Montagne de Reims · Frankreich
Lacourte-Godbillon
Champagne Lacourte-Godbillon farms 8.5 hectares of Premier Cru in Écueil and Les Mesneux in the Petite Montagne de Reims. Géraldine Lacourte and Richard Desvignes run the estate in its ninth generation and are the third family generation to bottle under their own label; the grandparents filled the first champagne under their own name in 1947. Eighty-five percent of the vineyard is planted with pinot noir, the rest with chardonnay; in the best sites the vines are 40 to 70 years old. Both work biodynamically and harvest by hand. The champagnes are built clear and taut. Citrus fruit and a saline streak mark the finish.
The takeover in 2008
Géraldine Lacourte worked in marketing, Richard Desvignes in international industrial sales. In 2006 the family faced the question of who would carry on the estate; the two gave up their jobs and moved to Écueil. In 2007 they completed their oenology diploma, and in 2008 they took over the vines. The house has carried this double name since 1968, when Géraldine Lacourte's parents combined it; their own parents, in turn, had filled the first champagne under their own name in 1947.
Chalk slopes and the forest of Écueil
Écueil lies in the Petite Montagne de Reims, the smaller part of the Montagne de Reims, between chalk slopes and a forest. The soils are chalk, the sites face predominantly south, and the forest shields the village's microclimate. Its oaks grow a few hundred metres from the vines; they supply the wood for the barrels in which part of the base wines age. The best plots are called Chaillots, Monts Âme and Migerats, where the vines are between 40 and 70 years old. A vineyard area with 85 percent pinot noir is unusual in Champagne.
Biodynamics and spontaneous fermentation
The conversion to organic farming began immediately after the takeover. Géraldine Lacourte and Richard Desvignes work without pesticides and herbicides, treat the vines with preparations made from nettle, horsetail and valerian, and harvest by hand. The base wines ferment in stainless steel, spontaneously with the vineyards' own yeasts; part then ages in the oak barrels made from Écueil's forest, and malolactic fermentation is never forced.
The cuvées
The Terroirs d'Écueil Premier Cru Extra Brut is blended from fourteen base wines across three vintages, 85 percent pinot noir and 15 percent chardonnay, a quarter of it reserve wines, with a very low dosage. The Rosé Premier Cru is also made from pinot noir, with more than a third of the base wines aging nine months in barriques. In the Millesime Premier Cru Extra Brut, chardonnay accounts for 40 percent alongside 60 percent pinot noir, with the base wine aging 60 percent in large oak casks.
The Chaillots Hautes Vignes comes from the highest plots of Chaillots, ages in wood from the forest of Écueil, and rests at least 60 months on the lees. The M.A.M. takes its name from the plots Monts Âme and Migerats, a blanc de noirs from 55-year-old sélections massales, here on chalk, there on looser clay. The base wine ferments spontaneously and ages in 300-litre barrels. The champagne remains unfined and unfiltered and receives no dosage.