Serge Mathieu Brut Champagne

SERGE MATHIEU BRUT TRADITION CHAMPAGNE

$79.99 per bottle  10% discount when you purchase 6 or more. Click here to order.

Reviews:

‘[One of the top three] epitome of grower Champagnes...Billecart-Salmon of grower Champagnes...11ha of picture-perfect vines and a superbly equipped winery. Malolactic is carried out with great delicacy endowing these superbly elegant Champagnes with a creamy richness...just so yummy...light and elegant with a silky pin-cushion mousse. 5 Stars’ — Tom Stevenson, Decanter Magazine

This Champagne is like nothing we have ever offered before. If you have a white napkin and look through the glass onto the white ‘screen’ behind you will detect a distinct pink hue to this wine. This is because it is a ‘Blanc de Noirs’, or rather a white wine made from 100% red grape – Pinot Noir. Coming from the southerly Bar-sur-Aube region of Champagne, where the weather is a little more reliable, Pinot Noir flourishes and the wines are juicy, immediately lovable and happy-go-lucky. This beauty is organically grown (very rare in Champagne) and I cannot remember drinking a wine as joyous and arresting. This is not an age-worthy wine nor is it technically complicated, it is just an incredible crowd-pleaser and when we opened it as the aperitif wine prior to a Hawksmoor Dinner every single person in the room was head over heels with its up front charms. Mathew Jukes

Notes:

Situated in Champagne’s southern reaches in the Côte des Bar, Serge Mathieu are small, family-owned grower Champagne producer that can trace their history back to 1665. The farming is organic and biodynamic with low use of sulphur and filtration. The Brut Tradition is a Blanc de Noirs; 100% Pinot Noir with a fine, energetic bead and pure, red-fruited aromas and flavours with shimmering fruit purity and laser-like focus.

The Mathieu family has grown grapes in what is now the Aube region of Champagne since the 1700s. In the 19th century their tiny village of Avirey-Lingey boasted 80 inhabitants and 400 hectares of vineyard. The commune was one of many in Champagne that suffered a great deal of damage in World War I. One hundred years later the village’s population has increased to 180 but vineyard acreage is down to 120 hectares.

Over the decades the Mathieus amassed parcels of vineyards that today total 11 hectares. Serge Mathieu first started working with his father France in 1958. Up until 1970, like other growers in the area, they sold all their grapes, mainly to Marne Valley producers, since it was costly and difficult to build cellars in the area. In 1970, however, they produced their first 5,000 bottles of Champagne.
Serge’s daughter Isabelle, who had studied languages in school, joined the operation in 1987. She focused on finding export markets for the wines, which up until then were virtually all sold within France. Within a dozen years, the family was exporting 60% of their production.

In 1996, Isabelle married Michel Jacob, a grower from a neighboring village. By 1999, he was farming the estate’s vineyards, while Serge trained him on cellar work. Ultimately Serge also passed on winemaking responsibilities to Michel, who has proven to be not only a thoughtful farmer but also a winemaker with a wonderfully light touch. The result is some of the most ethereal, artful and delicious Champagne.

The Serge Mathieu vineyards are planted 80% to Pinot Noir and 20% to Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir averages 50 years old, with the oldest vines having 57 years. The Kimmeridgian limestone soil here is very rocky, with an abundance of limestone rocks lying on the surface.

Michel is quite modest about his efforts in the vineyard. When Serge asked him to take over the estate, Michel told him he was going to use his own methods, like ploughing the rows again with horses to reduce soil compaction. He now practices what he calls “environmentally friendly viticulture.” He told us that, based on his experience of farming here for 17 years, he notices when things are “not quite right.” Nonetheless, he claims, “The more I go forward the less I know. I could open a museum of bad idea.