Champagne J. Lassalle

Owned by Angéline Templier and her mother Chantal Lassalle the domaine was started in 1942 by Jules Lassalle, was a pioneer as an independent grower. The family has 16 hectares of vineyards, all 1er Cru, producing around 125,000 bottles. 50% of the land is in Chigny, the rest is in the neighbouring villages, spread out over 60 different plots. All three grape varieties are used with 50% being planted to Pinot Meunier and the remainder evenly split between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The traditional vertical press that Jules bought many years ago is still in use, however, the cellar was modernized with stainless steel tanks in 2011. “When we work in the cellar, we aim at expressing the vineyards, so we try to do as little intervention as possible”, says Angéline. “We don’t need to chaptalize and we use indigenous yeast only.” Furthermore, all the wines undergo a full malolactic fermentation and typical dosage is 7-9 g/L.

The vines are around 50 years and the time the bottles are kept on the lees is always longer than the legal minimum. These are wines of astonishing complexity and depth from the beginning of their range up to the premier cuvées.