and it prompted him to take back a portion of his family’s vines that had been rented to Pommery, allowing him to make his own wines. Sites are not blended and each cuvée is parcel specific!! Natural and non-interventionist winemaking. Both the fermentation and malolactic are carried out in three- to six-year old barriques, and the wine is neither fined nor filtered before bottling, which takes place in the fall after the harvest.
“Les Maillons”- Pinot Noir based Champagne, produced from 40 year old vines planted on chalk and heavy clay. Les Maillons is a lieu-dit totaling 6 h, all in Pinot Noir. Olivier owns 2,5 of these, which produces the
cuvée of the same name. The wine is characterized by intense ripeness for Champagne, which causes a faint pink hue as well as a controversial amount of alcohol – 13% – high for Champagne. The wine is intensely savory with underlying notes of cherry, crabapple, and other cool climate, tangy red fruits. This is an experimental and polarizing wine with an vibrant, chalky mineral core.
“Les Enfers”- Les Enfers is a new parcel that Olivier started cultivating in 2010, it’s located near Les Roises but with an exposition to the east. The soil is similar to Les Roises with clay topsoils, limestone subsoils and 100% Chardonnay.
“Les Roises”- Blanc de Blancs from a chalk and silex site with deeper topsoils. The Les Roises parcel of 60-year-old vines is affected by court-noué (as are sections of Jérôme Prévost’s Les Beguines), a disease that drastically reduces the number of berries so those that are produced are more concentrated and riper; also the vine leaves are smaller and the grapes more directly sun-kissed.
Marie Courtin
“Resonance”
“Efflorescence”
“Eloquence”
Polisot, Cote des Bars
Dominique named her estate after her grandmother, Marie Courtin, whom she describes as a “woman of the earth”. Most of her wines come from a hillside vineyard of 40-45 year old, massale-selection Pinot Noir in Polisot (located the next town over from Celles-sur-Ource, where Cédric Bouchard lives and works). The combination of low yields, clay-limestone soils and an east/southeast exposure gives the wines both power and cut, with an intense brininess and minerality at their core. She uses pendulums in both the vineyard and cellar to aid in evaluating both the evolution of the grapes on the vine as well as the wine during élévage. She explains that the pendulum changes its natural rhythm and swing based on the energy emitted from a living being, whether person, vineyard, or wine.
“Resonance”- refers to the balancing energies of earth and sky that affect the creation of a wine from its surrounding terroir. 100% Pinot Noir, sourced from massale selection vines 35-40 years in age from a single parcel located in Polisot (Cote des Bar). The fruit for Resonance comes from the top of the slope where there is little topsoil. Fermented in stainless steel using native yeasts for both fermentations.
“Efflorescence”- 100% Pinot Noir. Fermented in used barriques using natural yeasts (for both fermentations). Sur lie for three years and bottled with zero dosage. This barrel fermented vintage cuvee is made from grapes from the bottom of the hill, which Dominique belives results in greater power and aging potential. Zero dosage.
“Eloquence”- refers to “something that evolves in perpetuity”. Fermented in used barriques using natural yeasts (for both fermentations). Single parcel of Chardonnay located in the village of Polisot near the Pinot vineyard in the Cote des Bars. Massale selection, 15-20 yr old vines.It’s like drinking White Burgundy with bubbles!
Val Frison
“Blanc de Noirs ‘Goustan’, Ville-sur-Arce 12.16.14”
Ville-Sur-Arce, Cotes des Bar
For many years, Valerie’s family were growers and selling their grapes to the local co-op or negociants. In 2000, she opted to farm organically and in 2007 produced her first cuvee. It is mainly planted with Pinot Noir and 40 ares of Chardonnay on Kimmeridgian and Portlandian soil. In the cellar, the wine ferments naturally in used barriques, SO2 is added since 2013, only after the malolactic fermentation. The Champagne are NV but are always from a single harvest.
“Goustan”- 100% Pinot Noir sourced from three vineyards Les Clos de la Côte, La Chevétrée, and La Ville whose soils are composed of Kimmeridgian limestone, the predominant soil type of the Aube. The Goustan balances the ripeness and power of Pinot Noir grown in this terroir with a pungent sense of minerality. Brut Nature with zero dosage.
Gosset
“Blanc de Blancs ‘Celebris’, Aÿ”
Ay, Vallee de la Marne
Est in 1584, Gosset claims to be the oldest wine house in Champagne. Founded in Aÿ in 1584 by Pierre Gosset. In 1993, after more than 400 years of family ownership, Champagne Gosset was purchased by the Renaud-Cointreau family, who also owns and manages the highly regarded Cognac Frapin. Gosset sources grapes almost entirely from premier cru and grand cru vineyards in the Côte des Blancs, Grand Vallée de la Marne and Montagne de Reims. Gosset never allows the Champagne to undergo Malo, and instead stresses extended lees aging.
“Celebris”- the prestige cuvee first sold in 1995 (was the 1988 vintage), which is cellared at the estate for 10 years prior to disgorgement. 52% Chardonnay, 48% Pinot Noir (in most vintages)
David Leclapart
“L’Apotre” Bdb
“L’Artiste” BdB
Trepail (premier cru village), Montagne de Reims.
Cult Champagne producer. David Léclapart is a fourth-generation Champagne house. Since the 2000 vintage the estate has been certified biodynamic by both Ecocert and Demeter. David himself biodynamically farms his three hectares of land divided among 20 parcels, guided by the principles of purity, energy, pleasure and ecology. His cuvées are wholly or partially fermented in second-hand barrels purchased from Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy. All of his Champagnes are released without dosage, and all are typically low in sulphur. No fining, filtering, or cold stabilization either. All natural yeasts, no enzymes, no artificial settling agents, and then natural malolactic bacteria. ALWAYS single vintage, and never uses reserve wines. He wants to let each vintage express itself, without tampering with it.
“L’Apotre”- Leclapart’s oldest vines in Trepail. L’Apôtre is the estate’s top cuvée — a single-vineyard champagne from the La Pierre St-Martin vineyard, with vines planted in 1946 by Léclapart’s own grandfather.
“L’Artiste”- 100% Chardonnay from Léclepart’s estate vineyards in Trépail. Fermented in both enameled steel tanks and used barrels. Zero dosage. 3 different plots in Trepail. 30-50 year old vines.
Ployez-Jacquemart
Ludes, Montagne de Reims
Laurence Ployez is a third-generation winemaker at her family’s estate, which was established in 1930. Ployez-Jacquemart owns 2.15 hectares of Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards in Ludes and Mailly-Champagne in the Montagne de Reims, known for its classic chalk slopes. Unlike most producers in Champagne, she strives to keep the characteristic of each vintage even in her NV blends and only uses a very small amount of reserve wine, if any at all. The wines undergo a very slow bottle fermentation in a 25-meter-deep cellar, giving them extremely fine bubbles. Wines are aged nose-to-punt, or sur pointe, in lieu of being aged on their side; aging sur pointe provides the antioxidative and aging benefits of the lees while not allowing the wines to become too rich from the lees contact.
Jacquesson
“Champ Cain”
Avize, Cotes de Blancs
Jacquesson is one of Champagne’s most venerable houses, not only predating Krug, but giving birth to it, when in 1843 Johann-Joseph Krug left Jacquesson to form his own house. The house has adopted a herbicide-free, terroir-based philosophy. Rather than making a consistent wine every year, they set out to make the best possible blend each vintage. In other words, Jacquesson chose expression over consistency. Vinification in large old oak barrels, on the lees, with weekly bâtonnage, minimal dosage and no filtration. In each cuvée, there is also a certain percentage of reserve wine.
“Champ Cain”- 100% Avize Chardonnay, coming from this single vineyard (lieu dit).
Jaques Selosse
"Initial" "Substance" "La Cote Faron" "Le Bout de Clos" "Sous le Mont"
Avize, Cotes des Blancs
His philosophy is conspicuously Burgundian in the winery, where all of his 35 Chardonnay plots (in Avize, Cramant, Oger, Le Mesnil, Ay, Mareuil-sur- Ay and Ambonnay) are vinified separately in small Burgundian barrels that have been bought in from Domaine Leflaive, no less. No malolactic fermentation and keeping the dosage low are practices which find purity in the ripeness of fruit which has been farmed as late as possible.
“Initial”- Brut BdB. Anselme’s “classic” Brut. An assemblage of three vintages. Aged 2 years before degorgement.
“Substance”- Brut BdB. Based on a solera created in 1986. By marrying some twenty vintages, he removes vintage variation, allowing the Avize terroir to speak on its own.
“La Cote Faron”- Extra Brut BdN. Single vineyard in Ay , from his solera on Pinot Noir named Contraste. Aged for years before degorgement.
“Le Bout de Clos”- Extra Brut BdN. From Ambonnay.
“Sous le Mont”- Extra Brut BdN. From Mareuil
Vouette et Sorbee
“Extrait”
Cote des Bar
- Outspoken advocate of biodynamic viticulture, certified in 1998.
- Bertrand Gautherot began tending vines in Buxieres-sur-Arce in 1986, and Anselme Selosse convinced him to vinify his own wine in 2001, rather than selling it to a cooperative.
- Label named after his two primary vineyards.
- Vinified in oak barrel, indigenous yeast, minimum sulfer.
“Extrait”- a late-disgorge bottling from a single vintage, bottled without dosage. 70% Pinot Noir from the Sorbee vineyard, 30% Chardonnay from the Biaunes vineyard where they source Blanc d’Argile.
Billecart-Salmon
"Blanc de Blancs" "Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart" "Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon" "Rose" "Clos Saint-Hilaire"
Grand Valee, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ
- Family has been making Champagne since 1818, now run by brothers Francois and Antoine Roland-Billecart (7th generation).
- Known for a long and cool fermentation, which preserves a lot of the fruit aromas.
“Blanc de Blancs”- Chef de Cave Franois Domi blendsfrom tehgrand cru villages of Avize, Cramant, Chouilly, and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.
“Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart”- the house’s excellent, vintage-dated prestige cuvee, usually a blend of 60 percent Pinot Noir and 40 percent Chardonnay.
“Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon”- The rose counterpart to Nicolas-Francois. Refined and elegant tete de cuvee rose.
“Clos Saint-Hilaire”- made since 1995, a single-vineyard Blanc de Noirs. Vineyard is located behind the winery in Mareuil.
Bollinger
“Vieilles Vignes Françaises”
Grand Vallee, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ
-Founded in 1829, and pioneered the idea of late-released vintages with extended lees aging.
“Vieilles Vignes Françaises”- From two small parcels of ungrafted Pinot Noir vines that are cultivated using the traditional method of “provignage” (layering). Essentially, the entire row of these vines remains connected together underground. A signature of this particular bottling.
Cedric Bouchard
'Roses de Jeane-Val Vilaine' BdN 'Roses de Jeane-Cote de Bachelin' BdN 'Roses de Jeane-Les Ursules' BdN 'Roses de Jeane-La Haute Lemble' BdB 'Roses de Jeane-La Haute Lemble' BdB
Cotes des Bar
- “Roses de Jeane” is a legendary and singular estate in the village of Landreville.
- Acquired his first vineyards in 2000. Produces only single-vineyard, single-vintage champagnes of remarkable density (sometimes controversially so).
- All low yields, fermented in stainless steel and bottled at 4.5 atmospheres of pressure (rather than the usual 6).
- All are aged on their lees for 3 years
- Makes 7 Champagnes, never adds dosage.
“Val Vilaine”- Cote de Val Vilaine is a Pinot Noir vineyard in the village of Polisy, released earlier than others. Vibrant fruit.
“Cote de Bachelin”- Pinot Noir, riper and more exotic.
“Les Ursules”- Bouchard’s original vineyard, potentially the most complex and complete of the four blac de noirs that he makes.
“La Haute Lemble”- first bottled in 2004, from a south-facing parcel of chardonnay measuring less than a third of an acre. Very warm site, creating a BdB of powerful ripeness and structure. Often needs several years after release to settle down.
Krug
"Clos d'Ambonnay" '98 "Rose" NV "Clos du Mesnil" '00 "Grand Cuvée" NV Brut '02 Brut '96
Reims
- Founded in 1843 by Joseph Krug. A house that makes only prestige Cuvees.
- All base wines are made in 205-liter oak barrels
- Every parcel is vinified separately
- Known for elaborate and complicated blends.
“Clos du Mesnil”- first bottled in the 1979 vintage. Located in the center of the Cote des Blancs village of Mesnil-sur-Oger itself. It is a walled-in vineyard site of extremely high prestige.
“Clos d’Ambonnay”- the Motagne de Reims counterpart to “Clos du Mesnil.” A vibrant, sculpted Pinot Noir champagne.
Vintage “Brut”- Made from all 3 grape varieties in various proportions, depending on the character of the year.
“Grande Cuvee”- an intricate blend of up to 200 hundred different base wines from 6-10 different vintages. Krug’s vast collection of reserve wines can account for up to half of a Grande Cuvee blend. Each blend is notably influenced by its base year, and the house is now identifying each release on the label.
“Rose”- Krug Rosé 21ème Édition is a blend of 57 wines, the youngest of which dates back to 2008 and the oldest to 2000. Its final composition is 51% Pinot Noir, 41% Chardonnay and 8% Meunier.
