Delouvin Nowack

Delouvin Nowack is a grower estate in Vandieres, in the Vallee de la Marne stretch of Champagne. The label, joining two family names, dates to 1949; today Geoffrey Delouvin, counted as the eleventh generation on the land, is at the helm. The domaine works about seven hectares, and its heart is Pinot Meunier - the valley's signature grape, and the one Delouvin has built its identity around, down to a perpetual-reserve cuvee called Meunier Perpetuel.

The farming leans low-intervention: shallow tilling instead of herbicides, cover crops, composted manure, no insecticides, under the house tag "le respect du vivant". In the cellar the wines are made parcel by parcel, often with wood, at low or zero dosage, and with long aging on the lees. It is Meunier taken seriously, vinous and single-minded rather than a blending afterthought.