Champagne Chartogne Taillet (Merfy)

The first document showing vinegrowing activity by the Taillet family in the village of Merfy dates from 1683. Merfy, in the Massif de St-Thierry northwest of Reims, is not the most heralded cru today, yet it has been renowned for its wines since the Middle Ages: it was mentioned in the ninth century by Pardulus, Bishop of Laon, in a letter to the Archbishop Hincmar, and in fact the vineyard that he names, Chemin de Reims, is still cultivated by Chartogne-Taillet today. In 1775, Sir Edward Barry wrote that "among the River Wines the Auvillers and Epernay are most esteemed, and among the Mountain Wines the Selery and St. Thyery." As the most famous cru of the Massif, Merfy would have been virtually synonymous with the name St-Thierry, and for it to be mentioned alongside Sillery in those times was high praise indeed.

Today Chartogne-Taillet is the only récoltant-manipulant in the village. The Chartogne family arrived in Merfy in 1870, and in 1920 Marie Chartogne married Étienne Taillet, creating the Chartogne-Taillet estate. Since 1978 it has been managed by Philippe Chartogne and his wife Élisabeth, and their son Alexandre is now in charge of the cellars and the vineyards. Remarkably, the Taillet family has kept a written diary of vinegrowing and winemaking records dating back to Fiacre Taillet, who was born in 1700. You can read these if you pay a visit to the estate today, and both Philippe and Alexandre are carrying on the family tradition in the form of commentary on harvests, weather conditions, yields and other viticultural data.

Alexandre Chartogne worked with Anselme Selosse, who has heavily influenced his ideas on viticulture. He regularly continue working with him during the winemaking process.

Today, all of Chartogne's parcels are plowed where possible, and numerous cover crops are grown between the rows of vines. Above all, the viticulture is focused on preserving and expressing the distinct characters of Merfy's various terroirs. "What is unusual about Merfy is that we have clay and sand over chalk," says Alexandre, "so the vines are living in two different environments. It’s important that the roots go deep into the ground in order to extract real minerality, and sometimes our roots go down more than 20 meters." Each parcel is vinified separately, and fermentation is largely in stainless steel tanks, although an increasing number of wines are being made in secondhand barriques.

Chartogne-Taillet’s wines are harmonious and deliciously satisfying, and in the last few years they have become increasingly more vinous and complex in expression, reflecting the focus on a more sensitive viticulture. They are strongly driven by the terroir of the Massif de St-Thierry, shaped by the sand and clay soils of the region, and they are the finest champagnes being made today in this historically important area north of Reims. While Alexandre Chartogne is not necessarily a partisan of ultra-low dosage, the dosage levels have recently been decreasing here in response to riper fruit, resulting in a more vibrant balance and intensity. Alexandre’s work so far has been very impressive, and this is definitely an estate on its way up.

Chartogne-Taillet’s non-vintage brut is called the Cuvée Sainte-Anne, named for the patron saint of Merfy. It’s a fine introduction to the region’s terroir—in the last couple of years it has become drier and more vinous as Alexandre puts his personal stamp on the wine.

In 2006, Alexandre Chartogne bottled a pure meunier for the first time, from a parcel of ungrafted vines in the vineyard of Les Barres. These vines were never touched by phylloxera (same as the Bollinger VVF), thanks to the sandy soils in this section of Merfy, and today they are over 55 years old. Chartogne made 1,900 bottles of Les Barres in this inaugural vintage, vinified entirely in barrel, and it was released as a non-dosé in 2009—note that the vintage date does not appear on the label, since the wine was aged for fewer than three years on its lees.

The estate’s tête de cuvée is the Cuvée Fiacre, named for Fiacre Taillet. Made only in top vintages, it combines chardonnay from the historically famous vineyard of Chemin de Reims with pinot noir from 50-year old vines in the nearby parcel of Les Oriseaux, creating a wine of intense personality and pronounced finesse. All the wines are vinified in concret "egg-shape" vats (photo)

(Peter Liem, ChampagneGuide.net)