Our vineyards · Chervey
14 hectares in the Côte des Bar
The family has grown vines in the Côte des Bar since 1789. Today our 14 hectares lie around three villages, Chervey, Meurville and Buxeuil, in the south of Champagne, nearer to Chablis than to Reims.
Côte des Bar
Three villages
Chervey, Meurville, Buxeuil
Chervey is home, and it’s where Bicheret, our single-plot Pinot Noir, grows. In Buxeuil, a south-facing plot gives us Les Folies, our single-plot Chardonnay. On the plateau at Meurville is Val Moignot: Pinot Blanc and nothing else. Les Deux Vallées comes from plots in Chervey and Buxeuil, and Plaisir Champenois from the Arce valley at Chervey.
Soils
Kimmeridgian and Portlandian clay-limestone
Two soils, both clay-limestone and both from the Jurassic. Kimmeridgian, the same band of marl you find in Chablis, lies under Bicheret and Les Folies. The Portlandian is poorer, and on the plateau at Meurville it gives us Val Moignot. In the Côte des Bar, the Kimmeridgian marl, full of tiny fossil oysters, holds on to water and is known for rounder, fuller wines. The Portlandian is a harder limestone that drains fast, so the vines have less to drink, and it tends to give wines that are straighter and more taut.
Three grapes
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc
Pinot Blanc is finding its way back into Champagne, and in the Côte des Bar it has always had its place. A third of our vines are Pinot Blanc, alongside Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It’s in Les Deux Vallées and Plaisir Champenois every time, and on its own in Val Moignot.
Single plots
Each plot in its own bottle.
When a plot has its own character, we keep it apart. Bicheret, Les Folies and Val Moignot are each bottled on their own, under cork and agrafe, and rest 36 months on the lees.
- Bicheret · Chervey · Pinot Noir
- Les Folies · Buxeuil · Chardonnay
- Val Moignot · Meurville · Pinot Blanc
Côte des Bar
Farmed sustainably
Edouard looks after the vines. We plough in winter, prune Guyot in the first days of March, and farm sustainably, with the generations after us in mind. Then the grapes go to Victor in the cellar.