Devoted Champagne students know that the village of Rilly-la-Montagne is home to the one and only Vilmart & Cie. Established in 1890, this now-legendary estate has become an elite grower-producer that every sommelier has firmly committed to memory. But there’s another superstar in the making here too: François Lecompte. The wines are sensational, and although they predate Vilmart by several decades, even some of the shrewdest Champagne minds still don’t know their name—but we anticipate that to change!
Having been devout followers of Lecompte over the years, we’ve held their flag as high as possible because these low-dollar, world-class Champagnes deserve the grand stage. They are meticulously farmed, hand-crafted, extremely generous wines that consistently compete for the market’s greatest vintage Champagne value. 100% Premier Cru fruit, naturally farmed and fermented, 7+ years of cellar maturation—to find a wine of such exceptional quality and age at a sub-$50 price point is a true rarity. Further, as our subscribers know, we love ‘vinous’ Champagnes that can coolly stand with any dish, light or heavy, and any occasion, casual or formal. Lecompte’s 2010 has more than enough depth, tension, and savoriness to do that. Just don’t short yourself—these small-production wines are extremely hard to come by.
Founded in 1876 by the Lecompte family and based entirely in Rilly-la-Montagne, Lecompte is the ultimate example of “grower-produced” Champagne. Proprietor François Lecompte works in a cellar dug by his grandfather and in vineyards all classified as Premier Cru, producing a trickle of bottles in comparison to the buzzworthy Grandes Marques. As I’ve noted before, ‘grower’ Champagnes are catnip to sommeliers—they’re the Davids to the Goliaths that are the Grandes Marques whose production (and marketing budgets) completely dwarf theirs.
There are more than 15,000 grape growers in the Champagne region, a majority of whom sell their grapes either to local cooperatives or to the larger “houses,” who represent more than two-thirds of all Champagne produced. In pitting their little-guy grower Champagnes against the big boys, many of our importer/distributor friends (half-jokingly) frame it in good-versus-evil, big-equals-bad terms, which isn’t our objective here: There’s plenty of fantastic Champagne made by the Grandes Marques, there just also happens to be a steady stream of little-to-unknown grower-producers coming to our shores with compelling stories and wines.
In the case of François Lecompte, that story includes sustainable farming and a focus on exceptionally long aging in the cellar before the wines are released into the market. Today’s 2010 Brut Millésime—which undergoes a natural fermentation via airborne yeasts, as well as malolactic fermentation—spent 7-8 years aging in Lecompte’s chalky caves before it was released! The grape mix is nearly equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier, all culled from family-owned vines in Rilly-la-Montagne—a top 1er Cru village that sits in the midst of several Grand Crus. The result is the kind of brioche-y, textured, creamy Champagne you’d expect from such a prestigious terroir and time-consuming process.
As such, this bubbling, yellow-gold elixir releases a generous outpouring of quince, white peach, Meyer lemon, ripe yellow apples, toasted hazelnut, acacia, honeysuckle, heaps of crushed stone minerality, and subtle hints of tropical fruit. It truly is what we call a generous Champagne (despite its dosage being on the lower end of the ‘Brut’ category). The mouthfeel is broad and complex, allowing the cascade of ripe fruits and savory earth to ping around your taste buds freely. It finishes with wonderful length and roundness that is backed up with prickling acidity that only serves to enhance the wine’s more nuanced components. We wouldn’t call ourselves François Lecompte ambassadors just yet, but something we’ve found over tasting the last several vintages is that when the bubbles have slightly dissipated, another dimension is seemingly uncovered. So when you’re serving in all-purpose stems, be sure to leave some wine in the bottle for a few hours down the road (as well as some extra bottles in your cellar for the next 5-10 years). You’ll thank yourself for it—especially alongside a spread of goat cheeses or the attached roasted quail recipe. Enjoy!
