December 04, 2012
Duval-Leroy: The Spirit of Independence

Past and Future: Family and tradition still anchor these four flourishing Champagne houses From Wine Spectator Dec 31, 2012 - Jan 15, 2013; page 110

In 1991, Jean-Charles Duval-Leroy was dying from cancer. His wife, Carol, pledged to him that she would maintain his family’s Champagne house for their three sons. “It’s very difficult to stay independent,” says Carol Duval-Leroy. “Just a few [negociants] in Champagne now are family-owned.” Despite many offers over the years to sell the business, Duval-Leroy has upheld her promise, preserving the company for their children and building it into a successful mid-sized negociant that produces more than 5 million bottles of wine each year.

Based in Vertus, the house offers a range of non-vintage and vintage Champagnes, including a single-vineyard vintage bottling from the 9-acre Clos des Bouveries and a prestige vintage bottling called Femme. Femme’s distinctive bottle shape (featuring a wide base and narrow neck) and its Chardonnay-based blend were created by Jean-Charles prior to his death, but it was his wife who completed the project and gave Femme its name for the first vintage in 1990.

The name is a nod to Duval-Leroy’s role as head of the company, as well as to its chef de cave of 21 years, Sandrine Logette-Jardin, who believed that she and Duval-Leroy have put their stamp on the house. “The same feminine touch [is found] in the whole line,” she says. “It’s very streamlined and mineral-driven.”

Yet it’s not only a feminine touch that Logette-Hardin has imparted to Duval-Leroy’s Champagnes’; she’s also crafted wines that highlight a firm, racy backbone of acidity and are uniformly low in dosage, usually 6 grams per liter of residual sugar or lower (the brut category of Champagne allows a dosage of up to 15 grams per liter). “My logic for the dosage is to preserve the purity of the wine, not to mask it with sugar,” Logette-Jardin says.

This firm edge, however, doesn’t make the wines too austere. This is in part because Logette-Jardin employs malolactic fermentation, often 100 percent, for every wine. “Malo is systematically done at Duval-Leroy,” she explains, adding that it promotes a rounder, fuller mouthfeel in the wines.

Like any successful chef de cave, Logette-Jardin is a meticulous winemaker. “The more precise you start, the more precise you’ll end,” she says. Duval-Leroy has promoted this precision by investing in modern winemaking and storage facilities, including cement and stainless steel tanks in varying sizes, about 200 barrels for the wines that see oak, a new disgorgement machine and additional cellar space as of 2009. The company also received its ISO certification in 2002, adding its name to a worldwide roster of establishments that uphold regulated proprietary, industrial and commercial standards.

While these investments and high-production standards seem to indicate a company ready to springboard to growth and greater success, Ducal-Leroy points out that her house is still a little fish in a big pond. “Ninety percent of the market is taken by the big ones, so we take the little pieces of bread.” But that doesn’t’ mean that she’ll stop trying for a bigger slice. “If we want to improve [familiarity of] the brand, we know we have to be the best and make the best.”

94pts Brut Champagne Femme 2000
92pts Brut Champagne Clos des Bouveries 2005 (have 2004 in stock)
92pts Brut Rose Champagne NV
90pts Brut Champagne NV