2008 Pierre Gimonnet Brut Premier Cru Fleuron Blanc de Blancs

Champagne Pierre Gimonnet et Fils is in the Premier Cru village of Cuis, with vineyards primarily in the Cote de Blanc region. The Gimonnet family has been growing grapes in the region since the 18th century, but did not start bottling their own Champagne until 1935. Today Didier Gimonnet runs the estate, which includes 34 acres of Premier Cru in Cuis, and 28 acres of Grand Cru Chardonnay in Cramant and Chouilly. There are another 8 acres in nearby villages. More than 70% of the estates vines are more than 30 years old, and some are 100 years old, making Gimonnet et Fils Champagnes exceptional, for one reason, because of their high percentage of old vine cuvee. The estate makes a full range of Champagnes.

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.