2010 Marie Demets Brut

Champagne Marie Demets is a “grower Champagne” that traces its roots to the 1950s, when André Brément planted vineyards for himself while employed elsewhere as a vineyard worker. Over time he established his own vineyard business. In 1972 his son-in-law Alain Demets joined the operation. Demets broadened the estate from a vineyard only to a vineyard and winery. In 1987 the family released its first commercial Champagne, named for Brément’s daughter, Marie Demets. Today the Demets’ son Pierre is taking over the domaine, which includes 25 acres in 14 parcels in the Côte de Bar, in Aube, in the southern part of the Champagne AOC. Vineyards are planted 80% to Pinot Noir and 20% to Chardonnay. About 90,000 bottles are produced annually, and cuvées include vintage and non-vintage Champagnes. No herbicides or pesticides are used. Champagne Marie Demets is a “grower Champagne,” meaning that the wine is made by the same people who grow the grapes, which historically has not been how Champagne was made. Grower Champagnes offer Champagne style options beyond the house styles of the bigger, more familiar Champagne producers.

Champagne is a small, beautiful wine growing region northeast of Paris whose famous name is misused a million times a day. As wine enthusiasts and all French people are well aware, only sparkling wines produced in Champagne from grapes grown in Champagne can be called Champagne. Sparkling wines produced anywhere else, including in other parts of France, must be called something besides Champagne. Champagne producers are justifiably protective of their wines and the prestige associated with true Champagne. Though the region was growing grapes and making wines in ancient times, it began specializing in sparkling wine in the 17th century, when a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon formulated a set guidelines to improve the quality of the local sparkling wines. Despite legends to the contrary, Dom Pérignon did not “invent” sparkling wine, but his rules about aggressive pruning, small yields and multiple pressings of the grapes were widely adopted, and by the 18th and 19th centuries Champagne had become the wine of choice in fashionable courts and palaces throughout Europe. Today there are 75,000 acres of vineyards in Champagne growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Champagne’s official appellation system classifies villages as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, though there are also many excellent Champagnes that simply carry the regional appellation. Along with well-known international Champagne houses there are numerous so-called “producer Champagnes,” meaning wines made by families who, usually for several or more generations, have worked their own vineyards and produced Champagne only from their own grapes.