Champagne Jacquart: ‘Each of our wines has a story to tell’

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A young house setting its own rules....

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Founded in the 1960s, Champagne Jacquart is something of a young buck (you’ll be lucky to find tales of winemaking craft being handed down from generation to generation here), but arguably its relative adolescence is also its core strength.

There are no hard-set traditions to adhere to, merely a drive to set its own rules based on the here and now, but also keeping one eye firmly on what’s around the corner.

At the helm of its philosophy is Chief Winemaker, Floriane Eznack. She previously plied her trade at Veuve Clicquot but, as with Champagne Jacquart itself, is similarly unencumbered by a winemaking heritage.

‘No one in my family is involved in the wine industry,’ states Eznack. ‘But I think I’ve always been interested in roles traditionally dominated by men – my childhood dream was to become a fighter pilot for the French Air Force – but my father, as a wine lover, taught me how to taste by playing games.’

‘Champagne Jacquart is a young house initially created by a few committed growers pooling both their expertise and exceptional vineyards, but as soon as I joined the house in 2011 I began to streamline the range in order to express more elegance, purity and vibrant minerality. We now have 1,600 families which cover over half the crus in Champagne. Each of our wines has a story to tell: the story of our relationship with lovers of Champagne.’

This goal is vividly realised in Jacquart’s Brut Mosaïc Signature which is aged for five years on lees before disgorgement.

‘To be able to support a lower dosage of 7 g/l and five years of ageing, the blend has to be rich, structured and balanced. For a NV, this length of ageing is one of the longest in the world and it increases the aromatic complexity while also mellowing the wine and refining its effervescence.’

‘We’re not bound by a long history, but creating Champagne is a long process,’ says Eznack. ‘We’re free to create our own future and do things our own way. You could say that I’m working more for my successors than for today, because I am defining the character of our Champagnes in ten or twenty years’ time.

‘We have many intriguing projects and wines to be released in the future which are still in our cellars and will be even more interesting. Patience….’, she insists.