When Jérome Dehours stepped off the plane and into the bustling streets of New York in 2016, it was his first time on American soil. And now, despite a modest annual production, you can hardly frequent a trending restaurant or wine bar without spotting one of his labels on a list. In an instant, he was touted as a rising star, with Forbes recognizing his label as “The Best Champagne You've Never Heard Of.”
As such, today’s “Grande Réserve” is the only way to properly introduce you to this much-buzzed-about sensation. Utilizing a solera system (a battery of barrels containing aged wines dating to 1998) for the backbone of today’s blend, Dehours delivers a level of complexity and depth rarely seen at this price point. Further, Dehours is an integral member of “Les Artisans du Champagne,” a veritable ‘who’s who’ of growers that includes the likes of Vilmart, Hébrart, Savart...if you’re looking for brands that can afford in-house marketing teams, you won’t find them here. Dehours thrives on bottling naturally farmed grapes that retain the unique footprint of their respective terroirs—and the results are nothing short of stupendous. This is a Champagne for in-the-know aficionados, so if that’s you, take your allocation and run with it—quantities won’t last!
The oddity of Champagne is that its abysmal weather, while never celebrated, isn’t always shunned. A difficult terroir, plus cold, dreary weather can produce the greatest crop imaginable if there is ample sunshine and dryness leading up to harvest. That’s why we're so excited about Jérome 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. Still, he and his small team tend to these finicky vines carefully, making sure to avoid chemicals at all costs.
It’s not just about organics in the vineyard, either: Jérome is also heavily focused on terroir specificity, which is why he owns over 40 unique plots throughout contiguous ‘Rive Gauche’ villages. During our time in Champagne last year, we were fortunate to taste through his lineup of single-vineyard Champagnes and were floored with quality: Jérome is crafting some of the best site-specific wines in the entire region (we couldn’t stop talking about his ‘08 “Brisefer”). Still, an estate lives and dies by its annual non-vintage brut release, and Dehours’ “Grande Réserve” is as good as they come.
It’s a Meunier-heavy blend from a selection of his prized sites in the 2015 vintage, although approximately one-quarter of the wine is from his aforementioned barrel-aged solera that was first started in 1998. The wine also undergoes malolactic fermentation (lending a creaminess that balances the fierce acidity) before aging over two years on its lees in bottle. It was disgorged and given a light dosage—only five grams—then corked without fining and filtration. It’s also important to note that while he is technically registered as a ‘NM’ (négociant-manipulant)—which means you can buy 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’ “Grande Réserve” offers more—really, it’s right there in the name. It’s certainly zipping with the Marne Valley’s cool-climate acidity, but with ample reserves from a decades-old solera, full malolactic fermentation, and the openness of Meunier, it explodes with a warm embrace of steely fruits, mineral-etched textures, and unwavering florality. You’ll pick up bright, high-toned notes of creamed yellow apple, plums, Rainier cherries, white peach, and crushed chalk that is underpinned by a noticeable brioche component. The palate is a touch surprising, in that it’s far more energized and peppy than the nose would lead you to believe. Still, it’s a round and supple Champagne that highlights crushed rock minerality while revealing an underlying note of salinity. As such, it’s begging for a colorful platter of sashimi and nigiri at a Japanese restaurant. Or, follow the attached guide if you want to try your luck at home! Just be sure to opt for all-purpose white stems (avoid the flutes) and keep the serving temperature around 50-55 degrees—any lower and you’ll be hiding everything this wine has to offer. Cheers!
