A. Lamblot

Alexandre Lamblot is the thirteenth generation of a family that has grown vines in Champagne since 1653. He came back to the family estate in Janvry, on the Petite Montagne de Reims south-west of the city, in 2009, and the wines now go out under his own label, A. Lamblot.

The turning point came early. For his first two years he sprayed by the treatment calendar, and studied the chemistry to understand how to do without it. He phased out the hazardous products first, and in 2013, the year his son Timothé was born, he began farming organically. He waited until every parcel was converted and the methods were his own before he started the official certification in 2018.

The vineyards are small, three and a half to four hectares depending on the source, spread across Janvry, Vrigny, Gueux and Chenay, where the Montagne de Reims meets the Massif de Saint-Thierry and the Vallée de l'Ardre. Most of it sits on sand, silt and clay rather than chalk. Heavy machinery stays out of the rows, pruning is late, the biodynamic preparations 500, 500P and 501 go on when the vines seem to need them, and in some years the vines are braided. The lunar calendar guides the work from the vineyard to the tasting.

In the cellar the pressing is slow and gentle, the corks are natural, and no sugar is added at disgorgement. The range splits in two. The collection of identity holds the blends: Intuition Nature, Mouvance, the old-vine Meunier Frénésie, Dissonance, Amplitude and a perpetual reserve. The collection of places holds single parcels such as Les Côtes Chéries in Gueux, Les Fourgons and La Vigne à Vovonne in Vrigny, La Coroche in Janvry and Les Cochènes in Chenay, alongside a still red Coteaux Champenois and a ratafia. Each plot is old enough, most of them planted between the late 1960s and 1990, to have something to say.