NV Georges Laval 'Garennes' - Extra Brut - CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE. 750ml
Four generations of the Laval family have been tending vines in Champagne and they have been producing estate bottled wines since the 1970’s. Georges Laval, Vincent’s father, was the first to begin bottling wines at the domaine in 1971. Vincent officially joined the family business in 1991 after finishing his studies, and as of 1996 he has been at the helm of the estate.
Georges set the standard for the quality of the wines coming from this tiny estate and Vincent really hasn’t changed much since he took the reins. The vineyards have been farmed organically since 1971, after Georges read a report from by Jacques Cousteau noting that he and his team had found residual pesticides in the ice of the Arctic, an area with essentially no crops to have been treated with said pesticides. The domaine was one of the first to make the conversion to organics, and for many years was one of only a handful of producers to farm in this manner.
FARMING & PHILOSOPHY…
The Laval’s have about 2.5 hectares of vineyard holdings that they farm organically, certified Ecocert, along with some biodynamic practices. To avoid any chemical overspray from neighboring plots the Laval’s go a few steps further to protect their soils & vines by treating about 30 additional acres of vines with their own organic treatments. They also were able to get all aerial treatment companies to distance their overhead treatments more than 15m from any of the families organic plots. They even went as far as to trade parcels with other growers in order to have all their plots in specific lieu dits be all one cohesive parcel as opposed to separate parcels throughout a given vineyard site.
All vineyard work is done by hand and there are only 4 people, including Vincent, who carry out all this work. Plowing is done by horse in all of their plots. All of their organic treatments and sprays are used only when necessary and with as little as possible.
Cellar work mirrors their work in the vineyards, by hand and with minimal intervention. All vinification is done with native yeasts and in barrel. Vincent likes to leave the fermented juice in barrel longer than most, opting to bottle them around 10 months after harvest. SO2 is kept to an absolute minimum and he rarely adds any dosage to the wines. None of the wines are fined or filtered, all clarification happens naturally with the juice left to settle. Once in bottle the wine is left on the lees for 18-48 months, depending on the cuvée, before being disgorged.
VINEYARDS…
Of the 2.5 hectares of vines that the Laval’s own and farm, 2 of them are in Cumières and only a 1/2 hectare is located in Chembrecy in the Montagne de Reims. The fruit from the Chambrecy parcel goes into Vincent’s only wine produced with reserve juice, Garennes.
Garennes -
A few years back, Vincent Laval took over some additional family vineyards on the Montagne de Reims. The wine from these vines now makes up the base wine of this much-awaited Garennes cuvée. Fermented and aged in neutral barrels with some reserve wines blended in this wine has notes of minerals, pear, and citrus in the nose lead into a wine with gorgeous balance and persistence. The sophisticated balance between precise mineral precision and fleshy texture makes this a wine with few precedents.
