Coteaux Champenois Chardonnay - 50 cl 2020 - Benoit Munier (BD & vin nature)

Coteaux Champenois Chardonnay, 50% from Avize and 50% from Cramant Vielles Vignes.
Drinks like a beautiful Jura Chardonnay. Only made in a very small edition. Explains the size of the bottle. Very tasty with Vacherin Mont d'Or or poultry. Special specimen for connoisseurs and enthusiasts.

Country / Region: France / Côte des Blancs (Champagne)
Grape variety(ies): 100 % Chardonnay
In the vineyard: Manual harvest. Terroir composed of chalk and limestone. Grapes from four different lieu-dits in Avize. Organic farming.
In the wine cellar: Debourbage natural, Spontaneous (malo)fermentation on stainless steel. Maturation on oak for 310 days. Unfiltered, without addition of sulphites.
Quality mark: vin nature

In Cuis, a Grand Cru village in the Côte des Blancs, Benoit produces beautiful champagnes on a modest 1.6 HA. Like many in the Champagne region, the house was created after years of investing in small micro-parcels. In 1930, Benoit's great-grandfather Constant Gendron bought a small piece of land in Bouzy, a region where only Pinot Noir is actually planted. Nevertheless, Contstance decided to work with Chardonnay. The vines are passed on from generation to generation. While the family mainly works in large Champagne houses, the weekends are filled with working in their own orchards and purchasing new gems in the Côte des Blancs, on the various terroirs of Cramant, Avize, Chouilly, Oger and Cuis.

Benoit grew up in this winemaking environment. September was not about the end of the summer holidays but about harvesting.
After a few years of internship with a winegrower in Cramant and obtaining a number of wine diplomas, he started his own business and worked on the land of various wine producers. In the late 90s, only 20 years old, he took over the family home, then 1.15 HA, and decided not to just sell his grapes to large wineries anymore but to actually produce real Champagnes himself.

In 2011, his wife Séverine came to live with Benoit on the farm where she focused on the commercial and administrative side of the business. Together, they managed to expand it in a short time to an organized and progressive company, belonging to the top of Champagne, consisting of 33 micro plots.

Since 2014, the Champagne House has abandoned conventional wine growing methods. As much as possible organic, for the benefit of the development of nature and vines, Benoit continues, with each vintage, new improvements, both in the cellar and in the vineyards. With as little sulphites as possible, without clarifications or filtration. And that with the designation Grand Cru.