2004 Blanc de Blancs La Haute Lemblé

The gate opens to reveal a dilapidated villa worthy of a Romantic opera. It is easy to imagine what the building must have looked like in its prime. We are in Landreville, a few kilometers from Celles-sur-Ource, in the Aube. In the middle of nowhere. Literally. An abandoned residence is off to the left, but it is the cellar in the center of the small property that brought Cédric Bouchard to this spot. We descend into the cave through a wobbly freight elevator and it is clear why Bouchard is attracted to his new winery. The cellar is cold. Frigid, actually. Just the way Bouchard likes it. In front of me is Bouchard's entire library, all the way back to 2000. Just a few bottles of most of his wines. “You choose what you want to taste,” Bouchard says, and he starts preparing the bottles. Every year it is pretty much the same. Given the tiny production of these wines, I usually focus on those I haven't tasted in a while. I am curious to see how long I can handle the Siberia-like conditions. But, then again, these wines have a way of channeling my focus. Over the last dozen years, Bouchard has essentially deconstructed Champagne. His wines are single-variety, single-parcel and single-vintage, essentially everything Champagne on a broader scale is not. But it goes beyond that. Bouchard is an atypical winemaker in that he never tastes his Champagnes before they are disgorged and only rarely once they are released. Bouchard idolizes Anselme Selosse, but makes no effort to meet him because he wants to maintain the spirit and emotion of anticipation. Over the last few years, Bouchard has begun spending time in California. I wonder how many Champenoise have visited Saxum and Abreu, and can talk about the wines? Not too many, I think. Bouchard's latest project is a sparkling wine he is making with Bill Wentzlau and Justin Willet from Wentzlau's vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills, one of the most promising sites in Santa Barbara. This is Cédric Bouchard. From a technical perspective, it all starts in the vineyard, where yields are ridiculously low. Farming is as hands-off as is practical. The wines are all made in stainless steel, using indigenous yeasts. The Rosé de Saignée Le Creux d'Enfer, one of Bouchard's signature wines, is crushed by foot and fermented entirely with stems. The wines are bottled with less pressure than most Champagnes, around 4.5 atmospheres versus the more common 6 or so, which is part of what gives the Bouchard Champagnes their nearly imperceptible bubbles. Some of the early wines were dosed, but today all of the wines are bottled with zero dosage. Although they weren't a part of this tasting, Bouchard also makes a set of Champagnes under the Inflorescence label that emerge from vineyard sites Bouchard does not control. All of the Roses de Jeanne Champagnes are made from vineyards Bouchard owns and farms himself. Having seen all of those sites, I can say they are truly a wonder to behold. Cédric Bouchard's Champagnes remain some of the most unique, personal wines being made anywhere in the world. Readers might also enjoy taking a look at this video covering current releases.

Cédric Bouchard is one of the most promising emerging young growers in Champagne. At their best, Bouchard's Champagnes are exciting, viscerally thrilling wines that will challenge readers' perceptions about what Champagne is and can be. The house style emphasizes single-vintage, single-vineyard, single-variety wines made in strict accordance with a natural, non-interventionalist approach in the vineyards and cellar. While these principles are not uncommon in the production of still wines, they are quite revolutionary in Champagne, where the vast majority of wines are built through the art and craft of blending across vintages, grape varieties and sites. Many of Bouchard's wines do not spend enough time on their lees to be formally declared as vintage wines, even though they are all single-vintage Champagnes. Production is tiny, and averages just a few hundred bottles for the top selections.

Bouchard finds most of his inspiration in the wines of Burgundy and likes to say he doesn't make Champagne, but rather makes wines from Champagne (the region), which pretty much sums up his approach. Bouchard's passion and relentless pursuit for excellence are admirable and can only lead to one question; why aren't there more Cédric Bouchards in the world of wine? The answer is of course simple, as there are very few people, in any field, who put excellence and perfection in their work above pure monetary gain. Readers who haven't yet experienced these magnificent Champagnes owe it to themselves to do so, as these are some of the purest and most profound wines being made anywhere in the world.

The winery is located in sleepy Celles-sur-Ource, a tiny village in the southern district of the Aube, far from the higher-profile, better known towns of the Cȏte des Blancs and the Vallée de la Marne. The non-descript building sits a stone's throw from the impeccably tended vineyards, many of which are located in the slopes above Celles. Bouchard spent a number of years working in the family business but fundamentally did not share his father's decidedly commercial approach to making Champagne, so in 2000 Bouchard began working on his own with tiny plots of land and equally small quarters carved out of his family's cellar. The ‘tasting room' is minimalist, to say the least. There are no chairs or tables, just bottles lined up on a dirt floor. Bouchard says he wants no distractions when it comes to tasting his wines. Fair enough, although with wines like these, it's hard to see a table and chairs offering any kind of competition!

Bouchard's approach begins and ends in the vineyards, where a maniacal pursuit of low yields and natural farming are the rule. That philosophy carries through to the cellar, where the wines are handled as little as possible. Fermentations are carried out with indigenous yeasts and temperature is not regulated. The wines go into bottle with no cold stabilization, fining or filtration, all techniques common in commercially made Champagnes. The liqueur de tirage contains about 16 grams of sugar per liter, which results in a lower-pressure style of 4.5 to 5 atmospheres (versus the more conventional 6 atmospheres) and a mousse that is incredibly finessed, with tiny, slow-moving bubbles that literally caress the palate like silk. The wines are bottled with no dosage.

Among recent vintages Bouchard cites 2001 and 2007 as among those he likes best, which will come as a shock to readers familiar with vintages in Champagne, as these are universally regarded as the two weakest years in recent memory. But then again that is Bouchard, a man intrigued and fascinated by everything that is a challenge and bored by things that are too easy. He remains skeptical about 2009, a vintage that many of his colleagues are much more excited about.

The Inflorescence line consists of négociant wines made from vineyards Bouchard does not own. Yields are relatively high for the house's standards but ridiculously low for Champagne, at around 50 hectoliters per hectare. The Inflorescence Champagnes emphasize supple fruit and are accessible, open wines meant to be enjoyed upon release. The Blanc de Noirs Val Vilaine is made from a plot owned by Bouchard's father, which constitutes the winery's largest source of fruit, with 1.49 hectares under vine. The Blanc de Noirs La Parcelle is produced from a site Bouchard purchased in 2007, but the wines that are in the market today were already in bottle when he bought the property. According to Bouchard La Parcelle had always been farmed naturally and he was attracted to the vineyard because the wines were very high in quality and shared a similar aesthetic with his.

The top of the line Roses de Jeanne Champagnes are made from sites Bouchard owns directly, with the exception of Les Ursules, which is controlled through a long-term lease. Many of these sites were planted by Bouchard himself. Yields average a measly 26 hectoliters per hectare for Roses de Jeanne, a level unheard of for most still wines, let alone Champagne, where yields can easily be more than three times as much. These are serious wines loaded with fruit, structure and character. The wines are incredibly appealing upon release, but are also proving to have the ability to develop beautifully in bottle.

This wine was tasted during the La Paulee Gala Dinner in New York City, 2009.

The explosive, kaleidoscopic Champagnes of Cedric Bouchard are some of the most compelling wines coming out of the region today. Quite simply, this set of new releases left me speechless and literally shaking my head in awe. Readers should do whatever they can to experience these magnificent wines. Bouchard farms just under three hectares of vineyards. There are two ranges; the Inflorescence wines are made from vineyards owned by Bouchard's father, while the Roses de Jeanne wines are made from vineyards Bouchard owns himself. The vineyards are cropped to yields that would be considered miniscule in any region in the world, but are shockingly low compared to the average in Champagne, where high yields are prevalent. Because of the low yields, the wines reveal a very fine and subtle mousse. The wines are made from hand harvested fruit, crushed by foot and fermented with natural yeasts. Bouchard prefers stainless steel, as he believes the neutrality of steel allows for the maximum amount of expression of his philosophy, which is single-vineyard, single-vintage and single-variety bottlings. The wines are neither fined nor filtered and are disgorged with no dosage. Unfortunately the wines do not carry a disgorgement date on the label, although I am told that will be changing next year.