The story of the Rémy family’s history in Champagne began in 1829 after acquiring their first vines in the grand cru village of Bouzy in Montagne de Reims. After WWII in 1950, Georges Rémy’s grandfather stopped selling his grapes and began to produce the wines himself. This would only last for a generation as Georges’s father decided his love was in the vines and in 1989 decided to no longer produce his own wine. Things changed again for the family after Georges acquired a Viticulture Oenology BTS certificate from Avize and work experience in Bordeaux as he returned home to assist his father in the vines. With his father’s guidance and a passion for working the vines, Georges assisted his father both in their vineyards and as as a vineyard consultant for other wine growers. During this time he also experimented with the production of still red wine from a small parcel of well maturing old vine pinot noir. Impressed by their son’s Bouzy rouge attempts and hoping to support the love Georges developed for making still red wine while in Bordeaux, in 2011 Georges’ parents offered him a 0.15 hectare parcel of pinot noir in lieu-dit Les Vaudayants planted by sélection massale in 1975. From this parcel Georges produced a still red wine which he sold commercially, thus launching the third generation of the Rémy family’s history of grape growing and champagne production. It wasn’t until the 2014 harvest that Georges began producing sparkling wine.

Georges Rémy now works 4.7 hectares of vines split up over 17 parcels in Ambonnay, Bouzy, Louvois and Tauxières. All vineyard work is done organically with some biodynamic practices. No industrial fertilizers are used. Georges along with fellow Bouzy growers Antoine Paillard and Benoît Lahaye create their own organic compost together. Of the 4.7 hectares Georges works, he keeps only around 20 percent of the grapes to produce his own wines. He will continue to keep a bit more each year as he grows his business, but for the time being, he needs to sell the majority of his fruit to fund his commercial production. In 2014, Georges harvested and vinified at least one barrel from each of his parcels separately in order to learn each unique expression of terroir. From this he produced six cuvées of champagnes.

Georges Rémy is one of the last growers to harvest his vines at around 11.5 to 12 degrees. Georges wants the grapes to be of nice maturity when harvested and tells us this is of the most importance. After the grapes are harvested, they are sorted and de-stemmed by hand. The grapes are pressed very gently by either a 4,000kg or 2,000kg pneumatic press. Fermentation occurs in varying sized 228L Burgundy, 300L cigar, 500L or 600L barrels. The juice rests in barrel anywhere from 17 to 20 months as malolactic fermentation naturally completes. The wine is bottled under either cork or crown cap depending on the cuvée and the wine rests sur lattes until ready. Dosage amounts depend on the specific cuvée ranging from 0 to 3.5 grams per liter.