Champagne Day 6 – Dehours, Laurent Lequart
- Elaine Cadman
- May 29
- 4 min read
Wait! I forgot about dinner last night! Such an amazing time, wonderful service.
DEHOURS -
Buckle up for a ride
with Jérôme! Well, not literally, there are no seat belts. After our standard breakfast at the local café where we seem to have made an impression on the staff by sampling a wide array of baked goods and demanding many rounds of double
espressos, we made the short trip to Dehours and were greeted by their enthusiastic admin, Charlotte.
Jérôme is a cool dude. He has a real pulse on the estate
and all aspects of production and is very passionate about the diversity of his plots. He was one of the first winemakers to make parcel cuvées, something that was not against the ‘Champagne rules’ but was not even listed in them. When he proposed the distinction of single parcel wines, the Champagne authorities said, “why would you want to do that? That’s not what Champagne is.” They have since added many rules about these types of classifications as you can imagine.
Jérôme invited us on a vineyard tour. He fired up his vintage moke and we all piled in. This was the wrong day to wear a skirt. Off we went through town and to the rolling, sloped vineyards. The vineyards in this area are steeper than most we’ve seen. They have lost about 30-40% of harvest due to frost. The clusters on the tip of the vine are most affected but there are secondary clusters forming so if they can escape frost for the remainder of the year they should be ok. That level of loss seems pretty catastrophic to me, but somehow most winemakers have developed a thick skin about setbacks, of which there are many in this climate. The flip side of the decreased yield is the fruit is better.
He said it is assumed that Meunier is a high-yield easy grape, but he finds the opposite.
As we walked through the cavernous and extensive cellar we passed by a rack of older bottles. Pro tip – always ask about these. Jérôme asked if we would like to taste something older and of course we do so. He selected a 2005. Then we insisted he adjust the inventory written on the chalk board so he changed the number of bottles from 38 to 37 and we proceeded to the tasting.
Oscar, Jérôme’s son who just joined in the production after spreading is wings working for some exciting wineries like By Farr and Ramonet, joined us for a bit as Charlotte worked in the background putting together a cheese and
charcuterie spread like none other and offering insights on the industry. It was a very lively and informative tasting with some really special side-by-sides, including our pilfered 2005 and also his excellent Oeil de Perdix and La Croix Joly. He corrected us when we called the Oeil de Perdix a rosé. “It is not rosé, it’s Oeil de Perdix (eye of the partridge)” its own thing, please do not stuff it into a category was good-naturedly implied. Jérôme has such a sunny disposition and is very easy to talk to and we walked away from this tasting with big smiles and windswept hair.
LAURENT LEQUART –
We traveled just a short way to the town of Passy-Gigny, where Laurent Lequart is located. This is probably the most complicated to explain of all the producers we work with. They are part of a co-op, but Laurent runs it so he’s able to ensure the integrity of his wines remains intact. Grower Champagne as part of a co-op probably sounds strange, but the wines carry a sense of place that is apparent in the people who make them also. They use the term “Autre Cru” which they made up, equivalent to “2nd Cru” because there was no distinction available for their area and they’re very passionate about the quality that is produced there.
Unfortunately Laurent was away, but we were met by Kevin, the export manager, who had to clear a gigantic bottle of Ratafia off the table to make room for our tasting.
The vibe was casual, but the nine wines showed really well and we did quite a comprehensive tasting. No, I won’t stop talking about rosé and I love the Andésyne which is mostly Meunier. I think the Marne has a special thing going with Meunier because it really stands out here as it did with Dehours. Their L'Heritière is a standby classic. No one will ever complain when you put this wine in their glass.
At the end we got to try the Ratafia from the giant bottle and it was really interesting and festive with holiday spice notes. The logistics of transporting and serving such a gigantic bottle are kind of entertaining, Kevin said many restaurants have a little cart they bring around after dinner service to pour small glasses. Emphasis on small because Ratafia is sneaky with the alcohol. You have been warned!
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