Terriscope Vallée de la Marne

Terriscope is the label Dehours uses for Champagnes made from selected purchases in the Marne valley, from growers in nearby villages who share the house's view of the craft. It sits beside the family's own vineyard, which lies entirely on the left bank. The Vallée de la Marne 2016 was the first vintage-dated Terriscope, launched at the end of 2022 in 6,000 bottles and 500 magnums.

It is Meunier from the slopes of several villages of the valley, which the house does not name. By the house's account the cuvée differs from the family vineyard's production in its choices of farming, vinification or ageing, while reflecting the personal vision of its maker. The house does not say who that is, but it names the later #21 as the first Terriscope vinified at the domaine.

The wine spent about five years on its lees and was disgorged at the domaine in two rounds, in April and October 2022, with a dosage of 1.1 g/l. The latest release takes a different form: Terriscope #22 is a non-vintage Meunier built on the 2022 harvest and the domaine's perpetual reserve.

The Union des Maisons de Champagne's vintage record, drawn from Le Vigneron Champenois, calls 2016 a complex vintage. Frosts ran from 18 to 27 April and hit the Barrois, in the Aube, hardest. Rainfall from January to June reached 513 mm against a normal 316 mm. The record calls 2016 the benchmark year in twenty years of mildew pressure, with an estimated 15% of the crop lost to it. A heat spike from 23 to 28 August then scorched about 3% of the appellation's harvest. Bunch weights came in higher than expected, so yields finished above the roughly 7,500 kg/ha estimated in July.