Les Cochènes (2020)

Les Cochènes is one plot and one variety: Pinot Noir planted in 1990 in Chenay, a village of the Massif de Saint-Thierry north-west of Reims. Alexandre Lamblot keeps it apart in what he calls his collection of places, a set of single-parcel wines from Chenay, Gueux, Vrigny and Janvry, so that each site gets a bottle of its own.

The ground is unusual for Champagne. This is not chalk but Thanetian sand from the late Paleocene, mixed with sandstone, the same sandy ground that lies under most of his parcels.

The cellar work is slow and hands-on. The juice ferments with its own yeasts, goes through its malolactic naturally, and then spends about two years in demi-muids before the second fermentation, which happens under a cork rather than a crown cap. Riddling is done by hand on pupitres. There is no chaptalisation, no cold stabilisation, no fining and no filtration, and total sulphur stays under 15 mg/L.

It was disgorged by hand, à la volée, under a descending moon, and only 900 bottles came out of it. As with every wine of the house, no sugar went in at disgorgement.