Champagne Dhondt-Grellet ‘Les Terres Fines’ Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut NV

Location: France, Champagne, Cote des Blancs

Winemaker: Adrien Dhondt

Grapes: Chardonnay

Sourced from a number of small parcels scattered around the village of Cuis and Chouilly

Winemaking: Organic farming. Hand harvest. It is vinified in oak and is 70% of the base vintage with the remainder a perpetual reserve started in 1986. Dosage is under 1g/l. It’s his most fine-boned cuvée and serves as a snapshot of the northern Cote de Blancs.

Disgorgement: September 2025

From the Importer Grand Cru Selections:

Champagne Dhondt-Grellet was established in 1986 in the village of Flavigny, just outside Avize, when Éric Dhondt and Édith Grellet chose to begin estate bottling their own wines. The Dhondt family, originally Belgian farmers, had acquired vineyards in the Sézannais in the 1960s, while the Grellet family is rooted in Cuis and Cramant. Starting with just two hectares, the domaine has since expanded to roughly three times its original size.

A new chapter began in 2012, when Adrien took over winemaking at the age of 22. Today, he works alongside his sister Alice in continuing to shape the domaine’s direction, refining its focus on Chardonnay grown across the Côte des Blancs.

Since the beginning, the family has maintained a perpetual reserve, forming a quiet but essential part of the domaine’s identity. Each year, a portion is drawn off for tirage and replenished with wine from the new vintage before being returned to barrel on its lees. The reserve is moved back to tank ahead of harvest, and the cycle repeats—ensuring continuity while keeping the barrels in constant use.

Recent vintages mark an important step in the domaine’s evolution. The 2021 harvest, in particular, forms the backbone of several key cuvées, often supported by reserve wines to balance the vintage’s natural tension. Wines such as Roc Solaire reflect a shift toward more structured, textural expressions, where élevage and fruit maturity play an increasingly central role alongside freshness.

Grand Cru Selections has worked with Adrien Dhondt since his earliest vintages at the family estate, and it has been a privilege to follow the steady evolution of his work in the Côte des Blancs. Under his direction, Champagne Dhondt-Grellet has taken on a sharply defined identity, rooted in precision, site expression and a thoughtful approach to Chardonnay. Centered on key parcels in Cramant, Cuis and most recently the Coteaux du Sézannais, the wines are refined, mineral and quietly expressive—articulating the nuances of the region’s chalk soils with clarity and tension.

In 2018, Adrien began a small-scale négociant project under his own name, working with fruit from villages such as Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Each cuvée is produced as a singular release, shaped by the vintage, with sites often changing from year to year. A consistent approach to vinification allows these cuvées to highlight individual villages or micro-terroirs with clarity. Bottled at slightly lower pressure to emphasize texture, they offer a distinct complement to the domaine.Driven by curiosity and a relentless pursuit of terroir expression,

Adrien continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in Champagne, and we couldn’t be more excited about the direction of this young domaine.