NV JACQUESSON CUVEE 746

Recent visit to Jacquesson house in Champagne and tasting with Jean Herve Chiquet confirmed the extraordinary calibre of this wine .. Jacquesson is the oldest independent family owned champagne house and was Napoleon ‘s favourite house.  The family is deeply wedded to concept of terroir including organic practices in the vineyard.   Gorgeous depth, elegance and finesse here.

“No Champagne house today is on a trajectory as steep as Jacquesson. While many houses are on the prowl for more fruit to increase production, Jacquesson is drastically slashing its yields and its contracts to radically improve quality in spite of lowering quantity. When others set out to make a consistent blend every year, Jacquesson throws uniformity to the wind to draw the best blend out of every vintage. Each time I look, this little house in the village of Dizy appears more like a fanatical grower producer. Jacquesson has leapt from ranking among Champagne’s top 20 houses to a lofty position among its top 10.” Tyson Stelzer, The Champagne Guide, 2016-2017

A chardonnay dominant style exclusively from grand and premier cru vineyards; base wines were fermented in old oak casks on lees.  They champion quality ahead of champenoise obsession with similarity and consistency they replaced the all important non vintage wine with a numbered cuvee.  Their vineyards are in Grand Cru villages of Ay, Avize and Oiry and premier Cru of Hautvillers, Dizy and Mareuil sur Ay.   Even Paul Krug cut his teeth at Jacquesson before relocating to start his own show later in Reims.

Jacquesson has been awarded 3 stars (the best and maximum ranking!) in Le Classement by La Revue de Vin de France.  Le Classement is a ranking of the 1300 best domaines in France and only 56 domaines in France have 3 star status. Jacquesson together with Krug.,Salon and 3 other champagne producers were awarded the 3 star status.The 746 (based on the 2018 vintage) is a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, finished with a very low dosage at less than a gram per litre which lets all the purity of the fruit to come through. For the 2018 harvest in Aÿ, Dizy, Hautvillers (68%), Avize and Oiry (32%), the previous winter was exceptionally rainy, this was followed by a mild, stormy spring. The weather changed from June onwards, becoming fine and dry, resulting in a particularly early harvest: we started picking on 30 August and finished on 11 September. The vines were in perfect health and the harvest was abundant with an excellent degree of ripeness and moderate acidity.