N.V. Louis de Sacy Brut

Champagne Louis de Sacy is in Verzy, near the mountains outside of Riems. The Sacy family has been in Verzy since the 17th century and worked for generations as grape growers and winemakers. However it wasn’t until 1958 that Andre Sacy, then the head of the family, decided to label the family’s Champagne with the family name. He chose to name his Champagne house after an illustrious 18th century ancestor, Louis de Sacy, who was a well-known lawyer, writer and member of the l’Academe Francaise. Today the 50-acre estate is run by Alain Sacy and it produces about 270,000 bottles annually. Champagne Louis de Sacy includes several Grand Cru cuvees since much of the estate’s vineyards are in Grand Cru villages. The estate also makes a kosher Champagne.

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.