2013 Dhondt-Grellet "Les Nogers" Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru, Extra Brut, Champagne, France

ABOUT THIS WINE

Starting with the 2012, Adrien started to bottle the wine under the name of the lieu dit - "Les Nogers". Adrien’s parcel in Les Nogers is of old vines, now over 50 years old. It is a particularly interesting lieu dit because it is a continuation on the same hill as Le Bateau (Cramant) but in the village of Cuis. His parcel begins with sandy-clay, becoming chalkier as you ascend the slope.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

In 1986, Eric Dhondt and Edith Grellet decided to stop selling off grapes to negociants and started Dhondt-Grellet. Their focus on farming translated into honest Champagnes from great holdings across the Côte des Blancs. Their son, Adrien, now in his 20s, has taken over the winemaking and is quickly bringing his family's wines to another level. He has slowly increased the range of Champagnes produced by isolating their holdings across the villages of Cramant and Cuis and bottling pure expressions of Chardonnay. 

The Dhondt family have worked with a perpetual reserve since they began estate bottling in 1986. After drawing off 30% of his reserves for the new year’s tirage, Adrien replenishes the loss with wine kept back from the new vintage and racks the resulting blend to barrel—accompanied by the fresh lees of the latest vintage—in May. Come harvest time, when empty barrels are needed, the perpetual reserve is returned to tank. Each year, the process is repeated, ensuring the domaine’s barrels are never empty. 

Adrien uses organic & biodynamic practices but he is not seeking certification, preferring to work in the spirit of what he calls “peasant viticulture,” using no synthetic products, no herbicides or insecticides, enriching his soils with homemade compost and, as of Spring 2021, plowing each plot with his horse, Thor. His philosophy is to have a living soil with a healthy balance between microbial life and the vine. In the vines, there’s a lot of manual work: he prunes short and debuds severely to limit yields and produce ripe, concentrated fruit at harvest time. He often cites inspiration from great Burgundy estates by practicing plot selection.