Champagne Remi Leroy Blanc de Noirs Reserve

When Rémi Leroy returned to his family's Côte des Bar estate in 2006 after completing a Masters in Oenology at Bordeaux, he made a deliberate break from the blending-house logic of Champagne — vinifying each parcel separately and aging far beyond appellation minimums, a discipline he describes as 'More than Champagne, Champagne wine.' The Blanc de Noirs draws exclusively from the domaine's oldest Pinot Noir plots across Meurville, Bergères, and Fontaine, where Kimmeridgian clay-limestone soils — geologically identical to Chablis — deliver a chiselled, saline mineral tension that reads closer to the Yonne than to the Marne Valley. East and southwest exposures on either side of the Le Landion tributary in Meurville add textural complexity through contrasting ripening rhythms. Grapes are pressed on a PAI horizontal Coquard press, with must moved entirely by gravity to limit SO2 intervention; fermentation proceeds with indigenous yeasts in a combination of stainless steel and used Burgundian barrels sourced from Hubert Lamy (St-Aubin) and Thomas Pico (Chablis). Full malolactic fermentation is carried through, and the wine rests on lees for 18–20 months before disgorgement at 3 g/L dosage (Extra Brut). Bottled unfined and unfiltered. What separates this cuvée from virtually all Aube peers is the explicit Burgundian cellar philosophy applied to a Champagne appellation wine — parcel-by-parcel vinification, barrel provenance chosen for mineral rather than oak character, and a zero-compromise bottling protocol. The 2022-base release draws on 30% solera reserve wine from a perpetual blend started in 2009, adding layered depth to a vintage described as powerful and structured.