Jules Brochet

Jules Brochet is the label of Pierric Brochet, named in homage to his great-grandfather. Pierric belongs to the wider Brochet clan of the Reims area - his cousin Gaspard Brochet (son of Vincent Brochet, nephew of Emmanuel Brochet) farms in Ecueil - but his own base is Taissy, on the Vesle just south-east of Reims; the wines are made under EARL Les Longues Royes, the family farming company he has run since 2013. Trained in viticulture and oenology in Avize with a stint at Jacques Selosse, he started the domaine project around 2015 and put the first wines on the market in 2019.

The holdings are small and scattered: parcels in Taissy, Mailly-Champagne Grand Cru, Ay, Rilly-la-Montagne, and Barzy-sur-Marne, farmed organically (conversion from 2020) with cover crops and sheep grazing the vines in winter. Cellar work leans Burgundian: spontaneous fermentation in 228-litre barrels (about a quarter new each year), malolactic neither blocked nor forced, minimal sulfur, no fining or filtration, and low to zero dosage across the range. Alongside the sparkling cuvees (Premices, Eole, Autochtone, Albane) there is a growing set of still Coteaux Champenois, red and white.

Profiles disagree on the domaine's size - early ones say 4.5 ha of family plots with 1.5 ha estate-bottled, newer ones say about 3.5 ha farmed organically - which most likely tracks the project's growth rather than a contradiction.