Champagne Telmont has unveiled its Cuvée Sous Adrien – a single vineyard sparkling wine made entirely of Meunier from the 2012 vintage. Speaking during his recent visit to London, Telmont’s fourth generation owner and cellar master Bertrand Lhôpital said: “In 2012 I decided, in order to know the terroir of this single plot, to vinify four of our plots separately, especially Sous-Adrien, in order to understand what would happen if I made single vineyard wines.” The fruit for this new Champagne was sourced from a single vineyard, a first for the house. Situated west of Damery, the Lieux-Dits Damery parcel, with its clay and limestone soils, was previously used for Telmont’s blanc de noirs cuvée. The 2012 growing season was one marked by a difficult start, with frost and hail causing problems, but a sunny conclusion that enabled those grapes that did survive to fully develop prior to harvest. At the time of harvesting, the Lieux-Dits Damery parcel was conventionally farmed, but it is now organic. Vinification took place in oak barrels, and the wine was bottled in 2013. The wine was then aged in bottles, sealed with cork, for 9 years before it was disgorged in 2022. The dosage was 5 grams per litre. “This is something very singular – Meunier’s not supposed to age well,” Lhôpital explained, but expressed his belief that the new wine proves the contrary. Indeed, he is a strong believer in going into winemaking with the right attitude: “When you are involved, the
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