Champagne

Aurélien Lurquin

Gert Crum visits Champagne Aurélien Lurquin

Gert Crum (Twitter and Facebook.)
Published: 18 februari 2020

Hesitation strikes. Do I have to use “Champagne” in the title of this piece? Yes, surely, although Aurélien Lurquin actually produces, just as happily, and at least as many, still wines – Coteaux Champenois, blanc and rouge.

I came accross Aurélien Lurquin, thanks to a small message in “La Revue du Vin de France” of Février 2020 – this is of course the way it goes. Above the eight-line message was “Aurélien Lurquin: a star is born à New York.” His cuvée 100% meunier is said to have gained cult status in the Big Apple. His wines are now ultra-demanded and at the same time untraceable, according to the French wine magazine.

Raisin – 100 Grands Vins Naturels d’Émotion

Credits: Raisin – 100 Grands Vins Naturels d’Émotion

Yes, then you start googling

The first thing you find is that Lurquin, or rather one of his (still) wines, figures in “Raisin – 100 Grands Vins Naturels d’Émotion”. This book is a hit with fans of vin nature and its authors have focused primarily on the Coteaux Champenois 2013, from pinot meunier.

Et voilà, the penny drops: those New Yorkers have read the more than enthusiastic story in “Raisin”. The same book also serves as a guide for the buyers of Just Add Wine. No wonder that Aurélien Lurquin already has an importer in the Netherlands: Ine Goossens and Ries van der Vlugt. Early 2020, they had two champagnes and 3 coteaux champenois from Lurquin in their assortment list, and all five said “sold out”. Apparently Aurélien’s wines are just as much in demand and untraceable in the Benelux countries, and not only in New York.

So off to Romery

A village where I had never been before, although it is only a few kilometers away from Hautvillers and from Fleury-la-Rivière. Romery is high up, about 250 meters above sea level on the northern flanks of the Marne. It is one of the villages with the highest vineyards.

It is beautiful and rural. The vineyards are on steep slopes with varying exposure to the sun. According to the latest figures, 157 people live there. The appointment with Aurélien is at 10 am, but he is not there at that time. .

It gives us the opportunity to browse around the grounds behind the abandoned house. It looks like a junk shop of useless things, but what is of relevance to the business, is picobello.

For example the old, 2000 kilo Coquard press – as Aurélien tells later, beautifully restored by his father, who was a furniture maker.

He is very satisfied with this second-hand, because he can press it with great precision. That pressing can take up to 9 hours for him – and yes, then you will get some colour in your juice.

More than fifteen minutes later, an old car, which makes wicked noises, comes onto the site.

And yes, there is a man who must be Aurélien Lurquin: a bit of a hipster with a very friendly face. He immediately apologizes for being late. The ice broke quickly. Before he started here, in 2007, he visited the Lycée Viticole in Beaune and worked at Domaine Pavelot (Luc and Lise) in Pernand-Vergelesses.

He started with 1.8 hectares from his grandfather. For grandfather it was a job on the side, because he worked at Lanson, the house that bought his grapes.

Aurélien is now working 2.3 hectares and he hopes to grow to 3 in the not too long term. The current 2.3 hectares are spread over 18 plots.

The vineyards consists of 60 percent pinot noir, 25 percent chardonnay and 15 percent meunier. The oldest vines are almost 75 years old. He spends a lot of time in the vineyards, although he plows or works a harrow (less deep) as little as possible – and some plots not at all.

He does the labour, the tillage, with a horse. Picking only happens in the morning when the grapes are still cool.

Now, Aurélien Lurquin produces 6,000 bottles per year. Yes, you read that right: 6,000 a year.

In the long term he wants to grow to 10,000, but no more. He sells forty percent of his grapes to the négoce, including Leclerc Briant. In 2015 he sold his first bottles – from the millésimes 2012 and 2013. Meanwhile, 60 percent is sold outside of France. His name is quickly established.

The annual production of 6,000 bottles is divided into seven different cuvée’s.

All wines are vintages. The bottling of the wines that are destined to become champagne is always in August following the harvest, so after 10 to 11 months. The wines that are intended to become coteaux champenois lie in oak barrels for 20 to 24 months, and in a single case for 36 months.

Lurquin buys two new barrels per year. All wines receive minimal or no sulfur during the period on barrel.

His Saignée de Meunier, for example, is sulfurless. This rosé has had a short maceration period for 3 hours to obtain colour and aroma.

“Les Crayères du Levant” from 2019, an blend of 70 percent chardonnay and 30 percent meunier, is a super wine and is likely to be a beautiful champagne – wonderfully dry, fine expression and very mineral.

From 2018, I tasted a Coteaux Champenois Blanc de Noirs (from pinot noir) with tempting little red fruit.

This April, Aurélien will remove this wine from the fine lees (the first and only soutirage) to bottle it a month later.

Believe me, this will be very tasty. Then a Coteaux Champenois Rouge (also from pinot noir) 2019 was served. The yield was around 30 hl / ha and 40 percent of the fruit ended up in fermentation tanks as grappes entières, so as whole bunches (i.e. with the stalks).

After about five months, the nose was determined by black cherries and it tasted compact and rich. What concentration!

Finally, Aurélien served de Coteaux Champenois had “Les Traverses” 2018 from cask.

So this is the Meunier that is so highly rated in “Raisin” and which has made Aurélien Lurquin “a star” in New York, but of course from a more recent year.

Here is the refined aroma of raspberry and some spiciness (as if it were a wine from syrah). In terms of taste you are almost blown away by concentration and strength. What a Meunier. What a super wine in the cap!

But for the time being, not for sale, because it will stay on wood for 36 months – and it has about 20 months to go.

“A star is born,” but not only in New York.

That’s for sure.

Champagne, the future uncorked

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