The Grand Cru cuvée crafted by Louis de Sacy is a champagne born from the single village of Verzy. A Grand Cru terroir, the historic cradle of Pinot Noir in the Montagne de Reims. The blend brings together 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, true to this singular terroir.
This is a cuvée that speaks of red fruit, underpinned by delicate floral notes, before giving way to a brioche character. Wine-y and mineral, its texture has real grip without losing any freshness.
This is a bottle to serve from the aperitif onwards, with comté gougères for instance, before bringing it to the table alongside chicken with morels.
Le Terroir
The Grand Cru cuvée is a blend of:
- 80% Pinot Noir
- 20% Chardonnay
The Pinot Noir and Chardonnay come from the terroir of Verzy, a village classified Grand Cru and set on the Grande Montagne de Reims, where Louis de Sacy tends its vines.
Verzy boasts a terroir that stands apart even among the Grand Cru villages of Champagne: its chalky subsoil gives the wines a pronounced tension and precision, while the limestone that feeds the vines with minerals translates into a saline edge on the palate.
On this terroir, Pinot Noir lends the wine structure and a touch of wine-y richness.
La vinification
Jonathan Sacy, the winemaker at the helm of the House, chose to ferment this blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in stainless steel tanks, to preserve the freshness of the fruit. Full malolactic fermentation was carried out: it softens the wine's acidity and lends it a velvety texture on the palate. At Louis de Sacy, the dosage was then set at 1.6 g/L, placing this cuvée in the Extra Brut category, a style that lets the purity of the wine speak for itself without sweetening it. This very low dosage brings out vivid, precise notes, carried by the dominant share of Pinot Noir in the blend. The result is a Grand Cru that is both taut and generous, bearing the signature of a winemaker who favours honest fruit expression over any pursuit of power.
Une cuvée non millésimée
Each harvest year brings its own personality: a warmer summer, a cooler spring, rainfall that differs from one season to the next all shape grapes that are never quite the same twice. To stop these climatic variations from showing through in the wine's character, the blend draws on reserve wines, wines from earlier harvests kept back precisely for this purpose. They round out the current year's harvest and help offset any differences in ripeness or acidity.
This method allows the House to achieve, bottle after bottle, the same aromatic signature and the same balance, regardless of the whims of the weather. It is this consistency that defines the identity of this cuvée, year after year.
