Roses de Jeanne La Bolorée

When Cédric Bouchard founded Roses de Jeanne in 2000, he became the first grower in the Aube to bottle a single-vineyard, single-vintage Champagne — a Burgundian parcellaire logic applied to a region historically dismissed as peripheral. La Bolorée is his most transgressive cuvée: 100% Pinot Blanc vrai, planted in 1960, making it one of the only mono-cépage Pinot Blanc Champagnes in the entire appellation.

The parcel sits on rarer, harder chalky bedrock — distinct from the Kimmeridgian clay-limestone that defines most of the Côte des Bar — with a south-facing aspect that pushes the variety toward density and textural weight while the chalk drives a saline, mineral tension. Yields are held at an extreme 20–30 hl/ha, less than a third of the regional norm.

Vinification is entirely in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts; only first-pressing cuvée juice is used, tailles discarded. Malolactic fermentation is completed, the wine rests approximately 10 months on lees in cuve, then undergoes second fermentation at ~12°C targeting just ≈4 bars of pressure — versus the Champagne standard of 6 — producing a mousse so soft and integrated that Bouchard recommends serving in a Burgundy glass, not a flute. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, zero dosage.

The deliberate under-pressurisation and no-oak regime allow the chalky bedrock's mineral signature to speak without amplification — a technical choice no major house would sanction.