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Champagne/sparkling wine Producers
Name: Champagne/sparkling wine
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Entirely family-owned since it was founded in 1920, Champagne house AR Lenoble is currently in the hands of sister and brother owners Anne and Antoine Malassagne. With only twelve people working there all year round, it is a properly small operation. Their largest holdings are in the fabulous Chardonnay grand cru of Chouilly, known for a richer style of fruit, more Meursault than Chablis. They also have Pinot Noir in Bisseuil and Pinot Meunier in Damery.
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In 1818, Nicolas-Francois Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon were united in holy matrimony, and the famous house Billecart-Salmon was created. Almost 200 years - and 7 generations - later, B-S remains under family control, and finesse, balance, elegance remain their bywords. Billecart-Salmon used to be best known as the smallest of the Grandes Marques. Now that organisation is defunct, it is the quality of the wines which allows the house to be much better known. Billecart does not keep expensively carpeted office suites in W1 and the focus is on producing the best possible wines. -
Although founded in the early nineteenth century, Bollinger`s most famous owner was Lily Bollinger, whose husband died young in 1941. Despite the privations of the occupation Madame Bollinger pushed constantly for quality and vigilance in both vineyard and cellar. Her frequent excursions to inspect vines by bicycle became legendary and even today the details and fundamentals of production are more exactingly practised here than at many prestigious addresses in the region. And this accounts for the premium that Bollinger charge. -
Ambonnay-based grower house Dethune have been releasing Champagnes under their own name since the 1930s, but they come from a long line of growers dating all the way back to 1610. Their 7 hectares of organically-cultivated vineyards are planted to 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. The Champagne are vinified in a mix of stainless steel, foudres and barrels, and the imprint of the oak is perceptible in the textured mouthfeel. (NT 13/12/23)
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Gallimard has been Uncorked’s house Champagne for a quarter of a century, and in that time it has garnered a strong and loyal following as much among staff as customers. Didier and Arnaud Gallimard represent the sixth and seventh generation respectively of this excellent grower house. They are based in Les Riceys, in the Aube, and they cultivate 10 hectares of mostly Pinot Noir on the Kimmeridgian limestone typical of the area. The Cuvee de Reserve is pure Pinot Noir, and enjoys the warmth and fruit-forward style characteristic of a good Blanc de Noirs.
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If the key to understanding Billecart-Salmon is balance, with Gosset it is acidity and power. It is no coincidence that like Billecart they are, and always have been, family owned. But there the comparisons cease. Gosset does not allow any of its wines to go through malolactic fermentation - one of two houses I can immediately think of who practise this. The retention of the harder malic acid is difficult to get right as one thing that few Champagnes lack is acidity.
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There`s a right-of-way called Saxon Shoreway which cuts a swathe through the Kent vineyards of Gusbourne Estate, and once upon a time this path did indeed walk the English shore. So it`s no surprise that the clay and sand soils on which these vineyards sit are full of maritime deposits, which in turn may go some way to explaining the saline character that often comes across in the estate`s sparkling wines. A millenium later, and mainly thanks to land reclamation, the sea is now six miles away as the crow flies (over Romney Marsh), but there is still a powerful coastal wind blowing over.
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His family have been Champagne growers since the 17th century, tending vines across a variety of top Ay sites. Why, asked Claude Giraud, were they not making their own Champagne? Which is just what he went on to do. Soon Robert Parker was calling Giraud `the best Champagne you`ve never heard of`. The signature style that makes Giraud distinct comes as much from their great sites (and in particular, great Pinot Noir) as from Claude re-thinking Champagne top-to-bottom. Like Krug and Bollinger before him, Claude quickly decided oak was the way to go.
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The so-called grower Champagne trend makes most people think of newish enterprises but Jacquesson, one of the most renowned, was founded in 1789. This coincided with the rise of the rude Corsican peasant Napoleon and true to form he is said to have visited Jacquesson regularly on his travels. What with his cologne buying in Bologna and all his other shopping it makes you wonder how he found time to amass an empire.
Anyway, the family has history, variously teaching the Krugs how to blend and researching how to stop so many bottles exploding in the cellar. -
It’s the most prestigious name in Champagne. The house of Krug was founded in Reims in 1843, and from the beginning made itself distinctive by fermenting base wines in small oak barrels, and using very extended lees contact. Krug has always stood out for a character that is oak-driven and autolytic. Recent years, though, have seen some very elegant reinterpretations of that style. The NV Grande Cuvee always includes a wide spread of up to ten years’ worth of declarable vintages, and is released in numbered editions with a determined history. Vintage Krug is only made in the best years.
