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Location: France, Champagne, Montagne de Reims
Winemaker: Benoît Marguet
Grapes: 50% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir, 10% Pinot Meunier
Soil: Chalk with varying degrees of topsoil
Winemaking: Organic farming. Hand harvest Fermentation and elevage in neutral oak with native yeasts for 9 months
Bottling date: July 2024
Disgorged: Februrary 2026
Dosage: 3.8 g/L
From the Importer Grand Cru Selections: There are few producers in all of Champagne who could make a better case for terroir-driven wines than Alexandre Chartogne. A visit with him at his family estate offers a deep dive into both the largely overlooked history and geological diversity of his hometown of Merfy, just a fifteen-minute drive from Reims in the Massif de Saint-Thierry, where his family has tended vines for centuries.
Since taking over his family's estate in 2006, Alexandre is constantly evolving, observing and questioning how to best express his individual parcels. Convinced that it is indeed the soils and subsoils, alive and preserved, which forge the identity of wine, in Champagne as much as in neighboring Burgundy, he has dug deep into historical maps and documents from his family archive, spent countless hours carefully analyzing soils of each plot to better guide his work and has never been afraid of experimentation in his cellar.
This inquisitive and passionate approach over the past ten years, has made him one of the superstars in Champagne today. The resulting wines have energy, character and longevity with a delicate touch and finesse that highlights both an underlying salinity and the personality of each of his terroirs. We are honored to play a part in the preservation of something so special.
Chartogne-Taillet remains the only récoltant-manipulant producer in the village. After a formative experience working under Ansleme Selosse, Alexandre Chartogne returned to his family estate in 2006, at the age of 23. placing an increased emphasis on single-vineyard champagnes with his inaugural effort - 2006 Les Barres, a particular parcel of ungrafted Meunier, planted in 1952. The soil in this parcel is sand for almost 3 meters before the roots reach the chalk bedrock, allowing the vines “to live in two environments”.
Following his parent’s retirement in 2007, Alexandre took control of the entire domaine, experimenting with a kaleidoscope of different vessels for fermentation and elevage, including amphorae and concrete eggs.
Today, he produces wines from 13 different parcels: Les Barres, Beaux Sens, Le Couarres, Couarres Château, Heurtebise, Orizeaux, Les Alliées and Chemin de Reims in Merfy and three small Chardonnay parcels in Oger & Avize in the Côte de Blancs. In each parcel a different variety planted, for Alex it’s the soil and terroir that is central to each cuvée’s expression, not the grape variety.
Location: France, Champagne, Montagne de Reims
Winemaker: Benoît Marguet
Grapes: 50% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir, 10% Pinot Meunier
Soil: Chalk with varying degrees of topsoil
Winemaking: Organic farming. Hand harvest Fermentation and elevage in neutral oak with native yeasts for 9 months
Bottling date: July 2024
Disgorged: Februrary 2026
Dosage: 3.8 g/L
From the Importer Grand Cru Selections: There are few producers in all of Champagne who could make a better case for terroir-driven wines than Alexandre Chartogne. A visit with him at his family estate offers a deep dive into both the largely overlooked history and geological diversity of his hometown of Merfy, just a fifteen-minute drive from Reims in the Massif de Saint-Thierry, where his family has tended vines for centuries.
Since taking over his family's estate in 2006, Alexandre is constantly evolving, observing and questioning how to best express his individual parcels. Convinced that it is indeed the soils and subsoils, alive and preserved, which forge the identity of wine, in Champagne as much as in neighboring Burgundy, he has dug deep into historical maps and documents from his family archive, spent countless hours carefully analyzing soils of each plot to better guide his work and has never been afraid of experimentation in his cellar.
This inquisitive and passionate approach over the past ten years, has made him one of the superstars in Champagne today. The resulting wines have energy, character and longevity with a delicate touch and finesse that highlights both an underlying salinity and the personality of each of his terroirs. We are honored to play a part in the preservation of something so special.
Chartogne-Taillet remains the only récoltant-manipulant producer in the village. After a formative experience working under Ansleme Selosse, Alexandre Chartogne returned to his family estate in 2006, at the age of 23. placing an increased emphasis on single-vineyard champagnes with his inaugural effort - 2006 Les Barres, a particular parcel of ungrafted Meunier, planted in 1952. The soil in this parcel is sand for almost 3 meters before the roots reach the chalk bedrock, allowing the vines “to live in two environments”.
Following his parent’s retirement in 2007, Alexandre took control of the entire domaine, experimenting with a kaleidoscope of different vessels for fermentation and elevage, including amphorae and concrete eggs.
Today, he produces wines from 13 different parcels: Les Barres, Beaux Sens, Le Couarres, Couarres Château, Heurtebise, Orizeaux, Les Alliées and Chemin de Reims in Merfy and three small Chardonnay parcels in Oger & Avize in the Côte de Blancs. In each parcel a different variety planted, for Alex it’s the soil and terroir that is central to each cuvée’s expression, not the grape variety.