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.  

There are some gyro-palettes in the cellar.

Here's Michel rotating the box and "riddling" the bottles.

Here's a photo of Michel opening a bottle of Champagne that's not yet been disgorged...

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. 

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

Currently in stock:  RUELLE PERTOIS Blanc de Blanc Premier Cru  SALE  $33.99

CLICK HERE TO SEE A HOME-COOKED CHAMPENOISE LUNCH Chez Ruelle-Pertois

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 BRUT TRADITION  $39.99

ANDRE CLOUET

The village and vineyards of Bouzy are well known to serious wine drinkers, as this Grand Cru site in Champagne has a great reputation for its Pinot Noir.

It's a locale which, in general, receives the morning sun and some growers and winemakers assert this is the key to the sparkling and red table wine from Bouzy.

Limestone soils here produce Pinot Noir which, made as a still wine, once rivaled good Burgundy.  King Louis XIV, Le Roi Soleil, is said to have enjoyed the red wine of Bouzy and, in fact, it was served at his coronation.

Well, the Clouet family makes good Bouzy Champagne and the wine tastes of the "fullness" of bubblies from this town's vineyards.  The Clouet vineyards are, we're told, neighboring a parcel of prized vineyards owned by Bollinger.  Aside from their vineyards being hand-harvested, we understand they still "riddle" the bottles by hand, a practice that's becoming increasingly rare.

The winery is run by Jean-Francois Clouet.  He grew up in Champagne and many of his school-mates were from families affiliated with larger, more famous Champagne firms.  Clouet was viewed as an odd duck, coming from a "farming" family.  But this "hillbilly" learned his craft well and today he makes Champagne of fine quality.  

Clouet's Champagne is also quite dry, as he's not a big fan of adding much in the way of a sweetening dosage to his Champagnes.  This notion stems from his desire to showcase the character of "Bouzy" in his bubbly.

We have their Grande Reserve, a non-vintage dated Brut.  It's moderately yeasty and mildly toasty and rather full on the palate.  If you're interested in experiencing two different "terroirs," then pick up a bottle of this and one of the Pierre Moncuit, which is Chardonnay-based.  Totally different wines.  And both are quite good.

 

Currently in stock:  ANDRE CLOUET "Grande Reserve" BRUT $46.99

DOSNON & LEPAGE

This is a new firm that's a partnership between Simon-Charles Lepage and Davy Dosnon.

These fellows are natives of the Champagne "outback" known as the Aube region.  

Dosnon is the wine guy, having worked at a couple of Champagne firms (Serge Mathieu and Moutarde) as well as at a domaine in Burgundy (Rossignol-Trapet).  Lepage left Champagne to study criminal law in Paris before returning to the scene of his crime:  Dosnon & Lepage.

They have a couple of hectares of vineyards in the "La Cotes des Bar" and they buy fruit from another 5 hectares' worth of vineyards in the region.  This is an area viewed by some as inferior to that of the Champagne hills between the towns of Reims and Epernay.  The region was excluded in 1911, for example, from being a part of the "Champagne" region.  It was re-instated in 1927.
The area has a terroir that's quite different from that of the main part of Champagne.  Whereas the 'classic' area of Champagne has chalky soils, the Cotes des Bar soils are more akin to those of Chablis:  Kimmeridgian, which is a mix of clay and chalk.  The wines produced from this terroir tends to be a bit fuller in body.

And while many mainstream Champagne people speak disparagingly of the Aube region in general, most of the large firms buy fruit there to add body and reduce the average cost of their wines.

The vineyards for the Dosnon & Lepage Champagnes are cultivated with an attention to detail.  They farm in a responsible and environmentally savvy manner.  Further, they've borrowed the best viticultural training and pruning methods from their neighbors to the north.  No chemicals in the vineyard...short pruning to minimize yields and maximize fruit quality.

In the cellar, they use barrels from Burgundy for vinifying the base wines.  They buy seasoned cooperage from the Cote de Beaune.  The best fruit is vinified in wood, while lighter lots see stainless steel.  

Recolte Brute is a Pinot Noir/Chardonnay blend.  Recolte Noire is made entirely of Pinot Noir.  Their Rose is made entirely of Pinot Noir, while the Recolte Blanche is produced from Chardonnay.  A Grande Cuvee Alliance is, as you might expect, half Pinot Noir and half Chardonnay.

We have their Recolte Noire in the shop presently.  Ellen enjoyed a bottle on New Year's and commented "Hey, a Champagne that tastes like Champagne."  
I found this to be a bit minerally and stony on the nose and palate...and it's dry.  We enjoyed a bottle with some fresh Dungeness crab...nice!

 

Currently in stock:  DOSNON & LEPAGE "Recolte Noire"  $49.99 

 

 

 

EGLY-OURIET

This label is now well-known to virtually all Champagne "geeks," but it's a brand the average bear has not heard of.

Francis Egly and his father Michel run the domain.  They have 12 hectares of vineyards, ten in red grapes and two in Chardonnay.  Most of the reds are in Grand Cru sites.  The winery is in Ambonnay and most of their holdings are close to the cellar, but they have a small parcel in Bouzy and a modest-sized patch in Verzenay.  There's also an old vineyard of Pinot Meunier in the village of Vrigny.

The vineyards are cultivated in an environmentally-friendly manner and they tend to have rather low yields, much less than most.  The juice is fermented in oak barrels and they're not fans of fining or filtering to clarify the wine...low sulphur levels in the wines, as well.  And their Champagnes are kept on the lees for longer than normal, so you'll find a nice intensity to their bubbly.

The house is viewed as one of the elite Champagne producers.  We've long been fans and recall when these were attractively priced and viewed as good values.   Today you'll pay a premium for them and the quality remains high.

We have their Brut Tradition which comes from Grand Cru sites and it's so noted on the label.  The dosage is fairly low, so the wine is quite dry and you'll taste the rather "full" impact of their grand cru terroir.  

 

Currently in stock:  EGLY-OURIET BRUT TRADITION "Grand Cru" CHAMPAGNE  $64.99

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, 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.

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.  

 

Currently in stock:  VILMART "GRANDE CELLIER" Non Vintage Brut  SALE $64.99

 

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    Last modified: May 13,  2012