Champagne Marc Chauvet
Based in the tiny village of Rilly-la-Montagne (about 15 minutes south of Reims), the Chauvet family have been making Champagne here since 1529. Winemaker Clotilde Chauvet and her viticulturist brother Nicolas are putting the family’s centuries of experience into every bottle produced from their 32-acre estate on the Montagne de Reims.
I looked for nearly 10 years to find the first Champagne producer to add to our family, and and it turned out that a friend in Burgundy led me to Chauvet, back in 2008. I was immediately taken by the wines, and the warmth of the welcome into the home of Clotilde and her husband Richard “Digger” Murgatroyd (he’s a kiwi – they met in New Zealand when Clo was making wine there at Quartz Reef.) When in Champagne, I most often stay in their home in Rilly, recovering from jet-lag in their guest room while downing copious quantities of their vintage bubbly, or joining Clo for dosage trials out on their deck overlooking the vines.