LES PARCELLES DU TERROIR GRAND CRU (Champagne André ROBERT)

LES PARCELLES DU TERROIR is a non-vintage Blanc de Blancs champagne (100% Chardonnay) in which 50% of the grapes come from a single plot: the Vaucherots plot.

TERROIR

The Vaucherots plot's terroir is made up of the typical chalk which covers a large part of the Côte des Blancs soils. Formed 75 million years ago in the Campanian (upper Cretaceous stage), this very pure chalk results from a sedimentation, in warm and shallow water, of the microorganisms skeletons and the algae that inhabit the waters at that time. However, the chalk is not showing on the Vaucherots plot's surface because the latter is covered with a thick yellowish limestone silts layer dating from the Quaternary (-2 million years ago).

The rest of the plots entering into the LES PARCELLES DU TERROIR champagne composition through the reserve wine blended into the 2015 vintage must, are based on this same chalky terroir, sometimes outcropping, sometimes hidden under gravel coming from its deterioration.

WINEGROWING & WINEMAKING

LES PARCELLES DU TERROIR is a blended champagne made up of 50% of the 2015 vintage and 50% of reserve wines from different vintages.
The 2015 harvest's grapes are, after picking, slowly and gently pressed. Only the must from the first three presses is kept, this is called the cuvée.

The must makes its alcoholic fermentation in 225-liters oak barrels with the indigenous yeasts action, if the latter are sufficiently efficient. In case of slowness, neutral active dry yeasts can be added to ensure a complete alcoholic fermentation. The must is then filtered to get rid of the coarse lees which could promote lactic acid bacteria development and the malolactic fermentation triggering. A light sulphiting is carried out in order to inhibit the malolactic fermentation onset and the must continues to mature for 10 months on its fine lees in those same 225-liter oak barrels.

When the lees ageing is over, the must is drawn off and bottled with a liqueur de tirage for the second fermentation in bottle.
It will rest on slats for 44 months. After disgorging, the champagne is dosed at 4 g/l with a homemade liqueur, then it rests in cellar for a few months before marketing.

• Blend: 2015 (50%) - Reserve wine (50%)
• Disgorgement date: 2020/03
  
• Sugar addition: 4 g/l
• Dosage Liquor: Homemade