Champagne Jacquesson was founded in 1798 by Memmie Jacquesson, in the midst of France’s revolutionary war. Right out the gate, these wines were so good that Napoleon gave him a medal. (For real.) In 1835, Memmie’s son, Adolphe, took charge and implemented some monumentally important innovations that would forever change the world of wine. Along with Dr. Guyot, they implemented the radical notion of training vines in orderly rows (Guyot pruning is one of the most dominant methods used to this day). To reduce champagne bottles exploding, he worked with a chemist to begin accurately measuring sugar levels in alcohol, to great effect. And lastly, he invented the muselet, more commonly known as a Champagne cage, helping to secure the corks of nearly every sparkling wine in the world ever since. Cool stuff, right?

The business left family hands toward the end of the 1800s, and eventually was bought by the Chiquet family in 1974. Today Jacquesson is jointly managed by Jean-Hervé and Laurent Chiquet – with Jean-Hervé, once the cellar master, running the business and his younger brother Laurent serving as chef de cave. While Jacquesson does purchase fruit (20 acres from long-standing contracted growers), the majority of their fruit (roughly 80% of their production) is grown themselves – with a focus on the grand cru villages of Aÿ, Avize, and Oiry, and in the premier cru villages of Hautvillers, Dizy, and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.

The Chiquets are less interested in grape varietal than they are in location – and prefer to talk villages to blend percentages, though I can tell you this wine is 60% chardonnay, 30% pinot noir, and 10% pinot meunier. Aÿ, Dizy, Hautvillers combine for some 68% of the village blend, with Avize and Oiry rounding things out with the final 32%. Of the roughly 80 acres that are farmed for their wines, 100% are managed and farmed directly… and all are farmed sustainably (and over one-third organically, with that number growing every year). The Jacquesson house has developed a reputation for the lowest yields anywhere in Champagne, opting for concentration and quality over quantity. Fermentation and aging in barrels prior to bottling only adds further complexity – and the wine carries as impressively as any under $100 Champagne you’ll find from any house, anywhere.

Oh my, is this a treat. Based on the 2018 vintage, with 25% reserve wine added to the mix, this is a layered, complex, and nuanced bubbly that has so much going on, we’ll run out of room before we can describe it all. The color and aroma profile alone is poetic: deeply golden, with copper edges, and a profoundly mineral-driven aromatic profile of chalk and iron ore. On the palate, toasted almonds, golden apples, and a light fino sherry add depth and character to a plush core of red plums and Bartlett pears. Spice notes of clove and star anise punctuate the long and penetrating finish, with a final pulse of brown butter richness ensuring the wine is vibrant but never austere. Honestly, don’t waste a single moment longer reading… grab yours now!