Grower Champagne is one of the most dynamic categories of wine, and one we at Radford Dale Imports have been keen to explore. Whilst the large Champagne houses source vineyards all over the region, these artisan producers work with their own vineyards in producing bubbly, placing an emphasis on terroir and sustainability.
Simply put, this is the cool Champagne. The insiders track.
It can be an advantageous approach. Producing your own wines, in place of selling your grapes to a house for use in a generic regional blend. Particularly, if like Champagne Vazart-Coquart, you are based in one of the 17 Grand Cru classified villages.
Good Grower Champagne houses will be more attentive to their vineyards (often organic or biodynamic farming employed) and in their winemaking. Producing limited volumes of more individual and higher quality wine.
CHAMPAGNE VAZART-COQUART
In March, we welcomed our first intake of Champagne Vazart-Coquart. They were introduced to Radford Dale Imports under the recommendation and guidance of South African Cap Classique icon and Champagne encyclopaedia, Pieter Ferreira.
Long time growers in Champagne, the Vazart-Coquart family made the switch to producing their own wines in the 1950s. They are based in the village of Chouilly within the ‘Grand Cru de la Côte des Blancs’ classification. The estate is under third generation management of Jean-Pierre Vazart and are a pioneer of the ‘Haute Valeur Environnementale’ program (HVE), achieving certification in 2012. They have since transitioned to full organic certification.
The estate produces single-cru Champagnes from 11ha of vineyards, spread over 30 plots and planted predominantly to Chardonnay, which thrives on the chalky soils of Chouilly.
There are six Champagne’s to our portfolio from Vazart-Coquart, each unique and representative of this most innovative estate. Among the line-up are several rare estate Champagnes, including the Extra Brut Grand Bouquet Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 2016, a parcel selection of the top vineyards of the Chouilly vineyard, disgorged following six years maturation.
The Special Club Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 2016 denotes the highest tier of classification that Grower Champagne can achieve, following rigorous stages of selection and the green light from members of the Special Club in declaring the vintage. If so, the wine is only then voted as worthy following two blind panel tastings – as a still wine and following secondary fermentation and 3 years of bottle ageing. It is a broad, intense and compelling wine, without being weighty.
The Extra Brut 82/15 Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru is similarly daunting, a blend of reserve wine vintages from 1982 to 2015, employing the use of a solera system established by Jean-Pierre’s father in 1982. It’s a tense, expressive Champagne, with bags of minerality and elegance. Wholly unique.
CHAMPAGNE PIERRE GERBAIS
Pierre Gerbais is a Grower Champagne based on the endroit (‘right side’) of the Aube river, where the vineyard slopes face south. The domaine is under management of eighth generation grower and fourth generation winemaker, young-gun Aurélien Gerbais. Aurélien is an assured and innovative vigneron who employs a Burgundy ethos (he studied in Beaune rather than Avize) in identifying and vinifying individual vineyard parcels, planting to high density, often maturing the base wine in oak barrels, and practicing low intervention (eschewing the use of chemicals). The resulting wines are a beguiling, pure and restrained expression of Champagne.
Geographically, the vineyards are closer to Burgundy than central Champagne, predominantly on Kimmeridgian soils of fossil-rich marl, clay and limestone. A contract to the chalky soils associated with the region.
Pierre Gerbais are renown for their inclusion of Pinot Blanc in their wines, holding the largest vineyard area of the varietal in Champagne, and the oldest plantings. As a result, the Cuvee Champagne Reserve NV and Grains de Celles Extra Brut NV (from vineyards of 40+ years) mirror the domaine vineyard plantings, composed of 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Blanc.
In the latest intake, just three bottles are available of the limited lieu-dit (named vineyard) Les Grandes Cotes Extra Brut NV, a straight Pinot Noir from a perpetual blend of 2011 to 2018. The wine is representative of Aurélien’s ambitious evolution of the range, in highlighting individual terroirs. It’s a thought-provoking study years in the making and fast achieving worldwide acclaim, which will see the wines increasingly difficult to acquire.
Cheers!
