Eric Rodez & Charles de Cazanove 

    The other day a fellow wine industry person was telling me about a method champenoise bottling they recently uncorked and very much did not enjoy. “I mean, it’s a natural wine!”, they exclaimed in the end by way of explanation, and it got me thinking: Wherever you land on the whole ‘natural wine’ question, Champagne kind of seems like its natural antagonist. At root, ‘natural wine’ is supposed to signal a commitment to minimal intervention on the winemaker's part - shepherding fruit-to-juice and grape-to-glass with the fewest possible fingerprints. Champagne by contrast demands - from assemblage to liqueur du tirage to remuage to dosage -  almost ceaseless tinkering. Fussiness is kinda the whole point; all the effort it takes to make everything effervesce just right really underlines the extent to which the wine can’t just make itself. 

     Which got me wondering: can these warring imperatives ever be reconciled and, if so, what would that look like? If natural wine is the thesis, Champagne the antithesis, what is the synthesis?  

     Maybe Eric Rodez knows. After all, he represents the 7th generation of his family to grow grapes and make Champagne in Ambonnay, the Grand Cru Village for which he served as mayor from 2008-2014. He also worked as a winemaker at the legendary Krug house for a while, and is a 5-time winner of the prestigious ‘Mr. Champagne’ title. But, most importantly for our purposes, he has been making awesome bubbly under his own name for many years and, despite the pedigree and all the accolades (only one of which I made up), he is hardly complacent. Indeed, Rodez has proven quite willing to rethink and change the fundamentals of his craft in search of greater quality and consistency. A disappointing 1984 harvest occasioned trips to other French wine regions to learn new soil maintenance and fertilization practices, which resulted in an increasingly organic and holistic approach to the land. In 2007, the winery made a commitment to total transparency in its practices as it moved towards organic and biodynamic conversions. In 2012, they became the first French farm to receive “high environmental value” certification. 

     While these practices and certifications, quite rare and difficult in the region, are consistent with the values espoused by most ‘natural’ winemakers, Rodez’s approach remains painstaking even for Champagne. While working at Krug, Eric developed a passion for blending grapes and vintages to achieve a better balance. Many, if not most Champagnes are primarily from one year, perhaps with small amounts of a couple of other proximate vintages added, but Rodez relies heavily on reserve wines, interpolating anywhere from five to ten different vintages in the final cuvees. As he says: "It's the creation of something new, like putting musical notes down on paper. And you're never sure where the melody will go. "You try to direct it, but it's like walking up a circular staircase without knowing where it will lead. I find that incredibly exciting." 

     Anyway, for me, the result of all this careful praxis is a near ideal alloy of nature and nurture, gorgeous bottlings that feel incredibly refined but not at all forced. The cuvee we are featuring this month is the flagship Grand Cru blend, a combination of 2 grapes and several vintages. 

      The other selection, despite coming from an equally established and long-standing Champagne house, by necessity contrasts sharply with the Rodez operation. Charles de Cazanove is a vast large endeavor, producing some 3 million bottles annually and boasting a storied history of presentation to kings and heads of state, and partnership with institutions like the Cannes Film Festival. Though it was founded as a family concern, it has been owned by such boldface names Martini &Rossi and Moet and Chanon. Today, it is helmed by another family company and the Tete du Cuvee bottling we have here is a triumph of regional and institutional know-how:  one of the best $40 Champagne that I have come across. 

Sante! 

 The PlumpJack Wine Team