The oddity of Champagne is that a difficult terroir plus cold, dreary weather can produce a crop of immense beauty with ample sunshine and relative dryness leading up to harvest. That’s why we're so excited about Jérôme Dehours: He resolutely believes that his small pocket of vines in Rive Gauche (the “Left Bank,” or south side of the Marne River) are among the coldest and most difficult to work in the region. And yet, he and his small team tend to these finicky vines carefully, with an organic approach. Because of the challenges this area presents, Pinot Meunier has long been the workhorse grape here, although it wasn’t fashionable to say so. That’s changing, and Jérôme is again leading the charge with a 100% Pinot Meunier stunner that I’m super excited to introduce today. If you have zero opinion on Meunier, you’ll be easily moved into the “yay” camp, and if you are a Meunier skeptic I can guarantee that this bottle will change your mind!
Pinot Meunier has for centuries been thought of as the “insurance” grape of Champagne, because it has a shorter time between bud break and maturity, therefore limiting its exposure to spring frosts and early fall storms. That reputation also meant that it took a back seat to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, especially in great vintages with ideal growing conditions. With warming temperatures and extreme weather that is even more unpredictable though, that distinction is changing, and a few pioneers like Jérôme Dehours are putting a lot of stock into the future of Meunier. And to make that as apparent as possible he developed a 100% Pinot Meunier cuvée a few years ago and named it, fittingly, “Terre de Meunier.”
Farming is key in this difficult corner of the Vallée de la Marne, and as such everything at Dehours is certified organic and given the highest EU ranking of sustainability. But it’s not just about sustainability: Jérôme is also heavily focused on terroir specificity, and he owns over 40 unique plots throughout three contiguous ‘Rive Gauche’ villages. For this special cuvée he uses two of his favorite parcels of Pinot Meunier. The hand-harvest fruit is fermented together in stainless steel tanks and undergoes full malolactic fermentation. The finished wine is aged on the lees in the same tanks for nine months before bottling, where it matures for another two to three years in bottle before being disgorged and dosed with a scant 3 grams of sugar. It’s important to note that while he is technically registered as a négociant-manipulant, which generally means someone who purchases grapes from growers, Dehours does all the growing himself. He’s only registered this way so he can sell part of his own crop in order to funnel money into the wines he does produce.
While many non-vintage Champagnes tend to fit the bill as a light apéritif, Dehours’ “Terre de Meunier” offers far more depth and richness. It’s certainly zipping with Marne Valley’s invigorating acidity and the perfumed delicacy of Meunier, but with a base vintage of 2019, along with 20% reserve wine and that full malolactic fermentation, it explodes with opulent textures and a powerful, mineral-dominant core. It spills into the glass with deep straw-yellow hues and immediately fires back rich aromatics like peach skin, Rainier cherry, white pear, pineapple core, brioche, crushed almond, lees, honeysuckle, damp white flowers, vanilla, wet rocks, and finely delineated citrus zest. Again, this is no lightweight: the palate oozes luxurious layers of creamy fruit and crushed-stone minerality that only lets up 10+ seconds into the finish. Your bottles will delight now and throughout the next five plus years—all you need to do is enjoy around 50-55 degrees in all-purpose stems. Cheers!
