Alex's Notes on Valentin Leflaive
Leflaive is one of the most recognised names in wine, thanks to the work of Maison Olivier Leflaive and Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy, and this operation in Champagne is a subsidiary of the former, named after Olivier's now 19-year-old son Valentin.
With Leflaive's name - synonymous with exceptional quality - and the family's winemaking expertise behind it, this boutique Champagne producer was destined for great things.
While you can take a Burgundian out of Burgundy, you can't take Burgundy out of a Burgundian!
Hence this producer's modus operandi is to bring a Burgundian, terroir‑first sensibility to the chalk‑rich vineyards of the Côte des Blancs, applying the Leflaive family’s long-established expertise in plot-specific winemaking to Champagne - given that the majority of Champagnes are actually blends of many different areas and vineyards (to achieve taste consistency across their brands year-after-year, akin to Coca-Cola!).
Albeit with exceptions, it is really only boutique Champagne producers who look to showcase specific plots or areas, often but not always from vineyards they own themselves. Indeed, the vast majority of vineyard land in Champagne is owned by growers and boutique producers, not by the big Champagne Houses ('Les Grandes Marques') who collectively own only 10%.
From its base in Oger, 12km to the south of Épernay, the house focuses on crafting Champagnes that act as “travels through lieux‑dits and crus” across the Côte des Blancs (predominantly Chardonnay) and Montagne de Reims (predominantly Pinot Noir).
Winemaking & Ethos
Blanc de Blancs translates as a white wine from white grapes, in this case Chardonnay.
The winemaking here is geared toward freshness (hence the low dosage, only 3 grams per litre of sugar), precision over richness/heaviness, and expression of a single or small number of sites:
- Fermentation is largely in stainless steel to retain purity and freshness, with a proportion aged in barrels for texture and complexity that have previously been used for their highly prestigious Burgundy wines of Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet.
- Extended ageing in bottle 'sur latte' (horizontally), typically 34 to 42 months, to build further texture and autolytic (yeasty, biscuity) characters.
- Extra Brut dosages across the range, reinforcing the house’s mineral, linear, more vinous style.
- A “code” system on labels that communicates origin, vintage base, and dosage: so for the CV/18/30 Blanc de Blancs, the CV refers to the Grand Cru 'Cramant' vineyard (C) and the Premier Cru 'Vertus' vineyard (V), from a base vintage of 2018 (18) and with a dosage of 3.0g/l (30).
The above results in an extremely pure and fragrant Champagne, with incredible texture and notes of citrus and orchard fruits.
The winemaking is led by Elysé Brigandat, a Champenois with "a fascination with Burgundy’s approach to terroir." Hence his undoubted willingness to work with the Leflaive family!
Terroir - the environment that dictates viticultural and winemaking methods, and shapes the wine
Valentin Leflaive works with top‑tier Chardonnay sites on the chalk-dominant slopes of the Côte des Blancs, source of many of the finest wines, as well as a few Pinot Noir sites on the more mixed marl (chalk-clay) slopes of the Montagne de Reims, primarily for their rosé.
All of their sites are classified as either Grand Cru or Premier Cru.
On the Côte des Blancs these include the revered areas of Avize (Grand Cru), Le Mesnil‑sur‑Oger (Grand Cru), Cramant (Grand Cru) and Vertus (Premier Cru). These sites bring great freshness and minerality to the wines.
Sustainability
The house’s philosophy strongly aligns with the approach the family has taken in Burgundy, where they have spearheaded well-known and long-standing principles of careful vineyard stewardship involving:
- Low‑intervention, site-specific viticulture
- Precision farming with an emphasis on healthy, living soils and targeted treatments only when necessary rather than following blanket spraying programmes.
- Responsible sourcing from local growers who share their commitment to quality and environmental stewardship.
It is true that Champagne's climate makes organic viticulture difficult - they have to contend with frost, mildew, rot, and more recently damaging hail storms. Only circa 4% of the region's growers are certified organic (although it was only 1% in 2009). It has been said that some abandoned their conversion to organic methods during the 2021 vintage, so heavy and frequent was the rain.
