Dehours & Fils

Dehours & Fils was one of those completely unexpected and deeply satisfying discoveries. I was placing an order from a French website - on the hunt for some older vintages from Jacky Blot - and needed just one more bottle to complete the shipment. And then I thought, why not grab a bottle of Champagne?

I started reading up on the various producers they had in stock - most of them unfamiliar to me - and eventually landed on Dehours. I took a chance. No regrets whatsoever. The wine turned out to be absolutely stunning. Since then, I've made a habit of tucking a bottle or two from these folks into orders from different shops.

Dehours & Fils is based in Cerseuil, on the left bank of the Marne, in a landscape where Meunier dominates. Their 16 hectares are spread across over 40 parcels, with a patchwork of exposures and soils - clay-rich, landslide-prone slopes on limestone and sand rather than the more classic chalk. This is Meunier country, and the village is well-known as a source for Krug.

Jérôme Dehours, who took over in the late 1990s after studying in Beaune, was among the early growers to isolate single vineyard expressions and introduce oak for fermentation. Today, he picks late (with meticulous sorting when needed), works mechanically under the vines, and prefers large 500-litre barrels to smaller formats. His vins clairs are raised with plenty of lees contact to encourage texture and depth.