A FAMILY, A CLOS, A PREMIER CRU
Champagne Vve Fourny & Fils, specialist in the vineyards of Vertus 1er Cru
Charles-Henry and Emmanuel Fourny are the 5th generation to offer Champagne wines at the head of this Vertus estate, perfectly mastering their “complete” terroir due to its geological characteristics. The soils, predominantly limestone, are not very clayey with areas where pure chalk emerges, we thus note three distinct types of soil: brown soil on chalk, rendzine on chalk and brown soil on chalk gravel. The exposure is also decisive for the diversity of the terroir and Vertus has three exposures: East, South and South-East. A very thorough plot selection is carried out with the separate vinification of the grapes from the forty or so “lieux-dits” located in Vertus Premier Cru. This mosaic of expressions, generates for the assembly of each of the vintages, a personality and its own identity. The estate has a real asset: the vines are on average over 40 years old. An ideal age to best extract the salts from the earth. In addition, this vineyard is mainly the result of a mass selection, carried out by their Grandfather Albert since 1930. A real asset that brings regularity and complexity to the harvests. The soils are maintained with compost, part is plowed, part is grassed, in order to preserve their vineyard.
VINIFICATION, “HANDMADE”
The Veuve Fourny style for a 1er Cru collection
"Like a haute couture workshop, each plot of the vineyard is imagined as a fabric, a tissue. The assembly of these fabrics allows each year to create unique pieces. These pieces make up the collection with a strong style: distinguished, chiseled and precise." Their commitment to the vineyard reflects a great respect for their terroir that they wish to continue in their cellars. They patiently wait for the optimal maturity of the grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, to achieve a balance between substance and freshness. The harvest is done by hand and by plot, the grapes are then delicately pressed. Only the best juices, called "cuvées", are kept. The desire is to intervene as little as possible and to let the wines take their time. This explains why the wines, following the first alcoholic fermentation, wait more than six months on their lees in vats or in small old oak containers... Thus, this break allows all their aromatic richness and complexity to be released. In addition, always in a logic of non-intervention, the wines are not fined and for a large majority, unfiltered. The wish is to create a natural link that translates a beautiful harmony between the matter of the fruit and the salts of the earth. From reserve wines to wines of the year, in barrels or vats, with or without malolactic, Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, plots from the bottom or plots of hillsides exposed to the south or east, old vines; such is the whole of the fabrics for the composition of the 9 unique pieces… And to leave room for the full expression of the champagnes, at disgorging, the wines are not or only slightly dosed.
