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SCENARIO
The history of the Labruyère Family started in 1850, when the founder of the Macon family branch, Jean-Marie, settles down in Les Thorins, which became part of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation in 1924. Since then, every generation has contributed to the preservation and the development of this viticultural treasure. Jean-Pierre Labruyère, President of Labruyère Eberlé Group for more than 30 years, passed the reins of the estate to his son Edouard in 2008, in order to create a leading winery in the appellation.
Meanwhile two other chapters of the Labruyères wine history had been written.
In 1988, Jean-Pierre Labruyère took over the control of the prestigious Domaine Jacques Prieur with a group of investors, to protect this Burgundian jewel. And in 1992, Jean-Pierre becomes the first Burgundian owner to invest in Bordeaux as he acquired 18 hectares of the best terroirs in Pomerol; it was a new start for Château Rouget.
In 2012 the Labruyère family decided to complete its mosaic of terroirs with vineyards in Verzenay, a Champagne Grand Cru village renowned for its Pinot Noir. Owning all our vineyards, we are able to master each stage in the wine-growing and winemaking processes with terroir, tradition and the excellence, being our core values.
In tribute to his ancestor who preceded him by six generations, Edouard decided to name this new domaine, J.M. Labruyère.
The origin of the estate goes back to the 1820, the year when its beautiful cellars were built, and the first bottles saw daylight in 1863. Several families owned the property and vineyards on exceptional Grand Cru terroirs during the 20th century and in 2012 they made a choice to entrust the keys of their wine jewel to another family of vine growers from Burgundy: Labruyère. Today the entire team is dedicated to bringing the domaine among Grower's Champagne elite by combining traditions, sustainable agriculture, haute-couture vinification, Burgundian know-how and vineyard designated approach to let each terroir show itself.
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AUTHORS
Edouard Labruyère
Passionate oenophile and in love with French wines, Edouard Labruyère acquired 6 hectares of vineyards located on the most beautiful Grand Cru terroirs of the Montagne de Reims between 2012 and 2014 and created between 2016 and 2017 Champagne J.M. Labruyère.
In 2008 Jean-Pierre Labruyère, an important Burgundian entrepreneur and a proponent of the great French terroirs, asked his son to take the reins of the family estates. Since then Edouard is in charge of Domaine Labruyère and Domaine Jacques Prieur in Burgundy, Château Rouget in Pomerol.
Nadine Gublin
Nadine is the winemaker at Domaine Jacques Prieur since 1990 and Domaine Labruyère since 2009. Born in Champagne, she reconciliates with her origins since 2012, working on creating Champagne J.M. Labruyère. Well-known from in the world of wine, she was also the first woman in France to receive the title of Winemaker of the Year 1998 by the Revue du Vin de France. Believing in sustainable methods in viticulture, precision in vinification, harvests at high maturity, Nadine is perfectly representing the last three decades in French winemaking.
Vincent Van Waesberghe
Technical manager of the Domaine since 2012, Vincent, native Champenois, coming from a family of winemakers since several generations, he has inherited a unique know-how and a perfect knowledge of the traditional winemaking and Montagne de Reims terroirs.
After meeting Edouard Labruyère in 2012 he joined JM Labruyère team with an ambition to create a unique champagne on the greatest terroirs of Verzenay.
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VINEYARD
J.M. Labruyere Champagne Grand Cru represents today almost 6 hectares (15 acres) located in Verzenay and Verzy. Vineyards are composed of 70% of Pinot Noir and 30% of Chardonnay.
In 1873, an unofficial ranking placed Verzenay among the top 3 Crus in Champagne and that is why the Labruyère Family chose this village on the glorious Montagne de Reims. It is a charming place steeped in history: its soils and vineyards are famed since Gallo-Roman times. In the ninth century, it was named Virdunacus from the Latin Viridium Sanum meaning "green area". Partially destroyed during World War I due to its proximity to the front, Verzenay managed to keep intact its two symbolic buildings: a windmill located on Mont-Boeuf and a famous lighthouse on Mont Rizan that is now a Museum of the Vine.
Out of the 320 grape-growing villages in Champagne only 17 are ranked Grand Cru for the quality of their grapes. Montagne de Reims (286 metres / 879 feet) influences and protects the terroir of Verzenay renowned for its Pinot Noir, endowing champagne with exceptional character, structure and ageing potential.
The estate has the chance to own vineyards in some of the best "climats" of Montagne de Reims such as Les Rochelles, Les Champs Saint-Martin, Les Longues Raies, Les Champs Romés and Les Potences.
Edouard Labruyère chose to apply in Verzenay same techniques as in Meursault and in Pomerol, both in the cellar and in the vineyard. Since 2012 he is working together with Vincent Van Waesberghe, Chef de Cave and Chef de Vigne, and Nadine Gublin, oenologist from Domaine Jacques Prieur. In this new adventure, we pursue our philosophy: discovering and reviving mythical forgotten French terroirs. We believe that these Grand Cru vineyards have the potential to produce icon wines and only the best grapes from exclusive plots will be used to craft them.
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CELLAR
The grape harvest is always manual, and the sorting is made with precaution directly in the vineyard in order to select only the healthy bunches before being transported to the estate to be pressed directly. We pick the grapes later that many other vine growers to obtain base wines with balance approaching our Burgundy wines.
Pressing is carried out in a very gentle and progressive way to get the highest quality juice. Thanks to the fractioning of marc we can separate the cuvée, the most qualitative must used for our assemblages, from all other phases of pressing. Les tailles, the first and the last presses are not used for J.M. Labruyère Champagne.
We press and vinify separately each parcel to respect the identity of each terroir. That enables us to have a very significant pallet of choice during the assemblages. All our base wines are going through malolactic fermentation before the rest phase.
Later, often in January, the team meets to define assemblages (blends) of the base wines of the last harvest and the reserve wines. Our philosophy, influenced by Burgundy and Bordeaux, tends towards an expression of each vintage which composes our champagne wines.
This is how our cuvées are created: Prologue (classical Grand Cru blend with dominant Pinon Noir), Anthologie (Grand Cru rosé d'assemblage) and Page Blanche (Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru). Usually they are bottled in the spring following the harvest to give way to their second fermentation (prise de mousse).
To get the finest bubble, an important vinosity and aromatic complexity, the aging process "sur lattes" takes between 3 and 5 years, and up to 10 years for millésime champagnes.
At disgorgement we chose to work with low dosage and our best wines for the liqueur, to produce perfectly ripe and balanced terroir-driven wines.
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