André Clouet: Champagne Dreams

When we first brought on Champagne André Clouet in 2017, we were astounded at the way it managed to capture the hearts and the palates of both our staff and customers immediately.

At the time, we had only brought on their NV Grandé Reserve Brut – a 100% Pinot Noir Champagne from their family vineyards in Bouzy and adorned with an intricate blue and gold label designed in 1911. It wasn’t one of the ‘big’ Champagne names but it was one that carried with it a lot of respect, with a detectable electric undercurrent of intrigue reserved for only the most ‘boutique’ and ‘in-the-know’ producers.

We soon added their No.5 Brut Rosé and their V6 Experience cuvées to the line up, who have in time also garnered a passionate group of fans here in NZ. Then, earlier this year we ordered a few hundred bottles of his Blanc de Blancs – Chalky – which sold out by word of mouth within two hours of booking the stock…

Which brings us to this announcement. We are so excited to announce the upcoming arrival of a new VINTAGE cuvée.

Everyone knows vintage Champagne has a little something extra to offer – we’ve blogged about it pretty extensively before, which we’ll touch on here but like all his cuvées, André Clouet adds extra to that extra.

In their own words; “The Dream Vintage collection is a masterful gourmet retrospective dedicated to the great vintages of Champagne. This collection is crafted with a base of Chardonnay, known for its elegance and finesse. The equipment is reminiscent of the great Cadillac classics: Fiesta Red, Chrystal Green, Ebony Black, and other colors that make big dreams come true.”

Even though André Clouet is known for its Pinots, they are far more than a one-grape pony. The 2005 vintage produced remarkable Chardonnays, with aromas of white flowers, citrus fruit and mineral notes. A cold, dry winter was followed by a moderate spring, favouring good growth. After a variable summer, a heat wave at the end of August accelerated ripening. The September harvest took place under ideal conditions, with sunny days and cool nights.”

Tyson Stelzer spoke to Clouet in his Champagne Guide 2020-2021 Edition VI about the creation of the series, “‘Growers on the Côte des Blancs make a national sport of finding red wine for rosé on the Montagne de Reims, and I prefer to swap than sell – so I amassed a cellar of Côtes des Blancs chardonnay.’ Not wanting to change the style of his existing cuvées by blending, he instead conceived a new range, which he dubbed ‘Dream Vintage,’ of between 2000 and 4000 bottles of blanc de blancs each season.”

The Clouet family history in Bouzy dates back to the 1400’s. Before their vinous adventures, the Clouet ancestors were the appointed printers for the French monarchs. Over the next 200 years and through several generations, the family slowly accumulated vineyards in Bouzy before finally, in 1741 they first started to make Champagne. Cellars were dug into the chalky soils and the family set down their roots officially in the town they’d spent several centuries in under the watchful eye of one André Clouet.

“During Creation, when God grew weary of sculpting the mountings, razing the deserts and firing up the volcanoes, he treated himself to a few moments of pleasure. He designed a little earthly paradise called Bouzy.”

André Clouet’s descendants took over his estate, ensuring that it remained in the family. The property had aged but has now been modernised, and the team working to perpetuate the House of André Clouet is inspired above all by the desire to preserve the personality of its champagnes. 

“Jean-François is deeply rooted in the heritage of his village,” explains Tyson Stelzer in his book, The Champagne Guide 2020-2021 Edition VI, “He still possesses his family’s request for a deed for the purchase of land in Champagne by their ancestors in 1689 and a letter from the 1820’s requesting an order of Rosé to be sent to Paris.” 

A story the family loves to tell is that of André Clouet’s memorable interaction with Marie Antoinette. In 1770, the future Queen of France visited the vineyards in Bouzy and a dinner in her honour was organised in a castle not far from the village. Andre Clouet was in attendance and decided to entertain the guests at the Queen’s table by adding a few drops of red wine from their vineyards to the white wine. Known as “Bouzy Rouge,” this Vin des Sacres, was the red wine served to celebrate the crowning of the French Kings.

On that night, it’s said the ladies’ eyes began to sparkle with amazement as the white wine became pink!

The men raised a toast to the Queen and André Clouet proclaimed: “This is how we perfect Pinot Noir in Champagne! Now the Burgundians will just have to deal with it!”

A few years later, a cousin placed an order for some of this ‘pink wine’, but sparkling this time, for her “crazy English friends!”

Jean-François is the larger-than-life current generation of the Clouet line and is at the helm of this family Estate. Growing up amongst the vines, the vineyards are in his blood. He’s been described as many things – a wizard, a wonder, a ringmaster… and all of these may be true but there’s no doubt his legacy will also recognise him as a phenomenal vigneron. 

“One of the living rock stars of Champagne, Jean-François choreographs every element of his business with his inimitable flair and accomplishment…”
– Tyson Stelzer

A fun story he enjoys telling pertains to the tanks and barrels that age the wines;

“When I was a little boy, I loved walking around the wine-making cellar. In my imagination, the enormous wine tanks transformed and became champions, guardians, protectors of the wine…

My Heroes! Creaking, wheezing, groaning, squealing, sweating… sometimes they even seemed to be laughing! I watched the noisy show, as some were gushing from their nozzles, while others were being filled up. I grew up learning to play with my heroes who live in the wine-cellars.

Each has its own name and personality to share and their attributes come alive in the wines:

Superman, Zeus, and Thor lend their power to the Cuvée Grande Reserve.

Laser, D’artagnan and Zorro transmit their intensity, tension and minerality to the Brut Silver.

Sophie Marceau, Heather Locklear and Michelle Pheiffer flirt beautifully with the Rosé.

Rocky comes out swinging to make a Dream Vintage!

As I blend to create champagne, I work to find the perfect balance of characteristics that come from all my remarkable, dauntless heroes: the Stainless Steel Giants.”

Vintage champagne remains the ultimate luxury libation: favoured by wine collectors, investors, wine geeks and of course, the rich and famous. Looking at the labels on bottles of bubbles on shop shelves you’ll not likely see a year written on many. That’s because most champagne is non-vintage (NV), or ‘Champagne sans année’ as the French more attractively describe it. Non-vintage champagne is made from a blend of two or usually more harvests and accounts for the vast majority of champagne production. Vintage Champagne – or more correctly, ‘millésimé’ – has to be 100% from the year indicated on the label and, as a result, is more variable in style. It is, in effect, a true expression of one single harvest and accounts for less than 5% of the champagne production. 

A brief search shows a number of reports on how the 2005 vintage fared but one consistently mentioned trait was that the chardonnays were the standout grape for the season – fabulous news for this Grand Cru blanc de blancs.  

In 2018, Decanter rated the 2005 vintage as 4/5  “As we write, we believe the 2005 harvest will provide the opportunity of making some superlative blends… and probably vintage champagne…Initial tasting sessions have confirmed that the Chardonnays are indeed excellent wines.”

Wine Spectator rated the vintage as an overall 90, “Open-knit and approachable versions capable of short-term cellaring; Chardonnay fared best.”

Wine Searcher dubbed the vintage “Excellent” and advised “Overall, the 2005 Champagne vintage was excellent but perhaps stopped short of outstanding. The very best wines are likely to still be drinking well now.”

You can choose to take our word for it when it comes to Clouet’s brilliance, but if you don’t then you must listen to Tyson Stelzer. 

Already quoted a few times in this piece, he is a multi-award winning wine writer, television host and producer and international speaker. Tyson has been named The International Wine & Spirit Communicator of the Year, The Australian Wine Communicator of the Year and The International Champagne Writer of the Year. He is the author and publisher of seventeen wine books, contributor to many wine magazines, a frequent judge and chair at Australian wine shows and a presenter at wine events in 12 countries. All this to say: he knows his wine and is great at articulating the magic where mere mortals fall short!

“Jean-François is a courageous visionary and an ebullient creative with the nous to bring his dreams to completion and the humility to gather round him the talent to make it happen.”

In 2017, Tyson published an article titled “Is this the most underrated champagne grower of all?” which is a poetic and beautiful summation of this Champagne House, which we’ve detailed below, or that you can read here.

“It’s always puzzled me that the remarkable, terroir-expressive champagnes of André Clouet never seem to come up among the rockstar growers of Champagne. And yet on the basis of his current cuvées, I have again anointed this little grower in the grand cru village of Bouzy among the top six growers in Champagne. This of course places him among the top sparkling growers on earth. My scores rank him equal to Dom Pérignon, Louis Roederer and Taittinger. And that’s mighty company!

For those in the know, the rare cuvées of André Clouet are immensely sought-after. You can’t buy these champagnes year-round in Australia, because they quickly sell out as soon as a shipment lands. Cru Bar in Brisbane recently told me of a pallet arriving and selling before the staff even had time to unpack it into the store.

I am always intrigued that something of the personality of the maker is translated into the character of all great wines. In this, the wines of Jean-François Clouet capture a profound and intriguing juxtaposition.

The man and his cuvées are deeply rooted into the multilayered and convoluted history of Champagne, arguably more than any other. He is the privileged custodian of eight hectares of estate vines in the best middle slopes of Bouzy and Ambonnay, the epicentre of pinot noir in Champagne. His family heritage in Bouzy extends back to 1492 and they have been making their own champagnes here since the early 1700s.

Every time I introduce new friends to Jean-François, he doesn’t first show us through his winery or cellars, doesn’t walk us through rows of vines, or even pour his champagnes. He takes us to the top of the vineyards, on the edge of the forest overlooking Bouzy, and recounts the remarkable sweep of history that has played out in view of this place over two millennia, and the role his own family has played in the stories: Attila the Hun, the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, the birth of the monarchy, the crusades, the Templars, Marie Antoinette. ‘To understand Champagne you need to understand its political history,’ he says.

It’s a history that lives on in his champagnes, both in spectacularly classical labels designed by his great grandfather in 1911 (harking back to the family’s printer heritage, making books for the king since 1491), and in a traditional approach in the vineyards and the cellar. ‘I like the idea of the work of human hands in pruning, performing the same actions as my grandfather and even the Romans, who planted vines here 2000 years ago.’

Such deep heritage makes for a striking contrast to the flamboyant personality of Jean-François, dubbed by one of my recent guests as ‘a combination of winemaker and circus ringmaster.’

He is daringly creative, with a distinctly modern twist to his approach. It is his goal that some day none of his champagnes will have any dosage at all, an ideal that he rightly describes as revolutionary.

His are rich and concentrated expressions of pinot noir, wines of deep complexity, multifaceted interest and engaging character, yet with remarkable restraint and sense of control. Tasting after tasting confirm my impression that this small and relatively unknown grower ranks high among Champagne’s finest practitioners of pinot noir — and represents one of the best value of all.

And yet for all of his success, this extroverted young chef de cave doesn’t take himself too seriously. ‘Champagne is always for flirting!’ he grins.

Visits with Jean-François are always recounted as a highlight by my little tour groups in Champagne, and it has long been my dream to introduce my knowledgeable and entertaining friend in Australia.”