Label: Caillez-Lemaire
Vintage: NV
Fruit: 50% Chardonnay | Pinot Noir 25% | Pinot Meunier 25%
Region: Marne, Champagne, France
ABV: 12.5%
smoke signals / days of honey / share a star with a love afar
The nose is full of white fruit, citrus, flowers and notes of almond. It's nice and smokey on the front end, followed by warm tropical notes and a toasty layer alongside some honey and red apple. The finish brings lovely salinity and texture with dried exotic elements.
Éclats' aromas are rich in white fruits, citrus fruits, flowers and notes of almond and toasted bread. It is recommended to enjoy it between 9 and 12 degrees to appreciate its creamy effervescence and lively freshness. Full-bodied aromas complement the wine, with a lively, salty finish offering refined complexity.
Caillez-Lemaire is run by husband and wife team Virginie and Laurent Vanpoperinghe. They are based in Damery, an under-the-radar village in the Marne Valley, where they farm just six hectares planted on the east bank of the Marne River. Virginie's family has been growing grapes here since the eighteenth century and her grandparents started making their own wine in the early nineteen forties. The family’s plantings are predominantly Pinot Meunier, as is typical for the region, complemented with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Farming has been organic since 2020 - though they stopped using pesticides much earlier, in the mid nineties - and they became certified Ecocert in 2023.
The Caillez-Lemaire wines are structural and textured, combining richness and depth with precision. Base wines are mostly fermented in older barrels, a signature of the house style, and are released as extra brut with low dosage. These are complex family-made wines produced in tiny quantities, with the characterful qualities that make discovering grower Champagnes so rewarding and exciting.
