Éclats de Meulière Extra Brut V19/18 NV

Thanks to the Champagne winegrowers, more and more of whom are setting out to define their own style and highlight the special features of their local sites, it is still possible to discover corners of Champagne that you had never heard of before. One of them is the Vallée du Petit Morin with the village of Talus Saint Prix, which has one hundred inhabitants. The village has just 39 hectares. It is more or less in the middle of nowhere, southwest of the Côte des Blancs and north of the Côte de Sézanne. One would expect a similar amount of chalk there as in the neighboring regions, but in fact the soil seems more like a mix of chalk and marl and thus a mixture of Côte des Blancs and Vallée de la Marne. Added to this is an icing on the cake that is hard to find anywhere else in Champagne high proportions of flint. This peculiarity of the soils has led the winegrowers in Talus Saint Prix to plant more than 70 % of their soils with Pinot Meunier.

Cyril Jeaunaux, whose grandparents started growing grapes in the 1950s, is one of these vintners. In 1999, he himself joined the parental business together with his wife Clemence and directly joined the association of independent vintners. In the course of the following years, he fundamentally questioned the traditional work in the vineyard as well as in the cellar and changed it in a planned way. Thus, in 2002, he acquired a second classic Coquard press and started to age the base wines in used wood in addition to stainless steel. Cyril quickly recognized the value of intensive work in the vineyard and removed all chemical agents from the winery in 2005. Not least due to the intensive exchange within the "Terres et Vins de Champagne" vintners' group, which he joined in 2009, he started to deal with biodynamic methods. Since 2010, he has been using corresponding preparations, and in 2015, he started the official conversion to organic viticulture.

Cyril's champagnes are fruit-driven thanks to the Meunier, but always reflect the specificity of the place and its soils. This is also noticeable in the single-varietal Chardonnay. With their spicy and round character, which always oscillates between fruit and refreshing bitterness, his champagnes are very gastronomy-friendly and gain even more by accompanying dishes.

60 % Meunier, 30 % Pinot Noir and 10 % Chardonnay from vines that are around 40 years old. Clay and chalk are found in the soil. The champagne is based 80 % on the 2013 vintage and 20 % on the 2012 vintage. The wine was aged in stainless steel and wood for 3.5 years. sur lattesand the dosage is 5.5 grams.

There is a layer of rock in the Champagne region that belongs to the Cretaceous, is rather marl-like in appearance, but contains banks of hard limestone from time to time. This was often used for building houses, as stone slabs or as millstones. That is why it is often simply called "millstone" or "pierres meuliéres". This is also the reason why the champagne is called "Éclats de meulière".

light yellow with light amber reflections and lively mousseux

The Éclats de Meulière - that one millstone - shows the signature of the house in a very nice way. It opens with bright stone fruit, in which some lemon wedges mix, dried fruits and some biscuit. The champagne comes across as lively and fruit-driven. Yes, one already thinks to recognize the fruit of the Meunier.

On the palate, one can hardly believe that the wine is designated as Extra Brut, so beautifully round and flattering it is. But Cyril Jeaunaux has used the dosage skilfully. The wine shows itself balanced and pure with creamy, dense and almost fleshy fruit, which is countered by fine acidity and mineral-limestone vitality. The champagne shows besides the fruit finesse, paired with a certain elegance and a down-to-earth grounding in the artisanal Champagne, which thus stands out quite clearly from the style of the well-known brands.