Le Mesnil-sur-Oger has a reputation as the sternest of the Côte des Blancs villages. Its chalk gives Chardonnay with high acidity, tight structure and a long life, which is why some of Champagne’s most famous long-aging Blanc de Blancs come from here. Members with long memories may remember our visit to Le Mesnil with Guy Charlemagne last year.

The Moncuit family has grown grapes in Le Mesnil since 1889. Nicole Moncuit has managed the vineyards and made the wines since 1977, today with her daughter Valérie at her side. Many of their vines are 50 years old or more (some are nearly double that), a rarity in a region where vines are often replanted long before then. This requires careful farming and environmental stewardship to preserve soil as well as vine health.

Delos, the estate’s flagship wine, is 100% Chardonnay from Le Mesnil. This release is entirely 2022 fruit (leaving the date off minimizes paperwork and expense, and maximizes flexibility on lees aging). They ferment with native yeasts in stainless steel to preserve the terroir expression. The wine goes through malolactic fermentation, which takes some of the edge off Le Mesnil’s famous acidity by converting the malic to softer lactic acid.

2022 was a brilliant vintage, with healthy, expressive fruit that is perfect for capturing all the chalky intensity and Chardonnay charm of Mesnil. It’s a picture perfect postcard of a single village, in a single year, from a single family. 

The De Sousa name doesn’t go back quite as far in Champagne as the Moncuits. The domaine was founded by Zoémie Bonville and her husband, Antoine de Sousa, the son of a Portuguese soldier who fought in France in the First World War and then settled in Avize. Antoine’s son Erick took over in the ‘80s and his children, Julie, Valentin and Charlotte took over in 2020. 

Their work is deeply old school. They also preserve old vines and even plough part of the vineyard by horse. They are long-certified organic and biodynamic; sheep graze between the vines. 

Their winemaking is also old school in a particular, Champenois sense: they preserve the blending tradition in their Cuvee 3A. They mostly farm Grand Cru Chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs, especially Avize. But they also farm Grand Cru Pinot Noir in Aÿ and Ambonnay. The magic of their 3A cuvee starts with blending those three “A” villages: Avize, Aÿ and Ambonnay. 

All the Avize fruit is Chardonnay, and all the Aÿ and Ambonnay is Pinot Noir. So that village blending is also blending of varieties. The blending takes an interesting form: often in Champagne, growers will ferment their different varieties separately and then blend them later, like an artist working paints together. But the de Sousa’s put them all in the press together, ferment them on the native yeasts from the start. 

It’s an intentional approach that gives the varieties and terroirs the time to come together right from the beginning. The fermentation and aging happen in oak, which again gives the wine time to come together (and a slow exchange of oxygen through the wood, to help with the process too). 

The de Sousas, unlike the Moncuits, also blend vintages. This wine is built on 2018 fruit (70%), with the balance drawn from a perpetual reserve the family began in 2014 (so including wine from 2014 to 2017). But like the Moncuits, they use a light 3g/L dosage allowing their terroir(s) to speak. It was disgorged in 2022, so now has fully four years of bottle aging under its belt since disgorgement.

The result is a Champagne that balances Avize’s chalky finesse with the weight and generosity of Grand Cru Pinot Noir. It has elegance and integration from both oak and time. It is a complete wine and every bit as terroir-focused as the Moncuit, just in its own, traditional way.