Cover Glass of Champagne Leclerc Briant
Soft light started to brighten the enchanting snow-covered slopes, causing them to shimmer with hints of sparkles that were seen throughout the entire majestic landscape. Even though children can imagine magical worlds in the most common places, this little girl living within this winter wonderland, who grew up on her family’s ski resort in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, didn’t have to imagine magic as she witnessed it every day. She understood the valuable lesson of working to create the ideal escape for her family’s guests who needed refuge from the daily grind of their lives.
Ski village
The girl, Denise Dupré, grew up wanting to find her own way, first going through the rigors of higher education by attending Dartmouth College and later Cornell University; despite studying hospitality management, she carved out an independent way by going into advertising. Fate had other plans for her though, as she was assigned to a major restaurant chain and it only intensified her passion for hospitality and her intense drive to give people “life-changing” moments created by places, food and wine. She then worked for a hotel consulting firm and taught hospitality management at prestigious universities such as Boston University and Harvard.
Denise Dupré and Mark Nunnelly
Denise Dupré married Mark Nunnelly, who is not only the former managing director of the private equity firm Bain Capital but also has the same passion for the unwavering dedication to hospitality that Denise had built her life on. He also shares her love for incredibly soulful wines that can transport one to a better world.
It is not surprising that if Denise and Mark were drawn to wines that could transport the drinker, they would adore Burgundy wines. That adoration led them to buy the Clos de la Commaraine estate in the Burgundy village of Pommard, with a historic monopole vineyard around nine acres. But they also have great affection for the bubbles of Champagne and were in a position to purchase a tiny, pioneering Champagne house, unknown to the U.S. as it was mainly consumed in France. It was in danger of being taken over by a large conglomerate company that would most probably disregard the name of the Champagne house – a family name that has made Champagne wines for over a century, since, in global marketing terms, it had very little worth.
But the house’s name, Champagne Leclerc Briant, has tremendous value to Denise, who understands what a family sacrifices to build a business whose sole purpose is to give life-altering experiences, assuring there is no compromise on quality. As she delved into the history of Leclerc Briant, she realized that the fourth generation of the estate, Bertrand Leclerc, had been employing organic practices since the 1960s, which was extremely rare in Champagne during that time, and even further, he produced single vintage, single vineyard bottlings of Champagne in the 1970s, another unorthodox choice. His son, Pascal Leclerc, was one of a few pioneers in the Champagne region to use biodynamic practices, starting in 1990.
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Hervé Jestin
Pascal Leclerc passed away in 2010, and the transition was complicated with the next generation as considerable taxes were due and his children did not have the financial resources. Of course, they knew that a much bigger company would swoop in as they were desperate – so desperate that they would be forced to end their family’s legacy. But fate was on their side as Denise and Mark completely fell in love with Champagne Leclerc Briant, and they would do everything in their means to not only live up to the Leclerc legacy of generations before but allowed the estate to live up to its full potential, beyond the family’s wildest dreams. And so, Frédéric Zeimatt was brought on as general manager, having 20 years of experience at one of Champagne’s top houses, and Hervé Jestin became chief winemaker, a man described as “one of Champagne’s best winemakers” by wine critic and Champagne expert Peter Liem.
Champagne Leclerc Briant vineyards
Hervé Jestin’s theories about biodynamics can even seem mysterious to other winemakers who practice it as it is challenging to understand concretely how he is getting such brilliant results in the bottle. Pierre Baptiste Jestin, Hervé Jestin’s son, who is the director of operations at Champagne Leclerc Briant, talked about his father’s focus on “bioenergy” in terms of considering how it relates to biodynamic practices and the concept is to recognize that nature is perfect and people feel the power of that perfection when they are in nature. And so, Hervé Jestin’s aim, according to his son, is to “wake up a deep emotion” when the Champagne wines from Leclerc Briant are drunk because it evokes an all-consuming feeling that transports the drinker to the experience of being surrounded by such perfection. But there is no training manual for producing bioenergetic wine, and he has been on a mission to carve out a road that doesn’t exist.
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Champagne Leclerc Briant bottles being taken out of the sea
Significant work was being done in the vineyards of Leclerc Briant when it came to growing grapes containing a tremendous amount of bioenergy. Still, Hervé knew there needed to be a lot more work in the winery to increase this energy from Mother Nature. Despite biodynamic practices being mainly rooted in the vineyards, Hervé Jestin has spent over a quarter of a century working with biodynamic principles in the winery and he is considered to be a leading expert when it comes to using the practices in this way. For example, he has been aging Champagne Leclerc Briant bottles in the sea, below, around 200 feet deep, and since there is “a permanent water dynamization,” he claims, the energy in the bottle is 30% more than the same bottle that has been aging in their cellar. He also used a stainless steel barrel lined with gold to increase solar influence during the first fermentation. And there have been many experiments and many more to come.
Glass of Champagne Leclerc Briant
Denise Dupré has already laid down an impressive legacy with her incredible career but it was far from complete; if anything, it was a new beginning as she and her husband not only purchased two historic wine estates but she also founded Champagne Hospitality, a design and development venture dedicated to redefining luxury travel, incorporating sustainability and innovation as she understands that needs to be the future for European wine regions that do not have the hospitality infrastructure such as a Napa Valley. She has also ensured that each hotel and vineyard contributes to their local communities by uplifting the people and economy as well as protecting the environment.
And she couldn’t find a better chief winemaker than Hervé Jestin who has four decades of working with Champagne wines, the first half with a big house and the second half on his own as one of the most respected specialists of biodynamic winemaking working with a range of Champagne houses. But with Champagne Leclerc Briant, he has been able to reach for the stars as Denise and her husband always tell their team that their ideas are not big enough, that they shouldn’t be afraid to think beyond what they didn’t think is possible. And so, a historic Champagne house about to fade into obscurity is now one of the most exciting projects watched closely by Champagne experts and connoisseurs alike.
An excellent partnership between two extraordinary people who, instead of thinking that their time shaping the world has ended and stepping to the side, decided to come more front and center with their wealth of experience and knowledge. “Transformative power,” as Denise states, comes from the combination of passion, power, and perseverance, and the wines of Leclerc Briant are already starting to transform how consumers and experts view the multifaceted potential of Champagne.
NV Champagne Leclerc Briant
Champagne Leclerc Briant owns 24.7 acres of vineyards that are all organic and biodynamic. They are situated between the Premier Cru villages of Cumières, Hautvillers, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Bisseuil in the Vallée de la Marne, Villers-Allerand and Rilly la Montagne in Montagne de Reims, and the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil Sur Oger in the Côte des Blancs. Leclerc Briant also holds long-term contracts with another 19.7 acres of organically farmed vineyards.
NV Champagne Leclerc Briant, Réserve Brut: Even though they label this Champagne as a Non-Vintage Réserve Brut, it is entirely from the 2018 vintage with only 4.5 grams per liter of residual sugar (g/l rs), technically making it an Extra Brut as it has less than 6g/l rs making it drier than a typical Brut. But they want it to be positioned in the market as a Non-Vintage Brut since that is the most popular category. Hervé Jestin has chosen only a single vintage for all their selections since he wants the bioenergy from a particular moment in time to be captured from the vineyards. 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier and 20% Chardonnay. An exquisite array of aromas with blood orange zest, strawberry tart mingled with hazelnuts and crushed limestone with gentle bubbles that caress the palate with a touch of creaminess.
2017 Champagne Leclerc Briant, Le Clos des Trois Clochers
2017 Champagne Leclerc Briant, Le Clos des Trois Clochers Single Vineyard, Brut Zéro: 100% Chardonnay with only 1g/l rs from the Le Clos des Trois Clochers vineyard located in the Premier Cru village of Villers Allerand. This vineyard is located in the red grape dominant area of Montagne de Reims, and so, a 100% Chardonnay, a.k.a. Blanc de Blancs, is very rare, and Hervé Jestin wanted to show the expression of this terroir, sense of place, through the Chardonnay grape. This is a wonderfully voluptuous wine with expansive, rich stone fruit flavors intermixed with baking spices and hints of croissant laced with an intense minerality that brings elegance to this richness with a fierce vibrancy along the highly expressive finish.
2018 Champagne Leclerc Briant, Les Monts Ferrés
2018 Champagne Leclerc Briant, Les Monts Ferrés Single Vineyard, Extra Brut: 100% Chardonnay with only 1.4g/l rs from the Les Monts Ferrés vineyard located in the Premier Cru village of Vertus. This 100% Chardonnay is from the cooler area of Côte des Blancs, which is known for mainly Chardonnay plantings, unlike Montagne de Reims. This vineyard is located in a particular area named the “Iron Hills” because the soil is chalky like much of the Champagne region but it contains a large amount of iron. Lots of tension and electric energy with lots of saline minerality with very fine notes of white flowers and lemon confit with a touch of pastry cream that has a great drive along the extraordinarily long and expressive finish with mouthwatering, racy acidity.
NV Champagne Leclerc Briant, Extra Brut Rosé
NV Champagne Leclerc Briant, Extra Brut Rosé: 93% Chardonnay from Chouilly and Montgueux and 7% Pinot Noir from Les Riceys in the Aube, entirely from the 2019 vintage with 3.5g/l rs. Bursting with so much delicious life as raspberry coulis, white cherries and orange blossom intermingled with almond cookies and a creamy body that turned the fine bubbles into silky ribbons with lively acidity and lots of vitality.
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