Champagne "La Parcelle"
I didn't know it existed (and I sniff around like mad looking for gems like this.) Frankly, hardly anyone knew it existed. Only my deepest, inside source on the ground in Champagne (I'll never tell!) knew what was up. I'm talking about the most exciting (yet potentially frustrating) find yet in all my years in this business.
Stéphanie Chevreux and Julien Bournazel are a husband and wife team - they own and run a vineyard management company that farms over 370 acres of vineyards throughout the Champagne region for a multitude of producers small and large. They specialize in Organic and Biodynamic viticulture, and they're the go-to team for top quality hands-on vineyard work.
With money saved from 20 years of their vineyard management business, in 2012 they were able to buy a .4 hectare (1 acre) parcel of old Pinot Meunier vines on a steep slope in Barzy-sur-Marne in the western Marne Valley. It was a parcel they knew well, having farmed it for the 15 previous years.
Thus, in 2012 Champagne La Parcelle was born - a single vineyard, single grape, single vintage Champagne, with an annual production of less than 1,000 bottles.
Small doesn't always mean good, nor does big necessarily mean bad (though in Champagne that's often the case, sadly), but in this case small simply means magnificent. They don't have a fancy tasting room or a gift shop. They've got a funky 1600s farmhouse, a few goats, and three barrels of wine. And they rock.
The name "La Parcelle" will continue, even though they've now added another parcel - a little over an acre of Pinot Meunier in nearby village of Connigis - nearly doubling their production (wow - they're up to 150+ cases a year now!) Stay tuned for news of the first release of their newest baby...