Beaufort and Friends! Organic and Biodynamic Champagnes to welcome the Fall
Beaufort and Friends! Organic and Biodynamic Champagnes to welcome the Fall
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.
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Réol Beaufort will be visiting NY in November - look out for tastings with him at Raw Wine (unconfirmed), Chambers Street Wines, Skin Contact Wine Bar and a dinner at Chambers with Pascaline Lepeltier.
Dates will be confirmed soon, so stay tuned!
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Champagne André Beaufort
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
Beaufort, André NV Champagne Polisy Brut Nature (B22)
The André Beaufort NV Champagne Polisy Brut Nature is 75% Pinot Noir from the 2022 vintage and 25% Chardonnay from 2018 - "it's showing well now" says Réol Beaufort "as the Chardonnay rounds out the young Pinot Noir." Organic farming...
$54.99
Beaufort, André 2016 Brut Reserve Nature (1er Cru Hautvillers)
A unique and beautiful wine, meant for the cellar as John McIlwain said back in 2021: "This extraordinary special cuvee of 2016 “Reserve” Brut is from Beaufort vines in the 1er Cru village of Hautvillers located in La Grande Vallée...
$119.99
Beaufort, André 2014 Polisy Blanc de Blanc Brut Nature
The 2014 Blanc de Blanc was disgorged in January 2024 - it's a stunning Blanc de Blancs from the Aube, showcasing all of the minerality inherent in it's Kimmeridgian soils. The cooler 2014 vintage, like the 2013, imbues it with...
$89.99
Beaufort, Elodie 2018 Vin Mousseux (Cremant de Bourgogne) L'Or de Vix Extra Brut
The 2018 Elodie Beaufort Crémant is made by Réol Beaufort of Champagne André Beaufort and his wife Elodie from vines about 1/4 mile from the Champagne zone (Aube) on kimmeridjian and oxfordian limestone. 100% Pinot Noir. Zero SO2 is added...
$38.99
Beaufort, Elodie 2018 Vin Mousseux (Cremant Bourg) L'Or de Vix Extra Brut Rosé
The 2018 Elodie Beaufort Extra Brut Rosé is made by Réol Beaufort of Champagne André Beaufort and his wife Elodie from vines about 1/4 mile from the Champagne zone (Aube) on kimmeridjian and oxfordian limestone. 100% Pinot Noir, rosé de...
$38.99
Bénard, Laurent NV Champagne La Clé des Sept Arpents 1er Cru Extra Brut
Laurent and Michelle Bénard farm just under 3 hectares in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, a small commune in the Marne. They utilize Biodynamic principles, have been farming organically for decades and have been certified organic since 2012. La Clé de Sept Arpent is...
$54.99
Ruppert-Leroy NV Champagne Brut Nature 'Puzzle'
Ruppert-Leroy is an estate that sold to the local cooperative from the 1980s until 2009, when Emmanuel and Bénédicte first began to make single vineyard, single terroir, single vintage wines, always bottled Brut Nature (no dosage). Many years later, the...
$99.99
Ruppert-Leroy NV Champagne Brut Nature 11,12,13...
Emmanuel Leroy and Bénédicte Ruppert are guiding a second generation field of dreams estate in the southern Champagne village of Essoyes, seven kilometers from the Burgundian border. Ruppert-Leroy is an estate that sold to the local cooperative from the 1980s...
$99.99
Nowack, Flavien Champagne 'La Tuilerie' Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut (2019)
100% Chardonnay from a southwest facing parcel comprised of sandy limestone soils in Vandières on the right bank of the Marne. Farmed biodynamically. Fermented with native yeasts, aged in a combination of vat and small barrel, secondary fermentation is under...
$96.99
Nowack, Flavien Champagne 'Arpent Rouge' Extra Brut (2020)
Perhaps the most distinctive in a lineup of compelling Champagnes, Arpent Rouge is a single parcel wine comprised of Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, grown in clay-sandstone soils toward the bottom of the slope in Vandières. The grapes are farmed organically,...
$107.99
Nowack, Flavien Champagne 'Les Bauchets' Blanc de Pinot Noir Extra Brut (2019)
100% Pinot Noir planted in 1983 from a southeast-facing plot comprised of sandy soils in Vandières on the right (north) bank of the Marnes. The vin clair is fermented with native yeast in vat and barrel without undergoing malolactic, the...
$96.99
