Founded in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger on the C te des Blancs in 1958, this single estate RM moved to Vertus in 2004. Marie Doyard (founder member of the CIVC Maurice Doyard was her great grandfather) and brother Benoit then took over. Benoit and his father run the winemaking and viticulture and Marie is very much the public face. The estate is one of the largest for a grower 24ha, with over 200 parcels; 2ha in the Aisne, 2ha in the Aube, 4ha in Vertus and no fewer than 16ha in Le Mesnil, a huge holding for one domaine in this prestigious Grand Cru. Some 80% of production is exported. Vineyard work cultivates the soil and is as organic as possible. Two spanking Coquard PAI presses and over 200 barrels (nearly everything is barrel fermented) define the winemaking. MLF is routinely blocked on all cuvées. All the wines are Blanc de Blancs (except the rosé). A member of the Passion Chardonnay grouping.
Suggested Producers
Champagne Minière F&R
Miniere’s barrel-fermented champagnes are increasingly in connoisseur’s sights. Brothers Frédéric and Rodolphe Minière (hence F & R) only began to sell their champagnes in 2014 and made their own wine from only 3ha of their 8ha estate in Hermonville, north of Reims. The rest of the grapes were sold off but they are expanding each […]
Champagne Nathalie Falmet
Champagne Nathalie Falmet is based in Rouvres-les-Vignes on the eastern edge of Champagne s Aube. After a Paris XI degree in chemistry she qualified as an oenologue (wine scientist) in 1993 and runs her Bar-sur-Aube consulting laboratory she founded in 1994 before she took over the family estate. The estate is tiny (3.2ha, making some […]
Champagne Lacourte-Godbillon
Our fond and long-held partnership. We were the first to discover, advise them and import Geraldine and Richard’s wines into the UK from before 2014. They are now exported worldwide. Geraldine Lacourte and Richard Devignes took the bold step with a young family some years ago, to leave their local coop and become a proper […]