Who from Ireland or Scotland deserves the title of birthplace of whisky? Was pisco born in Peru or Chile? And rum in Barbados? The spirit of the place stirs the world of wine and spirits. Throughout France, winegrowers never tire of exploring the richness and diversity of their terroirs. Like the Champenois who emancipate themselves from the dogma of blending to glorify their plots, when the producers of crémant base their success on the typicality of their appellations recognized in France. Knowledge and understanding of origins remains the best way to be… original.
Sluggish harvests this fall in Champagne. Beyond the climatic and health hazards of a complicated wine year, the news from shipments around the world is alarming. Forgotten the record figures for 2022, sales for the current financial year mark a solid halt, after a first alert last year. Confined to a depressed French market, many independent winegrowers find themselves particularly affected by competition from crémants and other proseccos. The need to stand out in the midst of overly standardized Champagne production remains significant. A path has emerged for some time: to produce wines which bear the imprint of their origin, which release the taste of the soil.
Better understand the vines
The kingdom of blending and “house” style reproduced year after year is therefore slowly converting to a terroir approach. Convinced that the music of a wine is not written in the cellar, but in the grapes of a place, Champagne winegrowers juggle with localities, the equivalent of the famous “climates” of Burgundy. Mimicry? Rather than an influence from the neighboring region, oenologist-consultant Geoffrey Orban discerns the emergence of a new winemaker model: “They are gradually emancipating themselves from trading and the dogma of blending, which ruled out any single grape variety or mono cru – talking about terroir was not well received today, driven by the rediscovery of their land, winegrowers are seeking to understand their vines.” The harvesters-handlers thus began to “manipulate” their land. This fine connoisseur of wine-growing Champagne accompanies them in their desire to explore the underground world of the vineyard and review the blends according to the potential and limits of the plots: “The name of the latter on the label completes the emergence of the phenomenon .”
For the trade too, standing out from the Champagne tradition is a good way to premiumize the brand. For example, in Epernay, the Lombard house offers no less than nine single-plot vintages – most of them produced with partner winegrowers. “Soil, climate, relief and viticulture constitute the parameters which define a terroir,” explains Thomas Lombard, who joined the family business in 2017. We observe their influences at the scale of the plot to highlight each place that we vinify , restore their geological identity in the bottle.” Objective largely achieved when we delight in the chalky finesse of La Vigne Bouillet 2016, made from 63.53 acres of Chardonnay in Chouilly grand cru.
The emergence of single-cru vintages had already highlighted the intrinsic qualities of the most renowned villages. Particularly those of the Côte des Blancs, this tongue of pure chalk which extends south of Epernay, as evidenced by the nectars of Pascal Agrapart, Pierre Gimonnet or, more recently, Olivier Bonville. “The idea came to me in Japan, in 2010, during a presentation of my champagnes, remembers the latter. While I detailed the chalky particularities of the different vintages which compose them, the question of creating wines not assembled, more typical, emerged on my return, I undertook soil pits to better understand my soils. Two years later, Pur Mesnil, Avize and Oger played leading roles on the label.
In their most accomplished form, physically delimited by an enclosure of low walls, hedges or gates, the plots of vines are set up as “enclosures”. From a dozen in the 1990s, these intimate spaces have grown to 39. Although they represent barely 0.1% of the vast Champagne vineyards, their reputation is out of all proportion to their surface area. Better still, they have built their success – as evidenced by high, even astronomical, prices – on the rarity of their prestigious bottles.
The great pioneer houses in local wines
Bollinger thus contains two acres of prephylloxeric vines (without rootstock), miraculously spared by the terrible aphid pest, at the end of the 19th century, the Clos Saint-Jacques and that of Chaudes Terres: 31 ares planted in crowds which give the exceptional and extremely rare vintage Vieilles Vignes Françaises, with atypical aromas of fruit paste. Another cadastral singularity of the house: the emblematic Côte aux enfants, a vineyard on the hillside of Aÿ recognizable by the small chalk cliff which caps its summit. These four hectares of pinot noir were previously dedicated to the sole production of one of the best still red wines of Champagne. Revolution in 2012: Bollinger decided to devote part of these vines to the production of an exceptional champagne. “A vintage that completes the range of white and black wines,” explains Charles-Armand de Belenet, the general director. Before confiding that “other plots will be created”.
Some large houses have been pioneers in local wines, such as Philipponnat and its Clos des Goisses, since 1935, creamy and crystalline. “We work with what nature gives us. The chalk brings freshness and tension, the slope (45 degrees due south) ensures maximum conditions for ripening the grapes”, explains Charles Philipponnat, who watches over this gem of Mareuil- sur-Ay. The latter goes even further by offering plot selections of anthology pinot noir, from Les Cintres, located in the heart of the famous clos; of Rémissonne, which borders it; and the place called Le Léon, a historic Aÿ vineyard of the family.
Limited series
But don’t we risk impoverishing the blends by isolating the best plots to make exceptional vintages? Frédéric Panaïotis, formidable cellar master at Ruinart, legitimately asks the question, while sharing the need to decipher the terroirs to optimize the quality of the wines. He has also launched a vast satellite observation program to analyze the different expressions of Tessy’s home vineyard.
“This new approach paradoxically benefits from climatic upheavals,” objects Geoffrey Orban. In the northernmost French vineyards, the rise in temperature has the effect – temporarily? – of ensuring better ripening of the grapes. Pressure on the vintages the most qualitative to fill in the blends the maturity deficit of certain plots is reduced, freeing up batches to make limited series.” The pleasure of tasting them, on the other hand, proves infinite…