Allouchery-Bailly & Barrat-Masson
First off, apologies for the lag of this here communique. I received and rang these selections last week, and intended to have the notes ready to go shortly thereafter, but couldn’t finish before leaving on vacation. Back now and so back at it - as, with school starting and whatnot, are many of you I’d reckon.
Rest assured though, whilst out of town, I still couldn’t (figuratively) shake Champagne. On an island and consulting a bunch of travel activity brochures, the thought occurred to me that the Champagne region (much like the fictional nation of Boca Grande in Joan Didion’s novel A Book of Common Prayer) is distinguished by a degree of sameness foreign to
your regular postcard-from-abroad patter. Not really a “land of contrasts”, Champagne is instead a spot where all the propinquities we tuck into typicity (grape, winemaking technique) and terroir (soil, topography, climate) exist comfortably under a single, highly specific, title. “Champagne” is a sign of quality ensured by the uniformity of
production it demands; you don’t tend to visit for the variety.
There are differences between bottling of course, as fine and important as the bubbles for which we venerate them, and so we end up playing those up. For instance, this month we are featuring a selection, the Allouchery-Bailly Diapason 1er Cru Brut, with a higher level of dosage (9 grams per liter) than any I’ve chosen before. It is paired with a Brut Nature, the
Barrat-Masson Les Marganges (zero grams per liter dosage) for the contrast, but I think that the craft on display will resonate whatever style you usually favor. And the two producers turned out to have more in common than I initially
expected: They are both grower/producers, as almost all of our vignerons are, which makes them outliers without trying amongst the large labels and small farmers that predominate in the region. They also both feature women winemakers - still all too rare here - and each possesses environment friendly certifications (Sustainable and Organic, respectively), which are likewise hard to come by in Champagne. Allouchery-Bailly is making its debut in the Champagne Club, while we seem to have an unspoken psychic rule that Barrat-Masson be used every four years - April 2017, August 2021, now -
though the Les Margannes cuvee is also new to us.
Anyway, feel free to savor or ignore these details, cleavages, and/or convergences at your leisure, there will be plentymore next month. There’s really no wrong way to appreciate Champagne; we all keep coming back for that guarantee.
Sante!
The PlumpJack Wine Team
Allouchery-Bailly Diapason 1er Cru Brut
From: Montagne de Reims,
Champagne, France
About the Winemaker: Founded in 1953, Allouchery-Bailly is a four-generation
family-owned domaine in the village of Écueil, at the heart of la Montagne de Reims. The
Premier Cru vineyards are composed of 5.5 ha in the villages of Écueil, Villedommange,
Chamery and Sacy, predominantly Pinot Noir covering over 3.6 ha, followed by Pinot
Meunier and the Chardonnay.
The terroir of this region is diversified and gives the wines a unique richness. The Écueil
vineyard is planted on formations deposited over a period of 75-30 million years BC. The
different layers (chalk, sand, clay, limestone, marls) make the soil especially rich. This
minerality gives the grapes all their tension, their crunchy and fruity character, typical of
the Écueil region
Assemblage/Vinification: 7% Pinot Noir 24% Chardonnay 39% Meunier
Winemaker: Camille
Allouchery
Price per bottle / Price per
case: $63.99/$691.10
August 2025
Premier Cru, Estate vineyards in the villages of Ecueil, Villedommange, Sacy, and
Chamery. Clay, limestone, loam, sand soils.Certified sustainable farming. VDC
(Viticulture durable en Champagne) and HVE (Haute Valeur Environnementale)Hand
harvested, Pneumatic press, stainless steel fermentation. 30% reserve wine. 9 g/l
dosage.
Tasting Notes: A classic, pleasurable champagne with all the notes in harmony. Leaning
fruity with nice floral tones for complexity. There is fresh acidity and intriguing
minerality all balanced by mid-level Brut dosage. A very easy champagne to love.
Suggested Food Pairing:
Cheese canapé
Chicken émincé with
peaches
Apple crumble
Barrat Masson ‘Les Margannes’ Brut Nature NV
From: Côte de Sézanne,
Champagne, France
About the Winemaker: Champagne Barrat-Masson is the project of Aurélie Barrat and
Loïc Masson, a wife and husband team who farm seven hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot
Noir on the slopes of the Sézannais in Champagne’s Côte de Sézanne region.
In 2005, Loïc took over the family farm in Bethon, and promptly began to replace
conventional herbicides with organic treatments and vineyard practices. Supported
by Aurélie, a trained oenologist, Loïc has fully committed his vineyards to organic
winegrowing by 2009. Presently, the wines of Barrat-Masson are certified organic
by Ecocert.
At Barrat-Masson, the quality of the grapes is paramount, and for this reason Loïc’s
work and attention to detail in the vineyard is painstaking. With healthy grapes
harvested at optimum ripeness, Aurélie then takes over; expert winemaking
conducted in a manner to be as minimally intrusive as possible. Each parcel is vinified
separately in either stainless steel tank or barrel (demi-muid), and special attention is
paid towards working with the Coeur de Cuvée, or the first press of the juice from the
incoming harvest. This enables Aurélie to have a detailed vision for each of the
domaine’s parcels in order to perform precise blends that will ensure wines of
character over time.
Assemblage/Vinification:: 100% Chardonnay. 2011 vintage. From 7 hectares of estate
vines in Bethon in Villenauxe-la-Grande - Côte de Sézanne. Clay and chalk soils.
Organic farming, certified by Ecocert. Hand harvested, each parcel pressed separately
and fractionally using traditional Coquard press. Fermentation at low temperature
(16C) in stainless steel tank & oak barrels. Partial malolactic fermentation completed.
Aged a minimum of 9 months on fine lees after primary fermentation is completed.
Sur lattes minimum 24 months. Minimum 3 months in bottle before release after
being disgorged. 0g/L Dosage.
Tasting Notes: The Margannes is a pale yellow color with golden hues, a very fine and
complex nose, mixing honey and acacia, toasted bread notes, with hints of white flowers.
The foam is persistent with very fine effervescence. It has hints of candied citrus peel and
some floral notes. It is a Champagne characterized by a very long and powerful aromatic
range. Biscuit, honey, acacia and minerality for days here.
Winemaker: Aurélie Barrat
& Loïc Masson
Price per bottle / Price per
case: $65.99/$712.17
Suggested Food Pairing:
Sushi
Scallops
Richer, oiler fish like salmon
or tuna
Creamy Risotto
