With the 19s and a small amount of some very special cuvees arriving from Alexandre Lamblot, now’s the time to dive deep into one of Champagne’s brightest new growers.

Alexandre Lamblot is the 13th generation (yes, really!) in his family to produce wine. He farms vineyards in Vrigny and Gueux, both villages in the northernmost part of Montagne de Reims. The holdings in Gueux are a stone's throw from Jerome Prevost, the iconic grower who introduced Lamblot to his importer. Similarly to Prevost, the focus here is on meticulously farmed Pinot Meunier. 

The care and detail he puts into his farming is next level. He fertilizes the soil with a mobile chicken coop and interplants various types of trees to promote diversity and provide shade for the vines. He applies essential oils to the vines to minimize the use of copper and sulfur in the vineyard. When the vines rest in the winter, he even braids their shoots to facilitate an energy exchange and protect against frost. Everything is technically organic, but his philosophy goes far beyond that into a deeply personal approach to treating the land. 

In the cellar, each plot is pressed separately and slowly in a wooden basket press. Fermentation and malo happen naturally in a mix of tank and oak barrels. There’s no fining, filtration, or chaptalisation here. Riddling and disgorgement are both done by hand. This approach to winemaking is as manual and minimal as it gets, especially in Champagne. And, it shows in the final wines. They’re phenolic and aggressively flavored, both traits drawn from pristine fruit, not sugar or yeast–also a rarity in Champagne. 

The wines: 

A. Lamblot, Coteaux Champenois Les Moines Vats [2020]
A bottle of single varietal, still Pinot Noir–another rarity in Champagne. The fruit comes from vines planted in 1984 in Vrigny. Aged two years in Foudre and bottled unfined and unfiltered.