ANDRÉ ROBERT

This family estate lies in Grand Cru Village Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in Côte de Blancs and has most of their 14 hectars of vineyards here, the rest in Vallée de la Marne and Vitryat. The family has been making their own wines since the 1960s, but with more than half of the production still being sold to the big houses. Fifth generation Claire Robert is now taking over the reins from father Bertrand together with husband Jean-Baptiste Denizart, both leaving sucessful business careers behind for the life of vignerons.

Farming sustainably and preserving the biodiversity on their lands is a priority and in 2018 they obtained the HVE3 classification, leaving just a small possiblity for treatments in order to save the crop in difficult years. Obtaining the highest quality of grapes with a reduced yield and carefully chosen time of harvest makes for less intervention in the winery, where focus is set on showcasing the beautiful terriors of their diverse vineyards.

Quite rare with wines from Mesnil-sur-Oger, their champagnes usually do not go through malolactic conversion - instead a creaminess is obtained through expert use of old oak barrels and an extended time on the lees. Jean-Baptiste carefully nurtures the wines during the several months that they are kept on the lees in barrels or small steel tanks before the second fermentation in bottle.  The champagnes have a superb clarity of fruit and a lovely texture on the palate.