Champagne. David Léclapart
Located in the eastern side of the Montagne de Reims in a small village Trépail David Léclapart is currently producing some of the most exciting wines the Champagne region has to offer. Although this is part of Montagne de Reims, which is known for Pinot Noir, Trépail is a great place for Chardonnay. David cultivates 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir, which by the way is the ratio for his tête de cuvée L’Aphrodisiaque.
He works on 2,97 hectares split into 22 parcels just around Trépail. There are two particularities of this terroir. Firstly the location on the hilly side with a higher elevation than for example Ambonnay from where I came from. The second - there is a proximity to the forest which ensures a fresh microclimate.
David Léclapart has been biodynamic since 1998, from the beginning certified with Demeter but currently he switched to Biodyvin. The difference is simple – although Demeter is the most extreme bio certification one can obtain, it pertains to every form of agriculture. Biodyvin is solely for wine growers. Initially, Demeter was rather reluctant to work with winegrowers as they perceived alcohol as a harmful substance (rightfully so). This has changed over time ,however David believes Biodyvin to be a better fit for him since he is only concerned with wine growing.
The principles are as follows: all the wines are from a single vintage, there is no blending (single parcel vinification), no assemblage. We discussed three recent vintages. 2022 was great – one of the best he can remember. The harvest started on the 1st of September and it took 4 days to finish. David told me he has never seen his cellar so full as during my visit (October 2022), which will translate to more wine being made. Great quality and abundant harvest are clearly a gift after a horrible 2021. Only 4000 bottles in total were made as the hail struck his vineyards three times in two weeks damaging 80% of crops. His production varies - around 16 000 bottles in 2020 (which is his average quantity), but in 2022 he hopes to land at 25 000.
From 1998 to 2015 half of the grapes cultivated were sold to the cooperative with 2016 being the first vintage when David stopped selling any of his grapes and instead began bottling everything himself. Even during the time he sold part of his grapes he chose the recipients carefully – he sold either to Benoit Marguet or his friends from Champagne Leclerc Briant. The winery is strictly a family business with David’s wife looking after the office while he is working in the vineyards along with his son Martin and one external employee – in total 4 people.
If nature allows it – you hear him uttering. David believes strongly that one must always be willing to follow nature. Most of the years he can prepare 4 cuvees. If any given vintage is poor he will blend all four cuvees into one - L’Aphrodisiaque made exclusively in oak. Normally he produces three blanc de blancs and one blanc de noirs:
L’Amateur is vinified only in the stainless steel tank from six different parcels, lieux – dits: les Creusettes Hautes, les Cresusettes Basses, le Champ Saint – Martin, La Voie du Moulin, le Champ Jeanvrai and les Faillorys
L’Artiste is vinified half in oak and half in the tank from selected plots
L’Astre, blanc de noirs, made fully in oak
L’Apotre, fully in oak from a plot of old vines in La Pierre Saint - Martin.
Coteaux champenois red from Pinot Noir – around 300 bottles and white from Chardonnay with around 900 bottles are also a part of production. Currently his barriques are 100% new oak – these were slowly introduced – from 2019 the first part, followed by 2022. He uses Burgundian coopers (Tonnellerie Ermitage) with 228 litres pièce. From 1998 he worked with used barriques from Domaine Leflaive. Anne Claude Leflaive was his friend and they were both part of renaissance d'appellation vin – an association for biodynamics in wine in France and elsewhere. Back then the barriques were usually 3 to 4 years old.
He started his own brand taking over the vineyards from his father who passed away in 1996. Biodynamics were already on his mind beforehand during his tenure at Leclerc Briant. At first they were only experimenting with the concept on 0,2 hectares of their vines, but later decided to increase the size to 2 hectares and David was responsible for the parcel. In the winery he doesn’t have his own grape press. His friend who lives on the same street has two – one is Coquard old press and the other a modern version. The grapes are being delivered to him and after pressing the juice is transported to his cellar to start the vinification. During the pressing, he is using very small amounts of SO2, but it is the only application. He doesn’t split the wines between cuvee and taile. Fermentation occurs only with natural yeasts. The wine stays on the lees for 11 months, no bâtonnage. He wants the wine to have a “peaceful” time. For the cold stabilization he relies on nature – he simply opens the windows during the winter to introduce some cool air, because he believes the machines involved in imitating the process are harmful to the wine.
“Respect the wine, respect the soil” is his motto. Before the next harvest he places the wines in the bottles as he has no space to keep the reserve wines. No chaptalisation, natural yeasts, MLF always happens naturally. Malo part remains a mystery for him in comparison to alcoholic fermentation. “It is not possible to exactly say when it will happen – it starts at different periods”. No fining, no filtering – just single settling before bottling. Sedimentation happens naturally with the force of gravity. Because the wine stays on the lees it will introduce the reduction flavours – to combat this David is introducing some air before bottling.
In the cellar I tasted 2021 coteaux champenois white – it was rich, butter, vanilla, creaminess with good gripping acidity and purity. Nose feels bigger than the palate with razor acidity. Trépail, because of the slightly higher altitude and the forest shielding the vineyards is cooler, translating to the higher acidity. It was always a trademark of these soils, but in the past it often came at the cost of fruit maturity. Currently, climate change and warmer years greatly improved the maturation of the fruit – the alcohol is steady between 11 at 13% ABV and David believes that the still wines may also be the thing for the future of the region.
2018 – a very hot vintage already presented a new challenge – after prise de mousse David’s champagne reached 14,5% ABV. The vin clair after the fermentation stood at around 13% ABV. This meant that the second alcoholic fermentation in bottles was very difficult for the yeasts because of the higher ABV. This forced him to add extra sugar (4g) to the liqueur de tirage to ensure the yeast had enough of it to carry on with the fermentation despite the high ABV. In essence, this may lead to his wines no longer being always “pas dose”, but Extra Brut in the future. To conclude, he believes it is a great period to make amazing wines in Champagne. He brought up an example of his father who only had a few great vintages at his disposal whereas currently it is much easier to focus on vintage champagne only.
While the wine possess the necessary pedigree to age gracefully, he believes that whether you drink his wine, on the young or on the older side, it doesn’t really make a massive difference – it is just a decision if you want to have this pleasure now or later. He personally believes the sweet spot for his wines is 10 years after the vintage. This comes from experience as he enjoys opening his older vintages together with his son. The vintage is always shown on the back label with a letter “V” for vintage or vendanges. The reason why these are not shown on the front label – as usually happens with other vintage champagnes is very interesting. Normally such champagne would have to age in the cellar at least 3 years before being released. This means you need to have a lot of storage to keep the wines – which is not possible for David. So this way he is able to inform customers that these are indeed vintage champagnes – although not stated directly on the front of the label. Quite smart!
After visiting the production we moved on to David’s salon for the tasting. The first thing that caught my attention was an unusual flower vase – a bottle of wine, none other than the famous Gianfranco Soldera 2013. This was a gift from a friend and although he didn’t previously know Soldera wines he was very impressed with the quality. What a great friend he has! We started the degustation with coteaux champenois white 2020 bottled in 2021. We then moved on to L’Amateur 2019. Chalky on the nose with great tension, fruit is present but it doesn’t necessarily take center stage. White flowers, creamy but light on its feet.
L’Aphrodisiaque 2016 is a wine like no other before. On the nose you get the vegetable garden sensation, something like peeled carrots. Also some spices, sweet figs – it is very unique, a wine with a great personality. Then we tasted a bottle of Muchada – Leclapart, which is a still wine from Andalusia from Palomino grapes. Chamomile, blossom, vegetable notes, herbs with piercing acidity. Pineapple and tea leaves flavour followed.
Privately he loves biodynamic and organic wines. He looks for wines with a big tradition but without chemicals. As long as these two conditions are met he is always happy to explore. You can find David Léclapart champagnes in Poland in Terroiryści offer and at Kontakt Wino&Bistro. His Muchada - Leclapart wines are available at El Catador. This was indeed a great afternoon and tasting with one of the most passionate producers I’ve met. Thank you David for a very warm welcome and explanation, I hope to be back soon – or as you rightfully pointed out – see you in Warsaw!