Quatre Cepages Mer sur Mont

When Rémi Leroy returned to his family's Côte des Bar estate in 2006 with a Masters in Oenology from Bordeaux, he made a deliberate choice to vinify his 1.03-hectare Mer sur Mont parcel as a standalone cuvée — because its Portlandian limestone soil, found on fewer than 200 of the Aube's 8,000 hectares, produces a mineral tension that blending would erase. Portlandian soils are geologically younger and poorer than the Kimmeridgian clay-limestone that dominates the appellation, forcing vines — here planted in 1960 — to root deep and yield fruit of concentrated, chiselled character closer in profile to Chablis than to the Marne Valley.

The blend is deliberately heterodox: 60% Pinot Noir, 20% Meunier, 15% Chardonnay, 5% Pinot Blanc from those 1960 old vines. Fermentation proceeds with indigenous yeasts in used Burgundian barrels sourced from Hubert Lamy (St-Aubin) and Thomas Pico (Chablis), with gravity-only must handling to minimise SO₂ intervention. Secondary fermentation takes place under cork (agrafe) rather than crown cap, with the wine resting on lees for a full 6 years before disgorgement — far beyond appellation minimums and unusual even among grower producers. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The 2015 vintage in Champagne delivered exceptional phenolic ripeness alongside preserved natural acidity — conditions that reward extended lees contact. The result is a parcellaire that breaks Champagne's blending orthodoxy at every level: single-site, four-variety, agrafe-aged, and built to be read as a wine first.