Lelarge-Pugeot - ''Tradition' - Brut Nature' - Champagne - Vrigny, Champagne, FR - NV

Notes from the Winery/Importer

Harvest: 2022 + Reserve wines from 2017,2018,2019,2020 *Demeter Certified Blend: 50% Meunier, 40% Pinot Noir; 10% Chardonnay Age of the vines : 30+ year old Winemaking: Spontaneous fermentations, 10 months in foudres, barrels and stainless steel tank, on fine lies. Bottling: July 2023 Aging: 18 months in bottle Disgorgement: February 2025 Dosage: 0 g/L – Brut Nature *limited quantities available of half bottles, magnums and jeroboams*

Notes on the Producer

A progressive turn to organic farming then a commitment to biodynamie. Our work is the work of vigneron. We “work” the vines. Everything starts in the vineyard. It is important for us to respect what nature handed us. In 1985, Dominique Lelarge took over his family estate and decided to go towards a more sustainable farming approach. The realization of how dangerous the use of pesticide is to nature and mankind was a wake-up call. This started his commitment to reducing the use of any chemical product in the vineyard. “Life is a gift from Nature”, Dominique keeps introducing new methods in the vineyard in order to create a natural balance between the environment, the vineyard and terroir. Vines are living beings. Like the human body, they can naturally fight diseases themselves. By 2000, Dominique decided to stop the use of insecticides in order to reestablish the natural cycle of predatory wildlife in his vineyard such as ladybugs and lacewing larvae regulating spiders and caterpillars. Following this decision, he dramatically reduced the use of fungicides and herbicides, and started growing grass between the vines for cover crop and to experiment new techniques in ploughing. As time moved forward, research, common sense, a genuine concern for the next generations and a desire to let nature take its course, pushed the winery to seek the European ORGANIC farming certification with ECOCERT. Dominique uses trace elements, sulfur and copper to fight diseases. A horse ploughs parcels in order to avoid compaction. We practice the green harvest with all of the work taking place in the vineyard done meticulously and methodically. Because of this extraordinary effort, all of the Champagne and wines out of the 2015 harvest will be 100% certified organic. This commitment to sustainable agriculture led us to learn and discover more bout organic farming. We attended a variety of classes by agrobiologists like Claude Bourguignon, a specialist in soil microbiology; Dominique Massenot, who develops the Herody method to nurture the plant; Pierre Masson for the biodynamic principles and even Eric Petiot for aromatherapy which uses of essential oils and plants to protect vines against disease. We have also started experimenting with some of our parcels in coordination with students from the Chamber of Commerce and the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC). “Healthy grapes will produce a quality wine”; especially when you are trying to achieve natural and authentic wines. A commitment to biodynamie “We do not make wine, we farm the vines, meticulously look at every single step of the wine growing to produce the most natural champagne expressing the taste of terroir.” Biodynamie appeared to us as a necessity. A necessity to make terroir driven wines. We are trying to achieve a connection between the vines and the earth, the solar/lunar forces in order to have the roots dig as deep as they can. We began initial trails in biodynamics in 2014 and are now certified by DEMETER. 1799 Pierre-Henri Lelarge was born and moved to Vrigny where he got married. And thus, the story of winegrowers in the Lelarge family begins… 1914 -1918 The northern part of the Champagne region was greatly impacted during the first World War. Raymond, 5th generation of the Lelarge family, joined the army and went to war. Meanwhile, his family escaped to Polisy in Southern Champagne. 1922 After returning from the war, the Lelarge family began restorations on the vineyard while Raymond began building a press machine. 1930 Champagne Lelarge is bottled for the first time. 1950 Marcel, Raymond’s son, and Fernande (Marcel’s wife) took over the winery. In 1963, Dominique, the current generation, was born. 1983 Dominique takes off to Beaune in Burgundy to study viticulture and oenology where he met his future wife, Dominique Pugeot. A few years later, the couple takes over the winery, which then became Champagne Lelarge-Pugeot. 1990 The young couple decided to envision a new way of farming. They began reducing their usage of pesticides and herbicides asking themselves, “Why would we do something to our vines that we would not do to ourselves?” 1998 The family began working on their winery, building a new cellar and press machine with the potential of bottling more Champagne. 2000 Dominique decided to stop the use of insecticides and herbicides completely with the goal of letting the predatory wildlife take its course as nature intended. He also started growing grass between the vines. 2005 All the vines developed cover crops which signaled that it was now time to start ploughing more. 2008 Thanks to a much more respectful way of farming, grapes come in the winery at a higher sugar level, which allows the winery to produce a Coteaux Champenois Rouge, a still red of Pinot noir. 2009 Some parcels are ploughed with horses. 2010 The family commited to the organic certification with Ecocert. 2010 Meunier is the ancestral grape of the terroir of Vrigny. The first 100% Meunier is bottled. 2012 With the goal of producing the entire estate, the family reduced the amount of grapes sold. Clémence, the oldest daughter, joined the family business and started promoting the Champagnes throughout the world. 2013 The first vintage of Blanc de Meunier is bottled. A white wine made from a red grape. A delish! 2014 The year of CHANGE! Half of the vineyard is now certified organic. Then, Dominique starts practicing biodynamie. During the 2014 harvest, some of the wines were made 100% within the natural way. No manipulation, no sulfur, no sugar. This juice will be the cuvee “Nature et Non dose”. 2015 The vineyard of the estate was certified organic by ECOCERT. An extension of the current winery building started with a projection of completion in 2017. 2016 The family acquires bee hives. 2017 The 7th and 8th generations are working together. Valentin, the middle child joined the team in 2015. Another great news for this new year, the winery is certified biodynamic (Demeter). 2018 Our team has a new member, a border collie, the guardian of the winery; Nova (on the left in the picture) 2019 The cellar is finished and couple new fermenters arrives: amphoras from the Basque Country and 500L barrels. 2020 We planted lots of fruit trees (peach, apple, cherry, plum, almond) to encourage natural biodiversity in the vineyard. 2022 Release of our 100% Natural cuvées; the Luna in 3 volumes. Like a book, those three cuvées tell a story, a story of our terroir, our work with biodynamic farming, natural wines et a story of wanting more freedom. With these cuvées also came the collaboration with the talented artist Ayca (@murbyayca) who designed our label and with the International Federation with Human Rights to who we’re commited to give back 5 euros per bottle sold.