Champagne Jacquart has just lauched its new prestige cuvée, the Alpha 2005.
The Alpha is a vintage blend based on four crus from the Montagne de Reims – Mailly, Verzenay, Villers-Marmery and Trépail – and consists of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay.
Jacquart’s managing director Laurent Reinteau, speaking at the launch at the Pompidou Centre in Paris earlier this week, said Alpha was the ‘first major launch’ for Jacquart, and that it replaces the house’s non-vintage cuvée Nominée.
‘It is fundamental to our range and to our style. We needed an iconic wine. It is our Oenotheque,’ he told Decanter.com, referring to Dom Perignon’s iconic ‘library’ cuvée, the last release of which was the 1996 three years ago.
The first vintage, the 2005, had ‘absolutely ideal weather conditions…which brought the grapes to optimum maturity,’ Jacquart said.
‘After a cold, dry winter the vines were encouraged by a favourable early heat wave in June, and light precipitation in the middle of summer gave way to a warm September.’
Alpha 2005 is ultra-brut, with 7g/l dosage; it is aged for six years on the lees. Quantities are small, Reinteau said, ‘a few thousand bottles at most’.
Floriane Eznack, Jacquart’s winemaker, described Alpha – which retails at €80 a bottle – as the start of an ‘experiment’.
‘Each vintage will express a certain standard aiming at (maybe) one day creating the “ultimate” blend. 2005 sets the first standard: the rebirth of a vintage cuvee.’
Jacquart’s Rosé NV won Gold at the Decanter World Wine Awards this year.
Written by Adam Lechmere
