MORE CHAMPAGNES & BUBBLIES

RUELLE-PERTOIS

Owning 3 hectares of vines in Moussy and 3 in nearby Chouilly, the small Ruelle-Pertois winery has managed to stay below the radar screen of most Champagne drinkers.  When you make 40,000 (or so) bottles annually, you're producing a half day's work at the big houses such as Mumm or Moet!

Michel Ruelle married Martine Pertois, hence the name Ruelle-Pertois.  Michel has been making Champagne since 1970, so he's not exactly a new kid on the block, though he's only been in our shop for a handful of years.

His wines are imported by our pal Charles Neal who was introduced to Ruelle-Pertois by his friends the Lafitte's at Domaine Boingnères, famous Armagnac producers in the South-West.  
In fact, when we first visited Boingnères, "Mom," Marguerite Lafitte insisted upon opening a second bottle of this Champagne, even knowing we were late for our next rendezvous!  Charles, who's no dummy, contacted Ruelle and now imports tiny quantities of very fine Champagne.  

Benoit and his father Michel as we would taste some tank samples of their base wine...2003!

Michel shows off their riddling gizmo which allows them to shake the bottles and move the yeast sediment into the neck of the bottle where it will be frozen and opened to rid the bottle of that "deposit."


You can see most of the bottle is "clear" with about an inch of sediment resting against the crown cap.

On the far left is a machine to freeze the neck of the bottle.  Then they remove the crown cap and the pressure in the bottle expels that plug of sediment.
From there the bottle is then "topped up" with wine and a "dosage" which balances the wine with a tiny bit of sweetness, typically undetectable by most consumers as the acidity in Champagne tends to be elevated compared to most table wines.

The bottles are then stoppered with a mushroom cork which is held in place with a wire hood.

Michel then offered to show us a more "old fashioned" method of disgorging a bottle of Champagne...


"I'll remove the crown cap with a countdown to three, so be ready." he told us.

Et voilà!

 

Michel Ruelle pours his Champagne

Benoit Ruelle---Tasting Good Champagne!

 

There are some gyro-palettes in the cellar.

Entering the cellar, you'll see this sign urging you to "Drink and Forget, but don't forget to drink!"

The domaine owns approximately 15 acres of vineyards, so it's quite small, producing perhaps 4,000 cases of Champagne annually.

They own some Grand Cru sites in Cramant, Chouilly and Oiry and these comprise half of the estate's holdings.  The other half are in the hometown of Moussy along with Pierry and Vinay.

We've featured their "Premier Cru" Champagne, a Blanc de Blanc bottling that's mildly yeasty and rather dry.  The aromas hint at citrus and stones, with a faintly floral tone there, too.   New label (as you can see above)...

An honest importer allows us to offer this at a very attractive price.

Currently in stock:  RUELLE PERTOIS Blanc de Blanc Premier Cru  SALE  Sold Out Presently

CLICK HERE TO SEE A HOME-COOKED CHAMPENOISE LUNCH Chez Ruelle-Pertois
(And Dinner, too, one winter's evening!)

 We enjoyed a magnum of Ruelle Pertois recently...

It was remarkably effervescent and really nicely balanced...perhaps a bit "finer" than usual?
Despite hosting a relatively small crowd, we finished this sized bottle with ease.

VOIRON-JUMEL

This is a small domaine with stories dating back to 1945 as the turning points for each side of the family.

In that year, Uncle Jean Voirin's baskets of fruit were rejected by some large Champagne house and he decided he's start making his own bubbly.   Meanwhile, Monsieur Jumel married Mademoiselle Richomme who had a small parcel of vines.  Jumel was more involved in the trucking business but ended up selling his modest fleet of wagons and buying more vineyards.

Fast forward a few years and you have Monsieur Gilles Voirin from the grand cru village of Chouilly marrying Mademoiselle Françoise Jumel.   Since Champagne tradition calls for the bride to remain in her hometown, the winery is situated in Cramant, not Chouilly.  This is a few kilometers south of Epernay.

 

 

 

The estate comprises something like 12 hectares of vineyards spread amongst several Cotes des Blancs villages...Cramant, of course.  But also Avize, Chouilly, Oger and Ay amongst the elite sites.  Vertus, Mareuil sur Ay and Cuis for premier cru sites.

We currently have their Brut Tradition in stock.  This is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir.  Nice and dry...mildly yeasty...well-made, fresh and ideal as an aperitif.

Currently in stock:  VOIRIN JUMEL GRAND CRU BRUT  $39.99

MARIE COURTIN

If you locate on a map the town of Polisot, you might notice that it's actually closer to downtown Chablis than it is to downtown Epernay.

And Polisot is where you'd find the Champagne firm of Marie Courtin, in all its glory.  

This is in the vast region called the Aube, well south of the prestigious addresses in the Champagne region.  In fact, the Aube had long been viewed as an area of secondary quality and grapes there were sought after by the big Champagne firms, as fruit cost less.  Having tasted many Champagnes from the Aube I can't say the region produces second-quality wines, but if you're accustomed to some top bottlings from vineyards around Reims and Epernay, you may notice the Aube wines simple taste different.

The firms of Drappier and Serge Mathieu are good quality producers who make wines which represent the region nicely.

But now there are numerous small grower/winemakers producing some good quality wines as it may be financially a bit easier to establish a new company in the Aube.  

Every good wine merchant and sommelier is always looking for something new, something different and maybe even something "good."  Once there's some "buzz" about a wine, all of these people play "follow-the-leader" as they have to have a particular product which enjoys a period of fame and maybe fortune.  

As a result, some Aube wines now cost stratospheric prices as these are trophies for sommeliers who believe having such wines makes a positive statement about their restaurant and validates them as "credible."   An Italian sommelier told me every American wine geek is thrilled to order a currently-fashionable, trophy-of-a-Champagne from the wine list...expensive and maybe lacking in character.  The somm was not impressed as much by the wine in the bottle as much as they were by the sales!

Marie Courtin may not have yet attained the designation of being a "cult status" Champagne, but the various cuvées of this little enterprise can, in our view, more easily rival the famous growers in the Montagne de Reims, the Vallee de la Marne and the Cotes des Blancs.

The company is owned and operated by Dominique Moreau and she's dedicated her firm to the memory of her grandmother, Marie Courtin.  Moreau has approximately 2.5 hectares of vineyards, predominantly Pinot Noir (it's a tad warmer in this region, so Pinot thrives there), with a small planting of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc.  The vineyards are farmed biodynamically we're told.

 

Dominique uses this old, traditional Champagne press.

Dominique has a small cellar with wood cooperage...

Here's a bottle "in progress" showing the yeast has done its job of completing the secondary fermentation.  Now the wine is matured on this yeast sediment and it becomes more complex, aromatic and flavorful as well.

We usually have a cuvee Moreau calls "Resonance" and it resonates well with us!
And there are numerous Weimax customers who are big fans of this Champagne saying "nothing else is quite the same."
Yes, indeed!
This is a bone dry bubbly...Extra Brut.
And it's made entirely of Pinot Noir, so it's a Blanc de Noirs but not in the same sense you see with many sparklers of that denomination.
Those tend to be a bit fruity and sometimes they have a touch of sweetness.
This does not fit into that category of sparkling wine.
It's a austere, crisp, medium+ bodied Champagne with some depth.
  

 

 

EFFLORESCENCE
The base wine, made of Pinot Noir, is vinified and aged in 228 liter barriques which are about ten years old.  The name refers to something which is constantly changing and evolving.  Dominique finds this wine to be a perfect candidate for such a name since its evolution begins in the barrel.  The wine undergoes a secondary, malolactic fermentation in wood and then spends perhaps ten months on the lees.
After about 3 years en tirage the wines is disgorged, never having been filtered.
Further, there is no sweetening dosage, so the wine is in fact, Extra Brut.

ELOQUENCE
This is a Blanc de Blanc and a mere two barrels' worth of wine are made for this.  I find it even deeper and more toasty than the Efflorescence with a fantastically complex fragrance.  On the palate this is crisp, tangy and yet full-flavored.  
Our friends who import this wine receive a mere 60 bottles.

CONCORDANCE
Dominique confesses she really doesn't move this wine after putting it in a small tank to ferment the juice.  "I simply press the grapes, put the juice into a tank and it ferments.  After the malolactic it's racked and goes back into a clean tank.  Then I leave it for about 10 months on its sediment which helps protect the wine, as I don't add sulfur until bottling."

It's entirely Pinot Noir and the wine shows a crisp, tart apple-like quality which might lead you to expect it's Chardonnay.

 

Currently in stock:  MARIE COURTIN "RESONANCE" Extra Brut CHAMPAGNE  $69.99  (back in stock)
MARIE COURTIN EFFLORESCENCE Sold Out
MARIE COURTIN ELOQUENCE  Sold Out
MARIE COURTIN CONCORDANCE  Sold Out

JOSÉ DHONDT

You're probably wondering why a French fellow has the name "José."  I did.  

It turns out José's grandmother was Spanish.  In French they pronounce it something like "Zho-zay."  

Dhondt is an engaging fellow and a bon vivant.  He makes a tiny amount of Champagne, though, owning about 6 hectares of vineyards scattered around the countryside.  Some vineyards are near the winery in Oger, while he has other parcels in Le Mesnil, Grauves (near Cramant) and Saudoy (south of Sézanne).  Total production tallies to, on average, 42,000 bottles annually. 

Dhondt cultivates one vineyard site simply to sell the grapes to Moet et Chandon.  "I am then invited to attend their seminars on viticulture and sometimes I learn a thing or two about grape growing.  They also invite their growers to come taste tank samples and experimental batches, so I can learn from that, too." he explained.

Clearly he's a straight shooter and this was further evidenced by the display on the wall in his warehouse above the underground Champagne cellar.

 

 

Dhondt grows Chardonnay for the most part, though there's a small planting of Pinot Noir which goes into his "José Rosé" production.   Most of the vines are in the range of 40 to 50 years old, with the most venerable being planted in the late 1940s, early 1950s.  

His base wines typically undergo a malolactic fermentation.  "I like a supple texture in my Champagne," Dhondt tells us.  "I attribute this to some degree to the old vines which produce a wine with good intensity."  It could also be the malolactic that gives the wines some roundness, too.  Dhondt keeps the dosage fairly low, with the "Tradition" having 8 grams/liter of sugar and his Old Vines' bottling having, typically, just 6 grams.  The Rosé, of which he produces just 200 cases annually, has 10 grams of sugar.  

José Dhondt in the aging cellar.

 

Showing off a bottle "in progress."


Here's a bottle that's been in the gyropalette and you can see the wine is quite clear, with the
yeast sediment now resting on the crown cap.
Most producers then freeze the neck of the bottle, turn it upright and un-cap it, allowing the pressure of the sparkling wine to push the yeast 'plug' out of the bottle, leaving a brilliantly clear wine.

 

 

The "Tradition" Champagne is made entirely of Chardonnay.  José says the base wine typically has somewhere between 30 and 40% "Reserve" wine blended into it as he tries to produce a Champagne that is consistent from bottling to bottling.  I like the bright apple and pear notes in this wine...classic Chardonnay and it's a wine with finesse.  The acidity is noticeable, but it's not especially austere.  And, I recalled Dhondt's preference for making a wine that's got a supple texture.  So, indeed, he's made a wine to his taste.  (And mine, too, for that matter!)

 

The Old Vines wine is labeled "Mes Vieilles Vignes" (My Old Vines) and those are 64 years old.  We liked Dhondt's Rose Champagne, as well.  He makes but 200 cases annually of his pink wine...very good and nicely expressive.

Currently in stock:  JOSE DHONDT "TRADITION" Blanc de Blancs  Sold Out Presently

 

 

JACQUES COPIN

We met young Mathieu Copin shortly before all the Covid-19 Pandemic and took him for a good burger and a bottle of Napa Valley Zinfandel at San Mateo's wonderful 31st Union restaurant.

His Cuvée Tradition was showing beautifully that day, a special Champagne that is quite different from others in the shop presently. 

 

 

The domaine was founded in 1963 by Jacques and Anne-Marin Copin and later run by Bruno & Marielle Copin along with their kids, Lucile and the aforementioned Mathieu.

The vineyards and cellar are in the environs of a small village called Verneuil, about 23 kilometers west of Epernay.  Mathieu says they cultivate responsibly in terms of environmentalism.  

The Copin holdings comprise about 10 hectares of vineyards, with something close to 70% Pinot Noir, 21% Pinot Meunier and 9% Chardonnay.

Yet the Cuvée Tradition is based on Pinot Meunier (90%) with the balance being Pinot Noir.  You will find it simply tastes different from most other non-vintage Champagnes and this is undoubtedly due to the predominance of the typically minor player, Pinot Meunier.  The wine spends about three years aging en tirage and it's medium-full on the palate with some pear and citrus notes along with a mildly bready character from the yeast.

Mathieu says the dosage is about 8 grams, so the wine shows itself to be appropriately "Brut" in character (dry, that is).  As we've said, the wine is different from most other Champagnes in the shop thanks to the Pinot Meunier grape.  

 

Currently in stock:  JACQUES COPIN Non-Vintage "CUVÉE TRADITION" Brut CHAMPAGNE  $42.99  (last bottles)

 

Mathieu Copin avec un bon 31st Union Hamburger

VILMART

The Vilmart name is one you'll usually find on a Champagne fancier's list of top vintners.

The Vilmart family has been in the village of Rilly-La-Montagne since the 1800s and today the winery is run by Laurent Champs.  His mother married Rene Champs, who worked in Vilmart's vineyards.  And they are "Champs," as you'll come to find out if you put a bottle of their bubbly on your table.

 

 

 

Laurent's parents had advocated the use of small barrels for fermenting their base wines, a more costly and labor-intensive process.  It's for this reason, in part, reviews of Vilmart Champagnes some years ago would compare the wines (favorably) to those of Krug.

 

Laurent Champs with his Pop.

Laurent, though, goes a bit farther, as he uses new oak to ferment the juice destined for their top bottlings, a move that has both its fans and detractors.

 

Vilmart owns 11 hectares of vineyards in the Premier cru village of Rilly.  They cultivate organically, with 60% of the vines devoted to Chardonnay and the rest to Pinot Noir, with all of 3% planted with Pinot Meunier.  

After pressing the grapes, they let the juice settle for a day to precipitate heavy sediment.  Then it goes into the fermentation vessel...large, fairly neutral wood for the basic bottlings and small, new oak for their high end wines.  These are aged in wood for several months, too.  You see, Vilmart is about "making wine" and then they just happen to turn it into bubbly.

You can taste that behind the bubbles, there's "wine" there.  I tasted one bottling during my visit which had a lot of oak and then Laurent opened an older bottle...remarkable to taste one that's got the wood integrated into the wine...but all the bottles of Vilmart are a treat.  

We typically have Vilmart's "Grande Cellier" bottling in stock.  This is a rather dry, fairly full-bodied Champagne.  We find ripe fruit and some spice notes in the wine.  It's best when it's not ice cold, but allowed to warm up a bit from cold refrigerator temperature.  And it's interesting to taste how it blossoms in the glass as it warms up and has a chance to blow off some of the carbon dioxide.  

The Grand Cellier D'Or is their normal bottling of a Vintage Brut Champagne.  It's predominantly Chardonnay and you can easily detect the use of small oak here.  It's about half small oak barrels and half large wooden foudres...beautifully full and creamy with some wood spice notes.  The 2016 is currently in the shop.

The 2007 Coeur de Cuvee is a remarkable bottle.  This is a Champagne for a true connoisseur of bubbly, not so much for those who revel in drinking a wine with a famous name and a correspondingly famous high price.  It's typically about 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir.  Some new oak barrels are used for the base wine and yet the wood is so well-knit in the wine, it's much less overtly oaky than the Grand Cellier d'Or...And to spend a few moments with this wine is intriguing as there's a noticeable change and evolution as the wine warms up a bit in the glass.  Truly complex...
The 2008 Coeur de Cuvee is also dynamite.  It's difficult to pick which one is better, 2007 or 2008.
We think the 2007 is perhaps slightly more showy presently than the 2008, but the '08 might have more cellaring potential.
Both are now sold out...stay tuned...


Laurent makes a small quantity of Rose, the normal Cuvee Rubis assembled by adding a bit of red wine to a white cuvee. 

But there's a whole different Rose or "Rubis" bottling called Grand Cellier D'Or and it's only made in years when there's an ample crop of Pinot Noir and this will make a wine worthy of the Vilmart name.  And even then, only a tiny quantity is produced.
The 2009 is a 60/40 blend of Pinot Noir to Chardonnay, with the Pinot getting a brief bit of skin contact.  The wine then spends about 10 months in oak.  It's a remarkably complex Rose, not the care-free, refreshing little wine many producers make.  
A "flute" glass doesn't do this justice, by the way, so if you have some nice white wine stems, consider using those/

Currently in stock:  VILMART "GRANDE CELLIER" Non Vintage Brut   $81.99
VILMART 2016 GRAND CELLIER D'OR  119.99
VILMART 2008 COEUR DE CUVEE Sold Out
VILMART 2009 GRAND CELLIER D'OR CUVEE RUBIS   Sold Out


The press at Vilmart.

Heading down to the cellar...

Bottles off the riddling racks and ready to be disgorged...

BENOIT LAHAYE

Valerie and Benoit Lahaye (she's from the Larmandier family, another famous name in Champagne!) have a small cellar in the famous town of Bouzy with 4.5 hectares of vines keeping them occupied.

Bouzy is, of course, famed for its Pinot Noir and there's even an appellation for the non-sparkling Pinot Noir wine:  Bouzy Rouge.  

The Lahaye's vines, though, are not solely within the Bouzy area, but in nearby Ambonnay to the east (another grand cru site for Pinot Noir) and Tauxières to the west.  By the way, in the classification of crus of Champagne, Tauxières is a Premier Cru site, carrying a 'rating' of 99, so it's a chip off the Grand Cru block, so-to-speak.

The Lahaye family has been in the Champagne business since the 1930s.  The first brand was grandpappy's and it was called "L. Waroquier."  Dad's brand was sold as "Lahaye-Waroquier."   Benoit took over the company in 1993 and now it's simply Benoit Lahaye.  Shortly thereafter, he began a move to convert their vineyards to organic farming and they're currently working biodynamically.  The property is certified by Ecocert since 2007, for what that's worth.

 

All of his various lots are vinified in wood of some sort.

Most of their vineyards are planted with Pinot Noir and the vineyards average approximately thirty-five, or so, years of age.  And in 2010 they invested in a new piece of 'equipment,' an Auxois horse for plowing the vineyards!  

The grapes are hand-harvested, as you might expect and the juice is fermented in 60 gallon French oak barrels.  Indigenous yeast fermentations and Lahaye picks selectively to avoid having to chaptalise (add sugar) the juice. Once fermented, he likes to leave the wine in wood for something like ten months, leaving it on the spent yeast before finally assembling a base wine for his several bottlings.  The wines typically undergo a malolactic fermentation, as well.  

We currently have a stellar Rose Champagne called "Rose de Maceration."  This is made entirely of Pinot Noir and its name suggests, it's made by giving the juice something like 24 hours of skin contact, not by blending a bit of red wine into a white cuvee.  The color is bright cherry red and the fragrance is magnificent, showing nice Pinot (cherry and berry) fruit.  Lahaye says the fruit for this comes from the outskirts of Bouzy.
"It doesn't make especially good red wine, though, but it makes a really good rose." notes Lahaye.  "The vines are about 40 years old, too.  I like the spic notes this wine has."

The wine is crisp and dry and Lahaye skillfully avoids picking up too much tannin during the skin contact (which would make for a bitter 'attack' on the palate).   The dosage seems to be quite low as this is seriously dry and seriously good. He explained it's critical to get the dosage just right so it perfectly balances the wine. "Too little and the wine is bitter.  Too much and it's just not right.  I usually have two or three grams per liter...that seems to be perfect."

The wines from this domaine are on the radar of many Champagne-savvy sommeliers and consumers, so with less than 5 hectares of vineyards, the Lahaye bubblies are hard to find.

Currently in stock:  BENOIT LAHAYE "Rose de Maceration"  Sold Out

Lahaye is a biodynamic producer and has not only a horse, but a couple of donkeys.
That's why, in fact, they had a shed full of hay as feed for the animals.

Biodynamics...here's a little pot which will be used to make some sort of natural spray for the vines.

DELAMOTTE

The Delamotte brand is one unfamiliar to most Champagne drinkers.  Yet it's a thought by many people to be a large house, as it's owned by Laurent Perrier.

However, it's not even in the "Top 15" in terms of production figures and the winery is run with an eye towards quality, not quantity.

Founded in 1760, or so the story goes, this was owned by the Lanson family from 1830 until nearly a hundred years later when it became the possession of a Lanson family member who was married to a de Nonancourt (which is the family that owns Laurent Perrier).  In 1988 the brand came under the L-P umbrella, along with another famed marque, that of Champagne Salon.

Now Salon is a curious product in that it is produced maybe three or four times in a decade.  Maybe.  It's entirely Chardonnay and since its inaugural commercially-produced vintage of 1921, there have been less than 40 vintages to see the light of day.   Delamotte is manager by the same fellow, Didier Depond.  

In vintages that are not "declared" for Salon, the fruit from those hallowed vineyards is typically incorporated into Delamotte.  

Being situated in the village of Le Mesnil, Chardonnay then, of course, is the foundation of the house.  They own but perhaps 5 hectares of their own vineyards.  A friend of ours who's in the Champagne business, confided that she was a bit shocked at how demanding the manager is in terms of quality.  Little viticultural details, we were told, are of utmost importance at Delamotte.

Salon 2004
Delamotte 2007 Blanc de Blancs
Non-Vintage Blanc de Blancs
Brut Rose
Non-vintage Brut

In tasting through the line-up, all the wines were showing well. 

The non-vintage is predominantly Chardonnay with 35% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier.
It shows a really good "Champagne" nose with a mildly toasty note.  It's rather dry, too...just 7 grams of sugar in the final wine.
We carry this in half bottle and magnum format typically.

We are also enamored with the 2007 Delamotte Blanc de Blancs. 
It comes from vineyards in Le Mesnil, Cramant, Oger and Avize according to the winery crew (yet it's not labeled as a Grand Cru wine).

No matter, the wine is grand cru caliber!

With 6 or 7 years of aging on the spent yeast, this has taken on a beautifully toasty character to add complexity to the pear-like Chardonnay fruit.  It's nicely complex and seems to have a low dosage, so it's rather dry on the palate.
I marked it as a two star+ quality wine when tasting the range of wines and it's close in quality, frankly, to the 2004 Salon we tasted in the same flight.

Currently in stock:  2007 DELAMOTTE BLANC DE BLANCS  $99.99

CHAMPAGNE ROGER BRUN

This is a marvelous little domaine, family owned & operated.  The family traces its origins back into the 1700s and today the winery is managed by Philippe Brun.

In addition to their own 11 hectares, or so, of vineyards (mostly in and around Ay), Brun does some processing of grapes for other large brands, so he has a pretty good look at the fruit from each and every vintage coming from various growers.

They make a couple of particularly good Champagnes.  

We've been enchanted with their "Grand Cru" Brut which is dominated by Pinot Noir with something like 20% Chardonnay.  The wine has had a bit of time "on the cork," having been disgorged, we believe, more than a year ago.  It's marvelously toasty and quite dry.  It's a medium to medium-full bodied Champagne.

Their special bottle, "La Pelle," is presently unavailable and we are hoping the little import company that brings us these wines will have a new shipment in the not-too-distant future.

 

Currently in stock:  ROGER BRUN "Grand Cru" BRUT CHAMPAGNE   $65.99

 

It's always time for Champagne Roger Brun!

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