From Japan to France, the press is active to speak about our work and our wines.
A satisfaction for us, who always work hard to help the plants and the soils to be healthy and "alive"
Here are those two reviews, for those who speaks ... French and Japan
Download available here : Téléchargement Winart#65
Aligato !
I wish you a very nice beginning of 2012 !
Alexandre Chartogne
We wish you all a nice and happy new 2012 year !
2011 was a nice and sunny year, with high temperatures, certainly one of the warmest year of the 100 past years. The harvest began at the end of August, and gave us very nice fruits and wines. We're actually waiting to taste those, to know the evolution and the potential of this vintage. Not bad, for sure.
Here is a picture to celebrate this new year. All the winegrowers of the family wish you a very nice year. From the left to the right : Roger chartogne, Philippe Chartogne, Alexandre and Roger Chartogne, Eloi Chartogne (born in 2010).
PS : For those who understand french, there are more details (1712 and 1812 harvest explained by my ancesters) on the french version of my weblog, sorry for this, the translation were too hard ...
Happy new year !
Some articles about us :
La Revus du vin de France : Juillet Aout / Novembre
Cuisine et Vins de France : Septembre Octobre
Grand Guide des Vins de France Bettane / Desseauve : 2011 : Mon guide annuel pour choisir au mieux mes vins ...
Secrets of the sommeliers : Rajat Parr : I highly recommand this book if you live in the US, very interesting notes about the tasting and the wines from many regions
Guide Euvrard Garnier 2012
Since the 20th century, the viticulture discovered the industrialisation of his work. The first machines appeared to help the men in his everyday work. For this period, and for a easier work, the men decided to plant his vines in lines, not “en foule”, to improve the time spent in the vines, and the efforts to produce a work. Less work for more production of grapes …
But generally, the men need to work hard to obtain the best. The hand work or the horse work helps the soil to stay alive. The compaction of the very heavy machines actually shows us a deep impact on our soils, and on the plants health. The roots of the vines stays up, the water stays on the top of the soil, have difficulties to go through … And if there is something important, it is the capacity of the soil to let the water go deep, and that the roots takes the subsoil elements for stronger and more complex wines.
That impact makes us change our work in the vineyard. We decided this year to make all the ploughings without machines, but with a horse. The horse offers many advantages. He do not compact the soil, do not pollute the atmosphere, and helps the winegrower to stay in contact with the nature, without this industrial noise of motors. This work has a real good impact on our vineyard, but also on our spirit condition. We reduce the stress, and grow the pleasure of our work. We see the evolution of the soil and of the plants each time we walk behind the horse. This vision is really helpful to understand the condition of each Parcel. That’s one of our revolution in Merfy for 2010 …
The magazin Fine Champagne have made some tastings for some month and years now.
This magazin presents a very nice and professionnal vision of the wines from my region. Essi Avelan, the lady who writes for this very nice mag, is a master of wine, the highest and most difficult grade to obtain in the wine world.
During those blind degustations, we're happy to see our wines in a good position, with high ratings.
Here are those notes :
Rosé : 1st with BillecardSte Anne Brut : 8th / 100
Les Barres : 93 pts
Dégustation of "The best Champagne in the world" : 10th / 1000
I let you some scans of this degustation.
Fiacre :
Le Rosé
Cuvée Sainte Anne Brut
Les Barres
You'll find here more details about this magazin that all Champagne lover should receive at home : 
European Fine Mag
Terry, we thank you for the good job you do for us, and also for the German and Austrian great rieslings. The artisan wine growers would like more guys like you all over the world.
Before I took the
decision to release this new cuvée, and present it to all my customers, a few
wine freaks asked me if it would be possible to buy some. I sold a few bottles
to the most curious and motivated of them. Now, the bell rings to buy more...
Making the decision to
sell this cuvee was really hard for me. You know, like a mother who sees her
child leaving the house to live his own life. I put all my passion and lot of
time to follow this wine, to educate him, help him during his 3 years ageing…
By the way, this cuvee wears the name of it’s
parcel, Les Barres : very old “vieilles vignes françaises”, non grafted, 100 % pinots
meuniers. Aged in barrels, on its natural yeasts.
The wine shows a lot
of delicate fruit, with a long length and a deep impression of maturity and
complexity ( the expression of the very deep non grafted roots in sandy-chalky
soil ). The most amazing thing with this wine, is that it reacts like humans :
charming and full of energy when the weather is warm, and quiet and shy when it
is cold. The wine reacts in its bottle like it reacted in the barrel.
In each season, you
will find a different wine, you will have to try to understand its character,
then you will get the most spectacular and singular expression out of this
unique wine.
This observations
helped me making the decision to wait a few more months to release the cuvee
Les Barres 2006. Sorry for this, and if you asked me for some bottles, please
wait until summer, I will contact you.
It’s now
time to transfer the sheeps in a small heaven for animals. They worked all
winter long, to cut / eat the grass of our vines. The work is perfectly done, a
very nice result, they have eaten all the grass, in different parcels, and
fertilized those parcels in the same time.
We’re
really very happy of their work, and now we congratulate them next to the next
winter, with fresh and nice grass of Merfy. But this time, not from the vines,
but from gardens of old people, who needed somebody to cut the grass. All these
people of the village are really happy, because they cut their grass, and they
also have new friends in their garden …
The only difficult point with the sheeps, is to catch them to change their places. Those sheeps are really fast, and definitively, faster than me! We needs to be 4, minimum, to catch them, and each of us needs a rugby, or American football training … They runn and jump ! Definitively good for my weight …
The 6th of
January, I’m definitely late to send you our wishes for the new year. But
please, let me explain you the reason of this delay. We tried a new shipment
method for our last sales of 2008, and it took a little bit more time that what
we expected. A picture of our adventure is linked.
Please,
receive all our best Wishes for 2009. Health, good food and good wines.
Happy new year !
The Chartogne Family
We just
employed two new people at home to cut the grass in our vines! Those people
work 24 hour / 24, during the winter season. But they’ll stop the work in the
vines after the cold period … The best thing for us, is that their work is free
for us, we bought those foreigners for a very cheap price, and now, they are
available for Chartogne-Taillet for their entire life !
No, we
aren’t using slaves to make our work … but I just found a new technology to cut
the grass in the vines. It’s a new ecological machine, without fuel, without
noise, and which have a double utility for me. It cut the grass, but also put
some fertilizers on my soil.
The sheeps
… are certainly the best animals to help me with my grass. Those animals,
during the winter, eat the grass during the whole day. They make a perfect
work, without any risk to compact my soils, or to pollute the environment. They
also add fertilizers to the soil, naturally … What Else ? !
The only difficult
thing for me, were the introduction of the sheep in my village. During the
first night of their life in my village, the sheep decided to left, and visit
Merfy at 11PM. The fireman’s of the village and the “mayor” spent 3 hours in
the night, to catch my lost sheeps. I didn’t hear anything. One succeeds to go
out, and the other one, they succeed to take him. The day after, I spent all my
day walking to find my left sheep. The second day after, I joined the mayor of
the village, who told me one thing: We
found your sheep. One succeeds to go far, the firemen’s and I didn’t succeed to
catch him. But for the second one we had … We didn’t know it were yours
Alexandre … So we decided, yesterday evening, to make something very pleasant
with him …
Now, I have
a new one, to replace the one left (…). The first one, I spent another day
walking, and I succeed to catch him in the forest on the North of Merfy.
Avery nice
adventure is beginning in Merfy, I will tell you more abot my new employees
later. Here are some pictures of my sheep :
We were all
scared about this year. We received rain during July, August … September …
No ! Not September,
or maybe the beginning of the month. What a scaring situation when you imagine
that your grapes will receive water during the harvest (It make a dilution of
the flavors …). BUT ! It stopped raining on the 10th of September …
5 days before the beginning of the harvest. And then came a perfect weather for
the grapes, something I’ll certainly never see anymore in the future. A very
nice sunn, with nice temperatures, wind and very fresh nights. This freshness
during the nights succeeds to block the arrival of the rot. The sunn during the
days were very good for the maturation of the grapes. And the result is here: A
perfect year, with high maturity levels of sugar (about 10,5 – 11% vol) and a
very nice sensation of freshness … Definitively a millésime !
Concerning
the juices, the freshness shows us that it’ll be wine to age more than any other
years. The Meunier shows some very nice notes of apricot on the nose, and the
maturity exposes on the mouth. The Pinot noir is, on the contrary, much more
closed, shows flower notes on the nose, and a nice finesse on the mouth. For
the Chardonnay, it’s totally different from one parcel to another, but the most
impressive sensation for me, is certainly the hard capacity to degustate those
wines at this period. Strong and powered chardonnays for 2008, they will
certainly have the capacity to age a long time in our cellar!
A very nice
year, with good souvenirs !
Some
pictures of this harvest :
At this
period, the vines are working whit the sun. The main work is the “photosynthesis”,
the leaves transform the sun into sugar, to obtain, during the harvest, a nice
maturity. Now, our work of winegrower is to follow the maturation of the
grapes, and sometimes, to cut the grass in some vines.
As we don’t use any herbicides, the grass grows in the different ways. Different types of grass on different soils, even on the same village : Merfy. That’s due to what the soil tries to explain us. Each grass means something, and that’s a very important information that we have to keep for the next period of viticulture. If the soil is covered by “senecio vulgaris”, it means for example that there’s too much “matière organique” in the soil. I have to know it for the next year. There are more than a hundred plants to know, and what they mean for us, that’s a forgotten work, but certainly one of the most important work. Everything by hand ...
Concerning
the grapes, they are now evaluating in a good way. They all need sun, but the
evolution is nice. For the moment, the black grapes (Pinot Noir and Meunier)
begin to be good to taste.
The Meunier
juices seems now to evaluate in a fat condition, they have enough sugar to be appreciated,
and the juices that comes are full of expression. The structure is now well
represented on those juices, not too much finesse, but a big strength and
presence on the mouth. Small grapes.
The Pinot
noir, on the contrary, are lighter, with nice flavors, less fat than the
meunier, thin skins. The grapes are now long and aerated; it could be a nice
harvest for those grapes that could have a nice evolution during the two next
weeks.
The Chardonnay is now big and wears some lighting dresses. The color begins to be yellow and let the sun pass through. The skins are thin and their flavors are hidden by the freshness of the juices. A lazy grape variety this year! We’ll have to wait between the harvest of the blac k skin grapes and the Chardonnay’s.
It was
raining for now 2 weeks, and it seems to begin to be sunny now. It really have
to continue like that if we want to have a nice harvest.
The day began normally, we prepared the command for France, and then prepared ouselves to go in the vines.
But suddently, Franck, our employee, told me that an animal just entenred in my house.
Something not too big, and that doesn't seems too agressive for us.
With courage, we all walked to the house, to watch what kind of aggressive and dangerous foreigner it was.
... A fawn, nice and sweet, who looked terrified, serching for his mother ...
A big responsibility for all of us, we had to take care of him, and not to let him be scared of the situation.
The fawn just goes out from the house, and passes in front of us, as if he didn't saw us.
At this moment, I told to my team :
Clement, take the rifle, Franck, turn on the barbecue, I begin to prepare the sauces.
(Bad joke), in reality, I called some specialists of wild animal, to know exactly what to do in this situation. He told me
that the main thing is to take him to the nearest forest, and for sure, we didn't had to touch the fawn (You can imagine how easy it is, to take a fawn outside of the village only with our voices and presence ...
But that's what we have done, it took more than an our, but the fawn came back to its natural house.
We all wish he'll find the way back to his mother, and grow far from the hunter.
Some pictures of the fawn in our house : 
Two hard days for the bottling of our Cuvée
Sainte Anne and Blanc de Blancs. But the bottling don’t begin when we put the
first empty bottle on the machine. For the winegrower, that period begins with
the preparation of the yeasts. Those yeasts that will transform the sugar into Alcohol,
and produce Carbonic gas, bubbles, pression etc … ask me a lot of work to be in
the best health. At this period, the yeasts are compared to the babies of the
winegrower. I had to check every two hours if the yeasts had sugar to eat, and enough
oxygen to breathe. If we do not follow the percentage of sugar each hour or two
hours, those yeasts could die, the same for the oxygen, as they produce
carbonic gaz during the transformation of the sugar into alcohol, if we do not
put air in the vat, they could stop there micro activity. So more than a week
before, I followed this activity to be sure that the second fermentation of the
Champagne, in the bottle, will be perfect.
For 2008, we were quite lucky because of the
weather. Nice days with “hot temperatures” are good signs for this fermentation.
The first bottling of this year spent two days, very hard and intense days,
because of the rhythm we had to follow. 11 persons to be sure that everything
is perfect during the bottling of two cuvees : The Cuvée Sainte Anne, and the
Blanc de Blancs. A particular year because of two reasons. First for the cuvee Sainte
Anne, which didn’t receive Meunier wines during the blending. The second Cuvée,
the Blanc de Blancs, is now only made from a 40 years old vine, called le
Heurtebises. A 100% Chardonnay with very deep roots, that gives to the wine, a
very singular and intense taste of minerality, and high maturity.
But everybody weren’t next to the machine
during the bottling. Some were in the cellar, to build the big walls of
bottles. 2 walls of more than 5000 bottles to gain place during the stockage of
those bottles. (You can see the second one on the pictures).
Now that those two cuvees are bottled, we have
to take care of the temperature In the cellar, and also to follow the different
evolutions of the wines we’ll bottle during a second bottling period. A 100%
Meunier from non grafted plants, and a 100% Pinot noir from a 50 years old vine
“selection massale”. Two very nice wines, one worked in barrel, the second is a
blending of the same wine, but vinified
in barrel and in inox vats.
You can find more informations of our bottling
in our French weblog (only due to the language difficulties!).
Have a nice day wherever you are
Mr
Eichelmann, a wine journalist, produces every year a book about Champagne. Each
year, he’s walking in our Region, in our vines and cellars, to find the best
from our region, what he likes the most, etc … He is certainly one of the most professional
german men, who writes about our wines in Germany. Passionated and curious of
everything, he succeed each year to find new very good winegrowers and Cuvées.
For those who speak German, and are curious about Champagne, and our region, we really push you to buy this book, which present you a lot of informations about the Champagne (Years, Dosage, Areas, Villages, winegrowers …). We are really honored to be in his new book, with such good notes …
A generation of labels passed, another one arrived ...
It was the time now to change our labels. Even if the old one were acceptable, we wanted to obtain something more clear for the reader.
The label dont influence the wine.
For that reason, I'll not tell you more, the only thing I have to show you, is the result !
I wish you'll appreciate those !
Now, that
knowledge is lost, the men is now proud to show a nude vine, without grass,
without “illness”, those that aren’t here to reduce the quality or the quantity
of grape, but only to tells to the men what kind of small things it needs to
give a very pure and complex fruit. The generation of herbicides killed all our
soils everywhere in the world, and we have now, at home, to regain the only
sense of our work, let the life come back in our soils to obtain the only good
purity and complexity in our wines, the terroir influence.
The vine is
an healthy element, which took 3 elements on the Air (N, O, H), and 28 on the
soil ! The only 3 elements that the vine took from the Air are used to produce
the visual growth of the vine. 1m60 are out of the soil, the plant with its
wood and its grape later on the season, and more than 3 meters in the soil that
eat 28 elements, that makes purity, complexity, sense … The roots are the only
part of the vine that takes the richness of the fruit, the complexity of what
you’ll have in your glass. 28 elements, those are present only if the winegrower
doesn’t put chemical products, and tries to obtain the grapes the more
naturally possible. That’s our only goal, to obtain the purest grapes, to give
you the best from our Terroir.
To improve that work, we asked to Claude Bourguignon, certainly the French best specialist of the soils, to come in our parcels. On Friday morning, we made big walls in our vines, to judge the life of the animals that live in our vines, the capacity for the soil to let the water pass without stressing the plant, the different levels of soil, for more than 2 meter deep. That man is here to analyze the soil, and we are here to understand how to improve its condition. Claude works in the most known vines in France, and have a very good experience in the soil analyze, and in wine (He works for the soils of “La Romanée conti” in Burgundy, “Ausone”, “Pavie”, “Clos de Tart”, “Deiss” and other people who didn’t forget that the wine isn’t a proud product, but a complex fruit of a year, or a life of hard work, in the vine ! (And never in the cellar)
Every
country have it’s professionals about wine. In France, we have a lot of
references to obtain advices about wine. But we also have bad references, who
only write notes about communication image, easy drinking wines, and not of
what everybody expect from a wine : The unique sensation during the
degustation.
The Guide Bettane et Dessauve is certainly one of the best guide concerning wine, its two writers knows everything about each producer in France, and in other regions who produce wine all over the world. This year, they visited our home, vines, and decided to write good notes about our wines, and our terroir. A great honor for us, to be represented in that guide. Mr Bettane, who writes a lot in wine, came home and tried to understand everything about our work, our specialties, our terroir … Something really rare in the wine world, and certainly a very good reason to buy this book. He’s in love with everything that touch food and wine, a “bon vivant” like we call in French.
At home, we have a real old history of viticulture and wine. My ancesters were working in the vines since the 17th century in Merfy. The roots of our family are here, and we are planted here for a long time. One of our passion, is to found our origins, and one of the best way to find the feeling and the sensation of our ancestor, is to produce wine as they used to do, 200 years before.
For that, I prepared a barrel to put the grapes in it, to make a vinification like my ancestor. I opened it, and put full grapes from one of our oldest parcel of Pinot Noir 45 years old. A high maturity (11°), with freshness and finesse. Once in the barrel, I pressed it with my feets during 45 minutes, and let the wine in contact with the “raffles and pellicules in French …” to obtain a nice red colour. It took 12 hours to obtain this colour. The fermentations begun 3 days after the press, naturally, without any yeasts (only inoculated yeasts, natural from the vines).
That’s our first Rosé de Saignée, for our … own consummation (in a small barrel called feuillette : 114 liters). We only have to wait now, to let the wine grow alone, and to feel, after a long period what our ancestors were tasting, generations and generations before …
Some pictures of the selection of the grapes and of the press :
Each year
is different, for the plant, and also for the winegrower.
The
difficult flowering period in Champagne had an influence on the grapes, and on
the harvest. The flowers began at different dates, due to the difficult climate
at this period. A hot winter and the rain during the growth of the vines obliged
us to work during all the weekends (the only 2 sunny days we had were Saturday and
Sunday on 2 month).
The global
flowering period was also very early (about 3 weeks sooner than in 2005 and
2006). At this period we were scared of a too early grape harvest time.
Finally, the date decided by the CIVC (comité interprofessionnel des vins de
Champagne) was the 27 of August. That date sounds very early considering the
low maturity of the fruits. We decided
to begin on September the 3, a week after our colleagues. This decision seems
to be now, the key for a good harvest. In the region, people who began very
early obtain very strict wine, without all the maturity and the power of the
grapes.
At home, we
can now say that we are happy with this 2007 harvest. This year was for us a
real very good year for the black skin grape varieties (10,2 to 10,6° for the
Meunier, and from 10 to 11° for the Pinot noir). Concerning the Chardonnay, and
considering the longer maturity of this grape variety, we wait about 4 days
without picking to obtain their “phenolic“ maturity. We had about 9,8° to 10°
for this late grape variety, with a nice balance between Sugar and acidity.
Here are some pictures of the “Press Team” and of grapes.
The French
Wine Magazine « L’amateur de Bordeaux » who speak about wine and
winegrowers, wrote something about our new cuvee, after having tasted our
Juices in barrels before the bottling.
What we call our baby wine, is a 100% meunier Champagne, worked in the vines very naturally (without any use of chemical products), and a very special vinification, in old barrels, unioculated yeasts ...
Thanks a
lot to the wine specialists whoappreciate our work and our wines !
We just received this month the new version of Mondo, the first Champagne tasting guide in Germany.
Mr Eichelmann, the writer of this book, is certainly one of the most passionnated person in Champagne I met. He knows each winegrower, and even more, he knows each part of the vines of the Champagne. It’s one of that “journalist” who’s interested in the Champagne, but also in all the environment of viticulture and vinification of the winegrowers.
Like the last year, he wrotes good notes about us, our cuvée Fiacre is one of the three Champagne he likes most. It’s a pleasure to see people who appreciates the soil of Merfy, and our work in the vines and in the cellar. Thank you Mr Eichelmann !
92/100 : Cuvée Fiacre
Concentrated wine, with a fresh nose and a nice and balanced sensation in the mouth. Nice substance in the palet, and a fresh and long finish
91/100 : Cuvée Sainte Anne Rosé
Very nice flowering sensation, and some fruits notes, berries, stawberries ... a Powerfull Champagne in the mouth, with a long and complex presence.
PS : Excuse my translation, German to English .... You can find it in French on http://chartogne-taillet.typepad.fr/france
The vine is a friend, who growth with the winegrower and who give him his best during the grape harvest time. The men is only the one who will take care of the vines, who will follow the plant during the year, and when he forgets the sense of his work, he sometimes give too much nourriture to his vines which produce plenty of grapes … Or sometimes, the plant give more than what she should give, even with a very strict “Taille and ebourgeonnage”, the two works who should reduce the quantity of grapes.
That’s what we saw this year. Even with a hard work in our vines, the plant were too generous, and produced a lot of grapes In two parcels (about 16 grapes per plant). That’s why I decided, this year, to make a grape harvest now, two month before the normal date of it. To make this work, we have to cut 4 to 5 grapes per plant, in order to reduce the quantity of grapes, to improve the quality of those who stays on the plant. It’s also a good occasion for us, to cut the grapes that suffer from Mildiou or Rot (Certainly a characteristic of this year if the weather continues like that…). After cutting those grapes, it’s important to take them (not to let them on the soil). Those grapes are acidic, and could make an acidification of our soils. A hard but good work !
Ps : (for those who understands French, you will find more explanations on our french blog : Here )
You can see down here, the pictures of the “Vendange en Vert”.
That was a good idea !
Our Austrian importer organized, last week, a Chartogne-Taillet golf competition. A women competition! Elisabeth, my mother, was a good golf player when she had time to play. But as she always explains, golf takes time, and need to train often to conserve a good playing level.
As she dont play anymore, that’s a pleasure for us to see women playing “with” us. But please, Mister Wagner, next time you organize a tournament, invite me! (I don’t play golf, but I always enjoy watching such a nice competition, as you can see on the pictures …). I really need a training.
Congratulations to all the ladies of this competition, and I wish they enjoyed the game, and I was happy to ear that they enjoyed our Champagne.
German’s mag about CT golf competition : Here
Our Austrians importer : Here
Some people say that Golf means "Gentlement Only, Ladies Forbidden), but ... that's not true !
My grandmother told me yesterday that the biggest risk for the vine, is the wind that comes from the East. It’s really rare in our country side, but sometimes, it happens. She told me that because of the big rain period that received some villages near Reims.
And today, just after the work, we saw the wind turning, and coming from Saint Thierry … from the East. The wind came first with Hail, that didn’t causes damage in our vineyard … It was a real surprise, because at home, we were imagine the worst situation for the plants.
After a 30 minutes period of hail and water, then came the sun. So I decided to take my car in order to see the damages in our vines. Good surprise, no troubles for the plant. And suddenly, the sky begins to fall in a very big rage. From its nice blue colors, with some grey notes on the back, he turned dark black. The lightning came in less than 1 minute, and flashed the sky, like if someone were turning the lights on and off.
I took some pictures of this evil period, and succeed to take some pictures of the lightings. Just near the church of our village, Merfy.
For the wine, there is a new sensation now. It’s time for us to put him into bottle to let him grow in its new environment. A very important step for the life of the wine, and also for us ! The bottling Is the beginning of the second fermentation in the bottle. The yeasts will make their job in the bottle, and die after some month to form a deposit. This deposit is the friend of the wine during its ageing. The process is the same than a vinification on the lies, but now, it’s in bottle that the wine and the lies will grow.
About 10 people were there to help us for this hard work. Hard days, but really exciting for a winegrower. Now the wine is in bottle, and I wish him the best for the years he will spend in our cellar.
Some pictures of the bottling:
L’ébourgeonnage is one of the most important step during the life of the plant.
We prune the vines, and now that the vegetation appeared, it’s time for us to look at each plant, and to select the best vegetation that will support the grapes. We make it by hand, with one finger, we cut of one of the arms of the plant that support the grapes (picture n°2).
The more work there will be for the plant, the less she will produce something with a high quality. In time, it’s the same, a plant that will support a low number of grapes, will age better than another one. We cant ask for a vine, to age with a high quantity of grapes on it. The quality and the ageing of the wines are exactly the same, a wine that comes from a high production plant, will not age as much as if it comes from a vine that worked less for the quantity than for some few fruits. All comes from the vines, and from the quality of its environment in the nature.
We also wants to give air to the plant. The air is something very important; it reduces the rot in the vines, and also let the plant breathe in perfect conditions.
You can see some pictures of this work here :
