Fleury Pere et Fils

The Fleury house is located in southern Champagne, in Aube, more precisely in the Côte des Bar, south of the Seine valley (less than 50 km from Troyes). It covers 15 hectares, mostly planted with pinot noir (85%) but also chardonnay (10%), pinot blanc (3%) and pinot gris (2%). The estate was founded in 1895. Emile, the great-grandfather of the current generation, winegrower and nurseryman, was the first to plant grafted Pinot Noir in the region after the phylloxera invasion. His son, Robert, produced his own champagne for the first time in 1929 and was already one of those still rare harvesters concerned with producing a high quality winegrower's champagne. His son Jean-Pierre took over the estate in 1962. From 1970 he became interested in more ecological farming practices: mechanical weeding, organic fertilizers. Increasingly involved in “clean” viticulture, in 1989 he became the first Champagne winemaker to convert his vineyard to biodynamics. Since 2009, Jean-Sébastien, the fourth generation of the Fleurys, has taken over the reins by continuing and further refining cultural practices while making work in the cellar more precise, in particular by creating exceptional cuvées. In addition to its estate, the house purchases (organic) grapes. In the cellar as in the vineyards, the estate works with total respect for the grapes, as naturally as possible and “hurrying slowly”, all the champagnes produced being aged for a long time in the cellars before disgorging. Some cuvées are vinified in wood and some are sulphur-free. In addition, the long history of biodynamics on the estate (over 20 years!) gives the wines a depth and balance rarely achieved in the region. It is an atypical and very interesting house.