Montagne de Reims

I've just been on a trip to Champagne, staying with my good friend Clémence Lelarge of Champagne Lelarge-Pugeot, based in the small Montagne de Reims Premier Cru of Vrigny. I mention Clémence because it's yet another example of how small the wine world is: she lives in the same California town as me, Petaluma, where she sells her family's wines. Also, a trip to any wine region is advanced if you have insider contacts, so I got to know quite a bit more about Montagne de Reims.

first impressions

Champagne's wine-producing villages are small and remote (Vrigny has a population of 252, with a newly renovated church which receives Mass once a month). The villages are condensed into small-ish regions which on their own are easy to get around (if you have a car), but going from one region to another takes some time: if Côte des Blancs is fifty minutes from Montagne de Reims, then Côte des Bars is two hours. Champagne takes up a lot of area (34,500ha of plantings, plus plenty of other land), which shows that, even if it's just one appellation, there's a huge amount of variation in styles, soils, and wines.

The perception of Champagne as cold and wet is no myth. The last time I went to Champagne was in July 2017, and it rained the whole time we were there. This week, in the middle of April, there's been a lot of rain, sometimes torrential, with a hail-driven thunderstorm at one point. Winemakers are scampering around their vineyards to loosen the soil to prevent the rain from settling on the surface area and spraying to halt the development of mildew. As well as being cold and wet, it's also been extremely windy—but there have also been periods of beautiful sunshine. Champagne can have all types of weather conditions in just one day.

vines in Vrigny

Both Montagne de Reims and Côte des Blancs reminded me a little bit of Côte d'Or in Burgundy, with vineyards lower down and slopes rising up to the top of the hills which are covered with forests. However, the land in these two regions are far more undulating, a bit more like Côte Chalonnaise, with slopes rising up and down. Like Burgundy, aspect is important, but more for style than for quality. There are vineyards on north-facing slopes, on flatter, lower-elevation sites, and on slopes directly facing the sun. A big difference from Burgundy, of course, is that Champagne is almost always a blend of some sort (vineyard, village, variety, vintage) and producers have a lot of options to work with. Almost too many to comprehend: Gosset in Epernay work closely with 160 growers; they taste all the musts; eliminate those they don’t like, and blend the rest in batches; when we were visiting in April, the team were tasting all the finished wines to achieve the final blends, to be bottled in June. It’s quite the process.

montagne de reims

Reims is the major city of Champagne, bustling, rich, and beautiful at the northern tip of the region. South and south-west of Reims is Montagne de Reims, a series of hills which form something of a horseshoe around the city. These hills are not particularly high—350m—but they are significant, providing protection or exposure depending on the location of the vineyard. Some of the slopes are north-facing (below the dramatically-named Mont Sinai), unusual for such a cool region. They receive protection from the wind from the forests above them. Usually planted to Pinot Noir, these provide light, intense wines in contrast to Pinot Noir from elsewhere which can be quite powerful.

Montagne de Reims is a series of villages, divided into several sub-regions. The most important is La Grande Montagne, the centre of the region, where villages curve on softly undulating slopes in a south-easterly direction, the city of Reims often in sight. This is where ten (of Champagne’s 17) Grands Crus are located. The wines in the northern part are dominated more by Meunier, but as the region moves southwards Pinot Noir takes over, the style of wine moving from light elegance to more powerful, structured wines. There is also an unofficial, small subzone, La perle blanche, in the east-south-east part which, as the name suggests, can produce exceptional Chardonnay.

grands crus

Montagne de Reims leads out from Vallée de la Marne with a series of Premiers Crus, which lead into Grands Crus which produce intense, concentrated wines. In fact, so powerful are the wines of a more southerly village such as Bouzy that there is a tradition of producing still red wine, which is now often the base of rosé (by adding red wine to the base). Gosset pioneered rosé sparkling wine before it was fashionable probably because a major figure in its post-WWII history was Suzanne Gosset who was from Bouzy. Nearby Ambonnay also produces structured, long-lived wines. In the middle of this trajectory are the villages of Verzy and Verzenay, which marry everything great about Montagne de Reims.

It is of course worth remembering that Premier Cru villages can be every bit as good as Grand Cru and that there are non-classified villages which produce excellent wines. Climate change and better viticulture is slowly changing perceptions of these classifications; at the same time, there’s an historic reason for the Grand Cru status of these villages: consistent quality year to year over centuries.

pinot noir

The style of Pinot Noir changes a great deal. Firstly, how it’s used in a blend affects its influence. A Pinot Noir based blend can be richer and fruitier than one based on Chardonnay, which adds an elegant profile to any blend. Meunier complements the fruitiness of Pinot Noir, while adding fresh youthfulness.

Thinking about Pinot Noir in Champagne is different from other regions. Substitute lighter-bodied for weighty; change low tannins to no tannins; to cool climate add the richest wines in the region; the floral, red fruit aromas are subsumed into the long lees ageing and profile.

Soils also change the profile of Pinot Noir. On chalk-limestone soils—which is where Chardonnay is usually planted—the wines are delicate, elegant, and vibrant; on clay soils, the wines become heavier. On the western edge there are also sandy soils, though more for Meunier. Many vineyards have a mixture of soils, so it’s important for the grower/producer to understand exactly where the fruit is being grown.

Within Montagne de Reims, there are many different types of Pinot Noir being made on their own and/or added to blends. Yes, Champagne does terroir.

chardonnay

Although Montagne de Reims is mostly associated with Pinot Noir, it only accounts for 41% of production, with 34% Meunier (mainly to the west of the region towards Vallée de la Marne) and 25% Chardonnay. It’s planted in pockets across Montagne de Reims, in styles quite distinct from Côtes de Blancs further to the south—Lelarge-Pugeot even make a still skin-contact wine under the Coteaux Champenoise appellation. Visiting in April, Chardonnay was growing much earlier and quicker than both Pinot Noir and Meunier, which potentially makes spring frost an issue if it ever stops raining. The wines are a little richer and arguably a little less ageworthy, but there are some fabulous examples and it’s an important blending component.

meunier

Most of the Meunier is planted to the west towards Vallée de la Marne, though it remains an important blending component throughout Montagne de Reims. In general across Champagne, it’s a variety whose qualities are being reconsidered: early-budding and ripening, it has practical qualities but in the right hands it produces structured, ageworthy, but very approachable wines. Look for producers from Premier rather than Grand Cru.

some producers

Lelarge-Pugeot

I have to start with Lelarge-Pugeot, seeing as I stayed there! There is a whole range of wines made, including Coteaux Champenoise (the AOC for still wine). Based in Vrigny, this is where plantings of Meunier show a crossover with Vallée de la Marne, which begins to fade as the region moves further south. Lelarge-Pugeot's wines are typically dry to bone-dry, and are often aged for a substantial period of time before release. I tried the 2013 "Les Meuniers de Clémence"; despite its age, with mature mushroom, truffle aromas, it has a remarkable freshness and vibrancy. Tasting older champagne is a reminder that these are wines and not just methods of production. Likewise the 2015 Brut Nature, which is 50% Meunier, 25% Pinot Noir, and 25% Chardonnay, the piercing acidity softening with age. Rosé is also made; Saignée de Meunier is an example of producers experimenting with bleeding the juice for rosé rather than adding red wine (though that is still common practice).

Vilmart & Cie

foudres at Vilmart

One of my favourite producers, it was a privilege to get to visit. A sixth-generation family based in the Ruilly-la-Montagne Premier Cru, at the point where Pinot Noir begins to move from lean elegance to power and body. All their wines are fermented in old oak foudres; non-vintage base wines are also aged in foudres, while vintage base wines are aged in barriques, in all cases for ten months. These are not oxidative wines, however. All barrels are filled to the top, with a siphon on top to prevent oxygen ingress. But ageing the wines in barrels gives them a round, open mouthfeel and encourages long ageing in the bottle, even after release. The finished wines themselves can only be described as vinous, there is a leanness and elegance complemented by a lightly rich roundness, not dissimilar to a Grand Cru Chablis.

Other producers to try include Egly-Ouriet, J. Lassalle, and Aubry. The big houses also source from Montagne de Reims, especially for Pinot Noir and also Chardonnay.

Next up: Còte des Blancs for a further exploration of Champagne’s varied grape-growing regions.

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