Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book: Champagne grower to look out for in 2017 (& 18, 2019 and 2020!): Nicolas Maillart. Rising star Nicolas Maillart is technically a nègociant (NM) house not a grower, but buys only grapes from his family, and cultivates all the domaine himself. Experienced in Oregon, S Africa and Burgundy, Nicolas is quietly buzzing with creativity, coaxing the best grapes and wine. Replanting is massal selection, selected cuttings from the estate, not bought-in clones. Quite a far flung domaine, 18.5ha in total, based in Ecueil but in Bouzy and Villers-Allerand too. An emphasis on sustainability and certified HVE (Haute Valeur Environnementale). Clever winemaking with stainless steel and oak and control of malolactic. Barrels come from the Bize-Leroy Domaine d Auveney in Burgundy. Production about 150,000 bottles and no fruit sold to houses. Founding member of the Artisans de Champagne group. We are delighted to be showing two new single vineyard releases: a 100% Meunier 2015 and a new wine from Bouzy.
Suggested Producers
Champagne André Robert
This Le Mesnil-based C tes des Blancs family domaine is undergoing an energetic transition led by Claire Robert who has taken over direction and has now persuaded her husband Jean-Baptiste to join her (and stop commuting to Paris!) as her father Bertrand has retired. Some 14ha are owned, much spread as far apart as the […]
Champagne Marie Courtin
At long last after visits and discussion over time forming a friendship, we have been granted a precious allocation of this internationally-coveted micro producer in the Aube. Dominique Moreau cultivates just a 2,5ha contiguous parcel of lieu-dit ‘Tremble’ in the village of Polisot, in the southern Aube, near Les Riceys. The estate is named after […]
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 […]