While it takes a special talent to be a winemaker, having to find a proper balance between a number of factors, such as acidity, ripeness, and in some cases, wood notes and tannins, the job of an enologist for sparkling wines can be even more daunting. Not only do you have those elements to deal with, but you also often have to blend wines from several vintages, ranging anywhere from five to twelve different years, or even more in some instances. Finding the ideal harmony between brand new wines and older ones is a challenge, and typically you have to do this every year when you make a non-vintage cuvée that represents the house style.
Winemakers in Champagne have a difficult job not only because of this reality, but also because of the challenging weather conditions they face in many growing seasons. If you’ve ever traveled to Champagne, you know that the region receives a lot of rain, not only making ripening a trial, but also creating potential problems with vine diseases.
Now imagine working your vineyards in a biodynamic fashion, where herbicides and pesticides that could help prevent diseases are not allowed. For this reason and several others, biodynamic viticulture and winemaking isn’t that prevalent in Champagne, as the climate isn’t what you’d identify as ideal for this method.
Yet there are a few hearty souls that believe in biodynamic Champagne and tackle this task head on. One of the true heroes of biodynamics in Champagne is Hervé Jestin, cellar master at Champagne Leclerc Briant in Epernay.
A few words about this small producer. Founded in 1872 by Lucien Leclerc, the house took on added significance under the leadership of Bertrand Leclerc, great grandson of the founder, who believed in biodynamics and made the winery into one of – if not, the first – biodynamic Champagne producer in the 1950s; his son Pascal soon obtained the first full certifications for this practice.
Leclerc Briant achieved notable success in the mid-1990s when they were one of the first Champagne houses to bottle single vineyard Champagnes. By this time, biodynamics made up a good percentage of their production, and by 2000, all of their vineyards were converted to this practice.
Sadly, Pascal Leclerc Briant passed away in 2010, and his children, not having the experience or the financial resources to run a Champagne house, sold most of the firm’s biodynamic vineyards (they did retain a small plot known as Les Croisette, which is adjacent to the winery cellars). Fortunately Jestin, a pioneer in biodynamic principles in Champagne, who had been overseeing production at the house since 2008, continued the belief in biodynamics as a standard for Leclerc Briant, and today with new ownership, the company is on firm financial ground, allowing Jestin to purchase fruit from small organic and biodynamic growers in Champagne.
I mentioned above how a winemaker in Champagnes faces different challenges than one making still white or red wine. Jestin is very well accomplished in his profession, so the actual production in the cellar is something that he excels at.
It’s his take on biodynamics and now bioenergetics where Jestin has earned great respect from his peers. “This is my idea – not to produce wine for consumers, but for human beings,” he remarks. This quote alone should be enough to tell you that Jestin looks beyond the basic details when it comes to producing Champagne.
Bioenergetics, as Jestin told me in a recent interview, is not easy to explain, but increasing the energy in a wine is one way of defining this term. “For that, we apply different systems to increase the level of energy at first. We need biodynamic grapes, because without biodynamic grapes it’s very difficult to obtain a high level of energy.
“But it’s not the end of the story. Biodynamic grapes are the beginning of the story. And so we have to work during harvest time to protect the grapes against wrong influences coming from machines, coming from human beings working around the grapes.”
Jestin has an interesting take on the difference between biodynamic grapes and the finished wine. “You know, there is no real biodynamic wine. The biodynamic wine doesn’t exist for a simple reason. The wine coming from biodynamic grapes exist of course, but Steiner (Rudolf Steiner, often referred to as the godfather of biodynamics for his studies in the late 19th century), didn’t work at all on the winemaking. He considered that wine was not good for the human being. So he never worked on winemaking.”
For Jestin, his work relies on bringing in influences from nature. “It could be air coming from an oak forest – I take air in a small bottle from an oak forest – it could be sun or moonlight. We follow the evolution of the wine from harvest time to bottling time, and I control every two weeks, every four weeks the function of the position of the moon, the function of the cycle of the sun; I control the state of the wine.
“The wine is in connection because it’s a living system. The energy measures the connection between this living system and another living system. If you consider that system, there is no more connection with other living systems. For the wine, it’s very important to control the state of this energy to be sure that the wine will receive the right information from the beginning to the end of the story.”
Jestin reveals that he has worked on being able to produce bioenergetic wine since 1995, and has done so, “without any maps, without any guides. More and more today, people are changing their minds about winemaking. But the sense of my professional life is to find the wines that were produced a very long time ago by monks, and priests from Egyptian civilization. Many things were lost by the monks around the 10th and 11thcenturies. And we have no information, so it’s a permanent work – it’s never finished. It’s today different from yesterday, and tomorrow will be different.”
Jestin constantly refines his work in he cellar as well as his studies of biodynamics and bioenergetics in nature. Knowing that he won’t be around one day, he has started to work with his son, instructing him about the principles he has learned. “One day, I will write a book on the subject. Because it’s time to transmit to people what we can do with material, sort of what we consider as a dead system, but it’s not at all a dead system, it’s a living system which is able to exchange with human beings and nature in general.”
Secure in his belief that curiosity is necessary to produce better wines, those with more energy, and content in his work, Jestin comments, “Wine is a very powerful system. The only thing we have to do is to learn how to speak the wine language. And you can’t learn in a book. And to be honest, it’s a fantastic fantasy job.”
Here are notes on two recently released Champagnes realized by Jestin at Leclerc Briant:
Le Clos des Trois Millésime 2017 Brut Zero (Villers-Allerand 1er Cru) – 100% Chardonnay; aged in barriques for 9 months; zero dosage. Bright, medium-deep yellow; aromas of honey, pear and a hints of caramel and vanilla. Full-bodied with a rich mid-palate. There is very good acidity, notable persistence and impressive complexity; the finish has a distinct nuttiness. Enjoy over the next 6-8 years. (92)
Les Monts Ferrés 2018 (Vertus 1er Cru) – 100% Chardonnay, aged entirely in oak; zero dosage. Bright, medium deep yellow; lovely aromas of lemon zest and lemon peel, with a slight smokiness and a delicate chalkiness. Medium-full with excellent ripeness and a lengthy finish; this offers outstanding complexity, beautiful harmony as well as a significant finesse.
This cuvée points up some of the fallacy of Champagne laws and labeling. The terms Grand Cru and Premier Cru are associated with specific villages in the Champagne region, and not individual vineyards. Some vineyards in Premier Cru villages actually deliver better quality that those in Grand Cru locations, so the belief that every Champagne labeled as Grand Cru is superior to one designated as Premier Cru is false; this Les Monts Ferrés is a prime example. Of course, farming and winemaking talent are necessary for a high quality Champagne, and both are on display with this cuvée. One does not notice the oak in this wine, and the charm and pleasure this wine delivers are superb; this is the finest cuvée from Leclerc Briant in several years. Enjoy over the next seven to ten years. (95)