November 03, 2014
One Grape, One Harvest, One Parcel

Cedric Bouchard is revolutionizing Champagne from the inside out. Since 2000, he’s made wine in decidedly his own fashion, with a single-vintage, single-vineyard, single-varietal mantra that harkens more to nearby Burgundy than to traditional Champagne. In the southern reaches of Champagne, these vineyards in the Aube Valley are closer both geographically and geologically (limestone and clay soils rather than chalk) to Chablis than Epernay, and maybe even spiritually. Aube has a long history of being disregarded by the rest of the Champagne for its lack of grand and premier cru vineyards, earning a reputation as an anonymous supplier for the big negociant houses in the north. Cedric Bouchard is reclaiming the potential of this unique region by expressing terroir in a way that blended wines just can’t. He applies minute attention to each parcel, while keeping the atmospheric pressure in his wines at 4.5—much lower than normal 6—so that the bubbles don’t distract from the wines. In fact, he encourages decanting. These are not your father’s Champagnes.

They’re not his father’s either. He’s a second-generation winemaker who’s turning his father’s traditional approach on its head: he eschews oak, dosage, commercial yeasts—even plowing by horse; he plows by hand. His farming is organic; yeasts are wild; pressing is by foot and only the first saignee press is used. But now, the torch is officially being passed: with his father’s retirement at hand, Cedric Bouchard is set to take over the estate.

With the inheritance of his father’s vineyards, he’ll be turning his attention to his Roses de Jeanne label, which focuses on estate-grown wines. (He’ll discontinue the Inflorescence label, made from sourced fruit.) His production is miniscule, as always, and the current releases are highly allocated. With an increasingly cult following, this innovative young winemaker is redefining what the world thinks of Champagne, and wine drinkers everywhere are clamoring for a sip.

Fall 2014 Releases
Cedric Bouchard 2012 Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Noirs, Cote de Val Vilaine
Cedric Bouchard 2007 Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Noirs, Cote de Bechalin (fka La Parcelle)
Cedric Bouchard 2010 Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Blancs, La Haute Lemblé
Cedric Bouchard 2010 Roses de Jeanne Blanc de Blancs, La Bolorée

Image of Cedric Bouchard is from http://madwine.blogspot.com.