A. Margaine Premier Cru Demi Sec Champagne 375ml

The wine... Arnuad Margaine is dedicated. He makes less than 5,000 cases per year of truly crafted small-grower Champagne. These are generally mono-cru Champagnes, wines that can have a lot to say about the parcels of land on which they are farmed. The demi-sec, has all kinds of interesting little facets to its flavor. Complex as you could possibly desire. There is chalk in the soil here, but it exists below far more topsoil than in the Côte des Blancs, one potential reason for the slightly broader mouthfeel.

The land... French wine is riddled with exceptions to the general rules which wine people like to use to give some sense of a framework to what would otherwise be (actually still kind of is) an overwhelming amount of information. Here we encounter a geographic exception. Villers-Marmery is a town in the Montagne de Reims sub-region of Champagne, one of three areas (this one near a mountain, near the city of Reims) that produce most of the exceptional Champagne we drink. The Montagne de Reims is thought of as a Pinot Noir growing area. The other two grapes that it is permissible to plant in Champagne are Chardonnay, the major partner in the wines of the Côte des Blancs (a region of chalky limestone hills) and Pinot Meunier, the workhorse grape of the Vallée de la Marne. Which is, of course, a valley around the Marne river. Beyond these there are actually three more grapes some people have and can legally use, but cannot replant. Isn’t this fun!

The growers... Thousands of people are at work within this larger construct, growing grapes and/or making Champagnes. And they don’t feel any compulsion to stick strictly to my organizational principles. In some instances there is an economic or indisputable quality factor involved which compels growers to plant what their village in known for, but over time small fissures in the larger organizational system grow into exceptions to the rule. Which is the case in Villers-Marmery, a village in the Montagne de Reims known for the proliferation of quality Chardonnay. It’s all the fault of one grower, who planted some over a century ago. And it was good. A. Margaine’s 6.5 hectares (think small) are 90% Chardonnay, and happily these grapes are of high quality. They do not mimic the character of Champagnes from Chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs, instead they surprise drinkers with earthiness and depth of flavor rarely seem in the elegant ethereal wines of this region’s major Chardonnay growing area. So a parcel of Chard, surrounded by a sea of Pinot. Sadly for the beginner, Champagne is full of these exceptions.