Beaufort and Friends! Organic and Biodynamic Champagnes to Welcome the Fall
9/21/2024
Back in August, we featured a new selection of the extraordinary organic Champagnes of André Beaufort, with vintages dating back to 2002! This small shipment featured many of the vintages we have recently enjoyed, but with the essential difference that most wines in this offer were Brut Nature, recently disgorged. Certainly among the most natural and terroir-expressive wines of Champagne, it was exciting to offer them with zero dosage!
We held back a portion of this shipment to make sure that we would have wine available for the holidays, but happily another allocation from the Beauforts is now heading for NY, enabling us to sell our "reserve wines" with more to offer later this fall, including vintages from 1999 to 2021!
In addition to the bottles from our Beaufort stash, we're including some of our favorite organic and Biodynamic Champagnes from Laurent & Michelle Bénard (Champagne Laurent Bénard), Bénédicte Ruppert & Emmanuel Leroy (Ruppert-Leroy), and Flavien Nowack. Many of these Champagnes have just arrived and with their layers of texture and complexity, are a perfect way to welcome the Fall season. Don't hesitate to open and enjoy them with an Autumnal meal - these are exceptional food wines besides being delicious Champagnes in their own right.
The Beauforts produce Champagnes both in Ambonnay (Grand Cru) and in Polisy, with normally a blend of about 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. These are broad, full-bodied wines that benefit from extended sur-lie aging. "We keep our wines sur-lie as long as possible before release, so one can taste a Champagne of ten years of age with mature aromas, having conserved some traits of youth - thus, disgorgement is always recent." (Lot number and disgorgement date are always included on the back-label) -DL
Champagne Laurent Bénard
Text courtesy of Avant-Garde Selections: "Laurent & Michelle Bénard are based in Mareuil-Sur-Ay in the Valley of the Marne. They represent the fourth generation at the estate. After a sickness due to contact with chemicals [that were used in the conventional farming of their vineyards], Laurent along with his wife Michelle decided in the mid 2000's to start a new label called Champagne Laurent Bénard. The new winery would focus on farming organically, craft only vintage designated and no added sulfite wines. They started with 2.5ha out of the 8ha they owned. The soil is predominately chalky. The vines are on average 25 years old and planted with Pinot Meunier, then Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Laurent is a well known researcher in the microcosm of wine, he has done extensive studies about yeasts at the C.N.R.S. (National Scientific Research Center). Typically their first fermentation is carried out with wild yeasts in oak and malolactic fermentation takes place. The wine is bottled 10 months later and the second fermentation is done with in-house cultured yeasts from Laurent’s vineyards. The wines age on the lees for a period of 3 years minimum. Depending on the vintage, the cuvées and the balance, Laurent decides of his dosage. Each wine is different but never goes above Extra-Brut level. The blend of Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir shines in this Mareuil-Sur-Ay chalky terroir. The wines of Laurent and Michelle are with definite personality, ripe flavors leaning on the oxidative sides, firm and persistent texture, saline finishes. Since 2020, Charles, their son, has joined the team and gradually taken charge of the Biodynamic farming and the winemaking."
Champagne Ruppert-Leroy
While today we tend to think of most wines in terms of fruit or mineral descriptors, some transcend those notes with profoundly savory character. Ruppert-Leroy's wines inhabit this space with loads of minerality, pure fruit, and a rich sapid character which makes them naturals for the table. A visit to the vines with Emmanuel Leroy of Ruppert-Leroy in Essoyes in the Côt des Bar is an illuminating experience. There’s a world of difference between the Aube and the Vallée de la Marne. Not only are the soils different, (Kimmeridgean limestone vs. chalk), but the undulating landscape itself is wilder and less manicured. Often the vineyards abut forests rather than villages. According to Emmanuel, this is especially desirable to Biodynamic growers seeking to encourage biodiversity. Between the vines is a riot of vegetation and flowers, as Ruppert-Leroy has 30 different plants and flowers sown in the vineyard. One such vineyard is the Les Cognaux whose grey marl soils are planted to Pinot Noir and when we visited in Spring many years ago were aglow with yellow flowers (these flowers are made into a tisane by Emmanuel and Bénédicte to treat the vines for mildew). Such is the commitment to biodynamic viticulture that they sell the grapes from the first three rows of each parcel that neighbor conventional growers rather than blend potentially sprayed grapes with their untreated fruit. The wildness of the countryside is reflected in the wines which are energetic, exuberant, and vibrantly mineral. The wines are almost always vinified and bottled without SO2. -John McIlwain
Champagne Nowack
Located in Vandières with vines Châtillon-sur-Marne, Champagne Nowack has roots dating back to 1795 (per Peter Liem’s indispensable ChampagneGuide.Net). The family began grape farming in 1850. Flavien started making his own Champagnes under Domaine Nowack while converting the vineyards to organic viticulture and bottling individual parcels. His primary fermentations are with native yeasts, in vat and barrel without chaptalization. The secondary fermentation (prise de mousse) is with grape must rather than selected yeasts and liqueur, and the parcellaires are aged under cork, rather than crown cap. Extended lees-aging results in an ultra-fine bead and lithe palate. And in a shocking twist, in his sulfur-free bottling Les Arpents Rouge, the vin clair is not topped off and allowed to develop a voile or flor much like the oxidative whites from the Jura. The resulting Champagne is a fascinating, savory wine with great umami character to accompany the red fruit and citrus oil flavor profile. It’s been a great pleasure enjoying Flavien’s growth and we are delighted to feature his wines! -John McIlwain
