Champagne Les Rachais

Revue du Vin de France : 18,5 /20 (5th out of 350)
Jacques Dupont - Le Point special Champagne : 18 /20
Guide Gault Millau 2010 : 17,5 /20
Guide Les Meilleurs Vins de France 2010 : 17 /20

Blanc de Blancs Extra-Brut
Chardonnay - Extra Brut without dosage
(natural sugar > 3 g. / L)

These are the first grapes from the section of our vineyards which are being converted to B-organic (natural cultivation without herbicide or chemicals).

Vineyards:
The Massif de Saint-Thierry, to the North-East of the Montagne de Reims.
Varietals. The white grape variety Chardonnay only (Blanc de Blancs is a white wine made only from white grapes). Specially selected Chardonnay originally from Burgundy.
Soil type: Flint bearing chalk.
Average age of Vines: 40 years (planted 1967)

Cultivation: Natural, ecological and organic (B-dynamic). Without herbicides. No synthetic fungicide. The grassing is controlled by light ploughing and scarification in season.
Pruning: short, Chablis system.

Harvesting: Manual on a "fruit day" (according to the lunar calendar used in the old days by gardeners and also by adherent of Bio-dynamic methods). "Late" harvesting to obtain optimum ripeness, a naturally raised alcohol level and to let the aromas blossom.
Pressing: 4000 kg pneumatic press to give a refined and delicate choice of juice.

Vinification :
Natural and indigenous yeasts.
Alcoholic and malolactic fermentations carried out in small oak barrels used 6 times previously.
Lees are beaten up into the wine, depending upon the character of the vintage, every 10 to 12 days.
Neither fined not filtered.
Bottled on a "fruit day" (even if the careful and meticulous work which we carry out in the vines throughout the year is indubitably more important than merely harvesting and bottling at the right time moment in the lunar cycle).
Blending: Wine entirely from the year concerned. No blending with aged reserve wines.
Extra-Brut, dosage: 2g/litre (harvest 2002)

Serving Temperature: 12°C. (54°F)

Marriage with food: Splendid aperitif wine. Lobster or Dublin bay prawns with a curry sauce, noble fish either sauced or not.

Read the press reviews (in french)...