We came across young Alexandre Lamblot in January of 2020 after visiting his neighbor Jerôme Prévost. While Alexandre’s tiny cellar is located in Janvry, his domaine is created from the small plots he has in the villages of Vrigny and Gueux in the northern most part of Montagne de Reims. During our visit, we learn that Alexandre has just began releasing his first wines, while the juice of his 2019 harvest quietly rests in barrels.

Upon arriving, we immediately jump in his van and make our way to see the vines. This is where Alexandre lights up as he shows just why a grower like Jerôme Prévost would recommend we spend some time with him. Alexandre’s vines are filled with love, as you can clearly see the attention he spends on each of his parcels. As we jump from parcel to parcel, Alexandre explains his philosophies of grape growing and land nurturing :

• Creation of a mobile chicken coop to place chickens in the vineyard to clean the soils, encourage biodiversity, add natural fertilizer
• Development of vitiforestry (trees planted in vineyards)
• Careful hand pruning according to the moon
• No chemical fertilizers, only natural organic French products
• Natural grass growing in the vineyards
• Grinding up vine cuttings in the parcels
• No use of insecticides
• Extensive debudding, green harvest
• Mechanical work in the vineyard with lightweight tractors for the soil
• Attentive trellissing
• Organic treatments (sulfur and very little copper)
• Essential oils to diminish the doses of copper and sulfur
• Braiding of the vines
• Hand harvesting in small bins

After seeing the vines and listening to Alexandre explain the terroirs in which he works, we head back to the cellar itching to taste his vins clairs.

The cellar is small, possibly the smallest we have come across in Champagne. We taste through each of his barrels, tanks, and aging vessels. The vins clairs are impressive! As we ask Alexandre countless number of questions, he begins becoming as excited about this possible relationship as we are, he explains his cellar philosophies :

• Vinification and ageing in small tank and different oak barrels (228L and 600L)
• Natural yeasts
• No chaptalisation
• Natural malo-lactic fermentation
• Bottling on fruit days
• No filtering nor fining
• Locally produced bottles
• Poignettages (picking up and shaking bottles to remix yeast) during ageing
• Hand riddling on pupitre
• Disgorgement by hand according to the lunar calendar without any added SO2 or sugar
• High quality corks made in Reims
• Recycled paper labels produced in the region
• Vegetable origin cartons,100% recyclable, made in Reims
• Staples on the cartons replacing glue

We step into the room right next to where the barrels are peacefully resting and taste the wines he may or may not have to sell. Intuition Nature is the wine of the domaine. It is the cuvée which presents different plots of the village of Vrigny. All three of Vrigny’s grape varieties are present in the cuvée – Meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. We then taste the single parcel Les Côtes Cheries. We remind ourselves that we just left a lengthy tasting with Jerôme Prévost who is certainly the master of Gueux and arguably the master of Meunier. Well, Alexandre’s representation of the village of Gueux was beyond thrilling. The cuvée is of one parcel planted in 1984 in the lieu-dit Les Côtes Cheries in the village of Gueux. The wine rested under cork during its time sur lattes, sees no dosage, and is of course, disgorged by hand. After a few hours with Alexandre, listening to his vision for the domaine and tasting both his current releases and his vin claires, we are thrilled to be his first importer in the USA and can not wait to share his wines and share his story.