Domaine Jacques Lassaigne is a small 5 hectare family estate, planted almost entirely to Chardonnay. The property was founded by Jacques Lassaigne in the early 1960’s and was one of the first vineyards planted in the village of Montgueux. Throughout the decades that followed, Lassaigne fruit gained a reputation for its impressive weight and aromatics, and was often used as a secret weapon to bolster top wines from famous Champagne producers.
Today, Emmanuel Lassaigne is the one man show director/winemaker of the property. He left his first career as an engineer and returned home to work his father’s vines in 1999. Even in a brief conversation with Emmanuel, it is evident that he is a strong willed character who goes his own way. Shortly after taking over operations of the Lassaigne property, he instituted numerous significant changes, often choosing a path that is more difficult in order to achieve superior results. In a region that is infamous for chemical treatment of vineyards, Emmanuel is vocally opposed to heavy metals or any non-organic treatments in his vineyards. This may seem like a minor detail but a quick stroll around the family property reveals that, unlike most estates in Champagne, Emmanuel’s vineyards teem with natural life; a myriad of insects, butterflies, grasses and wild flowers.
Emmanuel’s work in the cellar is no less unique and challenging to the status quo. In stark contrast to historical practice in Montgueux, Emmanuel ferments and often bottles individual vineyard parcels separately. He also incorporates minimal sulfites into the vinification process. Emmanuel introduces just a small amount at pressing the fruit so juice doesn’t oxidize, but thereafter he avoids the industry standard additions many times thereafter. He feels that sulfites often ruin otherwise great wine and that their overuse in the production of quality Champagne is completely unnecessary. Emmanuel even disgorges bottles the hard way—each individual bottle is disgorged and re-sealed by hand with no mechanization, freezing, or topping up. This is incredibly tough. I can not overstate the timing and precision necessary to execute this process by hand, and I guarantee that you will not see the owner/winemaker of any other Champagne estate of this caliber rolling up his or her sleeves to hand disgorge thousands of bottles like this. It is truly impressive, and I encourage you to watch
this brief video about the process.
Today we are offering Emmanuel’s “La Colline Inspirée”, my favorite wine he bottles. The wine comes exclusively from 45+ year old Chardonnay vines planted by his father. It is unique in the Lassaigne lineup in that the entire life of the wine prior to bottling exists in barrel. I should mention that these are not new oak barrels, but rather ancient, neutral ones that impart no oaky aromas. What they do impart is a rich, nutty character and general completeness to the finished product. There are less than 15 cases of this wine released in California each year and I am extremely excited that we have enough to offer you today.
Emmanuel’s “La Colline Inspirée” has a vibrant golden core moving to green reflections on the rim. One of the first things you notice about this wine is that it has incredibly fine and precise bubbles, an immediate sign that special care has been taken in the cellar. The nose is intense, creamy and powerful, exhibiting aromas of hazelnut oil, fresh baked brioche, white truffle, lemon blossoms, dried yellow apples, raw honey and crushed stones. The palate is full, broad and densely packed, but all kept perfectly in line with impressive and angular acidity. On the palate, this wine is reminiscent of Grand Cru Chablis: mushrooms, truffle, lemon pastry and hazelnuts are woven together in perfect harmony delivering an absolutely incredible tasting experience. This wine is ready to drink now, but will easily be flattered by an additional 7-10 years in the cellar. Please enjoy this wine at roughly 50 degrees in either large open Champagne stems or an all purpose white wine stem; please stay far away from a traditional tall and thin flute as the wine’s delicate aromas will be lost. You will also notice that this wine gets better with air, so ideally, please wait 5-6 minutes before taking your first sip. The wine needs to shed a bit of CO2 before it starts to show its true personality. This is a wine to savor, so please give it time and enjoy the bottle slowly over an hour or more. If you can summon the patience and discipline, you will not regret leaving the final third of the bottle to rest for a few hours so you can revisit it again in a large Burgundy stem. This wine is everything I look for in great Champagne and despite its rarity and stellar reputation, it is half the price of the many of the famous Champagne house’s top wines. I encourage you to enjoy a bottle or two with a rich main course and a small group of your closest friends. If you have never had
Scallop and Champagne Risotto before, this is an ideal pairing with a dense and opulent wine like Emmanuel’s “La Colline Inpirée”. Bon Apetit.
