New Releases from Vincent Laval.
(Vincent in the Vines.)
It might seem counterintuitive, but there’s a school of thought amongst some wine lovers that very fine Champagne represents good value in comparison to equivalent wine from other prestigious regions. Yes behemoth Champagne négociants drive up the prices of their luxury brands, but Champagne is also costly to produce, requiring extensive labor and long periods of sur lie aging. While the wines of Domaine Georges Laval in Cumières are, by most folks’ standards, expensive, we’d like to assert that they are good values, that you should buy them with gusto, and mention them in the same breath as your favorite Grand and 1er Cru Burgundies. In terms of vineyard land (2.5 hectares) and total bottle production, Laval is as tiny as they come in Champagne, often producing less than 10,000 bottles per year. The Lavals have been farming organically since the early ‘70s, when Georges Laval began to trade parcels with his neighbors to create contiguity in the vineyards – necessary for a vigneron who works organically in a region where heavy chemical use is standard practice. Today the Domaine is in the hands of Georges’ son Vincent Laval, who does the vineyard and cellar work essentially single-handedly.
A recent dinner at which we tasted (read: drank) all the Laval Champagne we could get our hands on confirmed for us that these Champagnes are truly special. Due to long-time organic vineyard work, the base material is of incredible quality, and the result is an impressive sense of terroir and minerality that brings Burgundy to mind. Cumières in the southern Montagne de Reims is a warm microclimate and Laval’s wines are typically harvested very ripe. First fermentations take place with native yeast, and the vins clairs are aged in barrel. Often there’s a lightly oxidative base note to the aromas and flavors that makes these wines sensations at the table, particularly when paired with rich, savory food. For the most part, Laval releases his wines without dosage, and they feel just right this way, as though sugar would be an odd supplement. Barrel aging, warm sites, and organic vineyard work help these wines carry their dryness with grace and aplomb.
2010 base Cumières showed very well at our dinner. It’s more delicate, crisp, chalky, and laser-like than the two previous releases, and makes a beautiful accompaniment to oysters. Today we are also thrilled to offer the exceedingly rare single vineyard wines from Laval: “Les Chênes” – Chardonnay from a warm, extremely chalky, mid-slope site, and “Les Hautes-Chèvres” – Pinot Noir and Meunier grown on dark, clay soil with chalk further from the surface. Always stunning, we are especially excited about these wines in the 2008 vintage, one of the best and most age-worthy vintages in recent memory for Champagne. In composing this offer, we observe that sometimes the wines closest to our hearts are the hardest to write about. These wines are extremely rare and they don’t come cheap, but we truly believe they are worth every penny. Santé! -Sophie
