Emmanuel Brochet Champagne
If you don’t already know Emmanuel Brochet Champagne, I am delighted to introduce you. I’ll confess though, I’m not exactly ahead of the curve here. His Champagnes are already hyped (deservedly so) and difficult to get. Add to that, his production is extremely TINY!
So today, I am pleased and honored to be able to offer a selection of three of his wines. Again….they are extremely limited. But as we ramp up our Champagne offerings, I will continue to search and buy them at every opportunity. These are really something special and worth your attention.
Please stay tuned for Brochet’s story as well. He is a big contributor to the emergence of Champagne’s grower-producer category and its ever changing landscape. It’s producers like Emmanuel Brochet that have pushed everyone in the region to strive for something better.
-STORY-
In 1997, as the négociant leases expired on the family’s single vineyard lieu-dit “Le Mont Benoit” Emmanuel Brochet began cultivating vines. This single, 2.5 hectares vineyard in the village of Villers-Aux-Noeuds, in the Montagne de Reims, is planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It’s situated on a slope divided in two parts: on the upper level the oldest vines planted in 1962 and on the lower level the youngest planted in 1984.
Two-hundred years earlier, the village benefitted from its close proximity to Reims, and had over 200 hectares of vineyards planted, most of which disappeared after phylloxera. Today there are just 25 hectares of vines in the village, planted in the best locations on well exposed slopes.
Brochet has kept Villers-Aux-Noeuds from being a forgotten village. From his single plot, he is producing some of the most compelling Champagne on the market today. He began farming without chemicals from the very beginning. His goal was to find balance in the plant without stressing it. "The way I came to organic farming was not through any sort of militant philosophy, but through the pleasure of wine", he says. "If you take pleasure in what you do, and if your environment gives you pleasure, your work will be better. It’s a question of harmony." He believes that it has improved the overall quality of his wines. "I find more minerality in them and a richer expression. The wines are more complex, with more aroma, and extra length on the palate."
In 2006 he acquired a 2000-kilogram vertical press, half the size of a standard traditional press, which allows him to separate as many different lots as possible according to variety, vine age and location within the vineyard. Only the first press is used for his wines (coeur de cuvee). The rest of the juice is either sold off to Negoc or used to make ratafia, the fortified sweet wine.
The Brochet style is one of precision and purity leading with a strong mineral component that is beautifully balanced with a ripeness and texture. These are artisanal champagnes in every sense of the word.
