As some of you may know, I am the one of the owners of Caveau Selections, a Portland Oregon based importer of Champagne and Burgundy. A few times each year, I travel with my wife or partner (or both) to each region meeting with the 45 producers we work with - trying the wines, sharing a planche of charcuterie, watching the kids grow up. Generally one of these weeks, we take clients along to do a deep dive (basically work alongside but with way better dinners and lodging). I thought it might be fun to share this current trip in Champagne - a daily dump of the producers visited and standout wines, any notable restaurants, and really anything else of interest. I will keep this brief with regards to the producers and their backgrounds - for those details please go to our website - www.caveauselections.com. Sound good?
Day 1 - Vallee de la Marne. From Reims it was a 45 minute drive to our first stop at Chevreux-Bournazel La Parcelle nearby the town of Connigis. This bio-dynamic power couple, Stephanie and Julien (along now with son Ben), has gone from strength to strength over the last 5 years. We tasted 6 wines - Coteaux Champenois 21/22 (outstanding), La Parcelle 2022 (50% CH, 50% PM), Connigis 2022 (100% PM), Connigis 2022 (100% PM), La Parcelle Millesime 2019 (CH, PM), La Parcelle Millesime 2018 (CH, PM). What interests me here is that all these are essentially vintage although they do not name them as such unless specified with “Millesime” and use a black label. So the “younger” vintage are basic vintage wines and then these Millesime are late disgorged. With a total production of under 400 cases it is amazing all they do. From here we went a few miles for lunch to Le Bastidon, a one man operation - purchaser of all local ingredients, chef, carpenter, stain glass maker…. The ham is to die for. He did break one rule in his buy local mantra - enough people complained that they did not want Chicory coffee that was grown in the onsite garden but rather get real coffee. Off to MG Heucq in the town of Fleury-La-Riviere. Guillaume has just completed his new winery attached to his old house - makes for a nice commute he says. He has plantings of all three main grapes plus Petite Meslier, which he has started to bottle on its own - and this is a very compelling wine. We tasted 8 wines - Fossile (3 cepage), Tandem (CH, PN), La Fontaine (CH), Le Haut Betivart (PN), Les Clos du Gout (PM), La Roquette (Meslier), Fossile Rose, and Les Velours (saignee). What showed in this tasting was the consistency in the 2019 base vintage wines which were all the single cepage bottles. Really neat to have very different profiles yet appreciate the similarity in structure and finish.
I will start a new line to allow this last stop to sink in - Vincent Laval, of famed Georges Laval (and now his own label as well). We were first treated to a walk about of his new winery in construction. Holy Shit (am I allowed to say that) this place is phenomenal. He thinks his three presses will be enough to handle his few hectares - he laughs. This truly is a work of art and when completed is a must stop for any Champagne lover. The wines - Garennes 13-23, Cumieres 2023, Les Chenes 2022, Les Hautes Chèvre 2021, Les Longvioles 2014, and under his label Mon Oncle 21/22. All are works of art to be sure. So why his own label you ask - he recently purchased a parcel from his uncle (hence the name) and currently it is not organic and for various legal reasons it cannot be under the Georges label at this time. It was my WOTD.
Julien, Stephanie, and Ben
Guillaume Heucq
Laval LineUp
New Winery in progress - WOW
Vincent in all his glory
