1996 Jacquesson Avize Grand Cru Dégorgement Tardif

Jacquesson

France / Champagne / Jacquesson

Lying at the heart of the Côte des Blancs on the lower slopes of the Grand Cru village of Avize can be found the lieux-dits of La Fosse, Némery and Champ Caïn. Jacquesson’s three parcels on these south-east facing sites were planted to Chardonnay between 1962 and 1983. Here, Campanian chalk, made up of calcite granules coming from the skeletons of marine microorganisms, rises almost to the surface, above which the very shallow topsoil is permeable and prone to frost. The poor nature of the soil necessitates the occasional addition of nutrients, which, as always at Jacquesson, are organic.
1996 was an atypical vintage delivering atypical musts, with an acid-alcohol balance without known precedent: 11% potential alcohol and 10g/L acidity. The musts for this Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs were vinified in 40 and 75 hectolitre oak casks and an assemblage of the three parcels was bottled on 3rd June 1997 and continually disgorged, with a dosage of 3.5g/L.

September, 2012

Peter Liem

ChampagneGuide.net

Disgorged in July of 2012, this was dosed at 3.5 g/l: while Jacquesson's Dégorgement Tardif is normally non-dosé, the high acidity of 1996 necessitated a small amount of dosage to bring this wine into balance. It's full and rich, expressing the power of the vintage, although it's also very lively and focused, its acidity making it feel linear and taut. Its flavours are just beginning to acquire developed notes of walnuts and honey, while remaining very fresh at their core, and they finish with exceptional length and finesse, saturated by chalky minerality. This is an intense wine, and probably needs to be paired with food to show its best, as it’s a bit powerful on its own.

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About Jacquesson

Jacquesson has an impressive history. It was founded in 1798 in Châlons by Memmie Jacquesson, son of a wine trader. The house rapidly rose to fame, aided by the fact that Napoleon was a fan. However, everything that we today value about Jacquesson began in 1974 when Côte des Blancs winegrower Jean Chiquet acquired the brand and vineyards and moved the domicile of the house to Dizy. His sons Jean-Hervé and Laurent Chiquet are the present custodians of the Jacquesson trading house, which manages to cover almost 90% of its grape requirement from its own vineyards. These are located in the Grands Crus Aÿ, Avize and Oiry, and in the Premiers Crus Hautvillers, Dizy and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. Additional grapes are only bought from growers who follow exactly the same methods as the Chiquets. The fruit is pressed by Jacquesson itself in its four presses, three of which are located in Dizy and one in Avize.


About

Laurent and Jean-Hervé Chiquet see themselves primarily as winegrowers who cultivate the land and do everything with the aim of obtaining the best possible grapes. And from there, the brothers have been ready to break with convention in order to deliver the best possible wine every time - hence the decision to introduce the 7-series non-vintage wines instead of the traditional house NV. In his 2018 article entitled Champagne’s Top Five Movers & Shakers, Tyson Stelzer summed up the approach pretty well: "It’s been 40 years since Jean-Hervé and Laurent Chiquet’s family purchased Jacquesson, 30 years since the brothers took control, 20 years since they turned champagne’s non-vintage concept on it head with their controversial ‘700 series’ cuvée, and ten years since they pulled their most cunning stunt of all by slashing production to ramp up quality. And ramp up it has."