Emmanuel Brochet
Champagne is made up of hundreds of crus. Emmanuel Brochet grows grapes on a hillside in one of these villages, located south of Reims; almost no one outside the region knows its exact location. It is the village of Villers-aux-Noeuds, which belongs to Montagne de Reims. He bottles his wines exclusively from grapes produced at lieu-dit Le Mont Benoît, his only vineyard. Due to high demand he has included a Selected line where he purchases grapes from like minded growers and releases these wines under his Emmanuel Brochet Négoce Selected label.
Emmanuel comes from a farming family and was the first member of his family to also produce Champagne wines himself. He has been certified organic since 2011 and cultivates his vines using organic methods; he performs nearly all tasks by hand, ferments in used oak barrels, and keeps the dosage low enough to ensure that every cuvée qualifies as Extra Brut. Annual production amounts to just a few thousand bottles.
Small-scale, specialized wines made entirely by one person, it is precisely this combination that keeps collectors eagerly awaiting the release of his new vintages.
The history
For many years, this family's vineyards in Le Mont Benoit was leased to négociants, who took the grapes to produce Champagne elsewhere. When the lease expired in 1997, Emmanuel Brochet began cultivating the vineyard himself. He is often cited as the first generation of his family to cultivate and produce Champagne under the family's name on this vineyard, which he inherited from his grandparents.
The vineyard's transformation took place in stages. Beginning in 2002, he farmed without herbicides or pesticides; in 2008, he converted the entire vineyard to organic farming; and in 2011, he obtained organic certification.
Brochet has stated that the transition to organic farming was not a political stance but a matter of enjoyment and balance. He believes that if work and the surrounding environment bring joy, the quality of the wine will also improve. The principles of biodynamic farming are also applied as part of vineyard management.
Around the time his first vintage was released, the grower-producer category was beginning to gain attention in Champagne, and Brochet became one of the key figures.
Le Mont Benoit, all 2.5 hectares of it
His own wines come from a single 2.5-hectare plot. Le Mont Benoit is situated on a slope that is neatly divided into two sections. The oldest vines, planted in 1962, occupy the upper section, while the relatively younger vines, planted in 1984, are located in the lower section. Some areas were replanted in 2003 and 2006.
The village of Villers-aux-Noeuds itself is merely a footnote in most books about Champagne. Two centuries ago, thanks to its geographical proximity to Reims, the village boasted over 200 hectares of vineyards. Most of these were lost to phylloxera, and today only about 25 hectares remain on the slopes with the best sun exposure.
Thanks to Brochet's efforts, the village has been kept from becoming a forgotten name. Furthermore, this vineyard is classified as Premier Cru, a designation that appears on his flagship cuvée label.
Silt, clay and chalk
The soil in Le Mont Benoit is a mixture of silt, clay, and chalk.
The characteristics consistently cited by people regarding Emmanuel Brochet's Champagnes are their minerality, firm structure, and a distinctive tightness felt in the mid-palate; thanks to the consistently low dosage, these characteristics come through clearly. The old-vine section located at the top of the slope adds to the wine's concentration.
Three varieties on one slope
At Le Mont Benoit, three major Champagne varieties are grown side by side:
- Pinot Meunier: This variety accounts for the largest share of the cultivated area, generally estimated at about 40%.
- Chardonnay: Accounts for roughly one-third of the total, with the highest quality grapes found near the hilltops.
- Pinot Noir makes up the remainder.
Since blends vary by cuvée and from year to year, there is no single ratio that can describe this range. Here, Meunier is treated as a key grape variety rather than merely a supplementary one, a distinction not all wineries in the Montagne de Reims region can claim.
Handwork, barrels, and almost no dosage
Since pressing is carried out using a traditional vertical press with the minimum allowable volume, Emmanuel Brochet is able to precisely control the components that go into the wine. Of the wine obtained during the pressing process, only the core portion, known as the cuvée, is retained, while the rest is set aside.
Fermentation takes place in used barriques (small oak barrels that have already held wine several times, which have little effect on the flavor) and is initiated with indigenous yeasts rather than commercial yeast strains. After malolactic fermentation is complete, a small amount of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is added. In recent years, Brochet has even succeeded in directly selecting yeast naturally present in the surrounding environment for secondary fermentation in the bottle.
No filtration or clarification processes are used. Since the dosage is kept to a minimum overall, all bottled wines are classified as Extra Brut.
He is not opposed to technology and utilizes it where it is helpful. However, he performs most of the work in the vineyard and winery by hand himself.
The wines
Le Mont Benoit Premier Cru Extra Brut is both the house wine as the base wine. This wine is made by blending two consecutive vintages, typically using all three grape varieties, and is finished with very little dosage. Brochet once released this wine in two different dosage levels but has since discontinued that practice.
Les Haut Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut is produced at the Chardonnay vineyard, located at the top of a hill; only the highest-quality juice is extracted, fermented in 350-liter oak barrels, and aged for an additional year. There are also vintage bottlings, Millesime Selectionne and Extra-Brut Rosé de Saignee.
In addition, various cuvées are released, including Les Hauts Meuniers, made from 100% Pinot Meunier, Les Hautes Vignes, a blend of Meunier-Chardonnay, and more recently under his négoce line the Selected wines, these are single terrior wines made from purchased grapes from like minded growers who follow his philosophy in the vineyards and methods. This includes the Selected Pierry Extra Brut, from the vineyards around the village Pierry, just south of Épernay.
Production volumes are truly minimal. The total annual production, as reported, ranges from approximately 6,000 to 11,000 bottles depending on the vintage and source, and production volumes for individual cuvées can be significantly lower. For example, the 2009 vintage of Hauts Meuniers consisted of only 546 bottles. Even Brochet himself had not tasted that wine again until 2021, when a collector brought a single bottle back to the winery.
Frequently asked questions
Is Emmanuel Brochet a grower Champagne?
Yes. He farms his own vines at Villers-aux-Noeuds and makes the wine himself, and he is regularly cited as one of the producers who helped the grower category gain its current standing.
Where exactly is the estate?
In the village of Villers-aux-Noeuds, just south of Reims, in the Montagne de Reims part of Champagne.
Is the estate certified organic?
It has been certified since 2011, after a full conversion in 2008 and several years of farming without herbicides or insecticides before that. Biodynamic principles also play a role in the vineyard.
Why are the wines so hard to find?
One vineyard, one person doing the work, and an annual production counted in thousands rather than hundreds of thousands of bottles. Some cuvées are made in a few hundred bottles.
