Often referred to as "Baby Salon", Delamotte has been in existence almost two centuries longer than their more famous sister house. Still located at the heart of Mesnil-Sur-Oger, and blessed with top Grands Crus of Chardonnay, Delamotte is one of the most consistently excellent Champagnes from one release to the next.

Delamotte

Founded in 1760 by François Delamotte, Champagne Delamotte is one of the oldest Champagne houses, with a bulletproof reputation among collectors, critics, and sommeliers. The house was established long before its association began with Champagne Salon in the late 1980s when it was acquired by Laurent-Perrier, an event that catapulted the reputation of the house into an entirely new stratosphere.

Since the acquisition, the two brands have been joined at the hip, sharing vineyards, employees, and expertise. For example, the Chef de Cave, Michel Fauconnet, has worked for both houses for over 20 years and spends his time tasting and blending for both Salon and Delamotte.

Champagne Delamotte’s production comes from the villages of Cramant, Avize, Oger, and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The production is split up into four different bottlings: a non-vintage Brut bottling produced from all three of the classic Champagne varieties; a non-vintage Blanc de Blancs and a vintage Blanc de Blancs—which are both among the great values in all of Champagne; and a Delamotte Rosé. In years where Salon does not declare a vintage, the bulk of its production is folded into the Delamotte Blanc de Blancs bottlings.

All the wines are fermented in stainless steel and undergo full malolactic fermentation before extended aging on the lees. The focus for Champagne Delamotte is on approachable, precise, and elegant bottles of Champagne that consistently overdeliver for any occasion.

Each release of our producers allows us to refocus for a minute on what makes them stand out - stand out within our portfolio, sure, but also within the wine world. So, with the impetus being the imminent arrival of Valentin Desloges' new release of Les Quatre Piliers, I posed the question to Thatcher: "Tell me what, in your mind, sets Valentin's wines apart?" The response from the boss struck a chord in me: "You don't drink them and think aboutSauvignon Blanc; it's not about 'varietal character', it's about the place, the person, and the stunning quality." Valentin's background says it all to me - Loire-born, but traveled to see Sauvignon Blanc's iterations in Bordeaux and New Zealand; then he gets a masterclass in small-parcel viticulture & vinification from Pillot & Coche. To some, it may seem random; yet, in finally tasting more of the wines, the intent could not have played out more precisely.

Les Quatre Piliers

A second generation winemaker is often presented two paths: the continuance of tradition, or a strict deviation altogether. In the wine world, we have seen numerous winemakers' efforts to continue their family's work, to live up to the name of their elders; yet, it takes a special sort to blend both of those aforementioned paths to create what Valentin Desloges has: a singular, expressive and profound winery that expresses Touraine better than perhaps any prior.

The son of a Touraine winemaker, Valentin performed his studies in Bordeaux and got his first hands-on experience outside of the Loire within the Bordeaux region, at Château Mangot in Saint-Émilion. Following that, he went on to work in New Zealand in 2015, with a strong focus on Sauvignon Blanc – a chance to work with a very different expression of the grape. Returning back to France, Valentin spent time in Burgundy, where he was able to work alongside some of the top white winemakers we know and love – Raphael Coche and Paul Pillot – with a stint with Vincent Sipp in Alsace (Domaine Agapé) to cap off his travels.

Years of creating a mental amalgam of his experiences led Valentin to his ultimate path; it was not taking the helm at his father's domaine, but the creation of his own: Domaine des Quatre Piliers. Formed by a sum of ten hectares between Noyers and Saint-Aignan, Valentin converted the estate to organic viticulture, first focusing all of his energy into the health of his vines. As the plants flourished, Valentin engaged in another passion, creating his own barrels in collaboration with François Frères, all produced with wood from the estate that he dries and prepares himself; the aim not to impart oaky flavors, but to bring the whole of the Domaine's environment into play.

Viticulture & Vinification

With just under 10 hectares split into 15 different small parcels, about half of the vineyards are planted to Sauvignon Blanc on clay and limestone soils. Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Pineau d'Aunis and Côt (Malbec) making up the rest. The Cher river acts as a significant temperature regulator, with close proximity to the vines. There is a large area of tuffeau that has been dug out, creating mineral equilibrium and serving as a natural ventilation system for the vineyard.

This panel of different soils is divided into 4 parcels: Les Puits aux Chiens, totaling 3.5ha Sauvignon Blanc between 15 and 50 years of age, as well as Chenin vines about 30 years old. At the top of Noyer, there is deep white clay with limestone borders; there is a cooler climate here, preserving freshness, high aromatics and acidity in the wines. To the north is Bernardières, one of the warmer parcels with 45 year-old Côt vines planted in sulphate-rich soil close to the Cher river. Finally, the Bel Air vineyard consists of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc; the Quatre Piliers parcel has 25 year-old Pinot Noir and 50 year-old Cabernet Franc vines planted to a cooler climate at the top of the hill with warmer micro-climates at the bottom of the slopes that are rich in red clay content. This complementary mix between warm and cold lands is fostering the subtle equilibrium sought by Valentin in winemaking, associating robustness from the clay and delicacy from limestone.

In the cellar, there is great focus on controlled pressing – the amount of pressure used, the length of time the grapes are pressed, and which juices are used. All the work is done by the moon calendar. Fermentations occur with indigenous yeast, and there is no fining or filtration of the finished wines. The wines are aged at a natural and constant temperature of 13°C in tuffeau caves at 75% humidity. Cabernet Franc and Côt grapes are carefully de-stemmed before fermenting in tanks for 20 to 30 days. Pinot Noir is cooled down with 20% of entire grapes and ferments for 9 days. Alcoholic fermentation takes places in stainless steel before being transferred to various barrels for malolactic fermentation. White wines only ferment in wood casks, with a varying proportion of new wood depending on the cuvée: 20% for the Grande Cuvée of Sauvignon Blanc, and 30% for the Chenin.

With the debut vintage only in 2021, Domaine Valma already showcases the clarity of vision - Stephane and Valentine Mathieu sought a plot in Beaujolais that was nontraditional and found it in Les Labourons: old-vine, North-facing, high-altitude. The resulting wines are as fresh as they are full of flavor, a swift and brilliant beginning for a young wine family.

Domaine Valma

“It’s a great playground,” Valentine Mathieu mused, grinning. This is the energy she and husband Stephane have infused into their slice of Beaujolais, and without a doubt, they are incredibly grateful for the region of Fleurie they now call home. It wasn’t always this way, though.

“You’re just a bastard,” says Stephane with a laugh, recounting what his friend Yann Bertrand had exclaimed when learning the Mathieus had purchased the 5.5 hectare plot of Les Labourons. Bertrand had sought more than a decade for the perfect plot, and here come the self-professed “outsiders” - no family vineyards, two harvests under Valentine’s belt - with the score of the century.

Valentine & Stephane first met in 2011 when studying the commerce of the wine world - Valentine in marketing, Stephane in business with the Rothschild family in Bordeaux. Something tugged at them both, largely influenced by the couple’s trips to where Stephane had grown up, near Fleurie, running around neighborhood vineyards. “We both loved Gamay,” says Valentine, “But we were unable to create our own Domaine without one of us having gone to oenological school.” In 2019, Valentine quit, doing her studies from home while surrounded by her three children. Her first harvest was at Chartogne-Taillet, where aside from winemaking, her conversations with Alexandre Chartogne largely centered around bioindicative plantings, teachings that had been largely compiled by Gérard Ducerf, local to Beaujolais.

Her second harvest was performed at Chateau Thivin (Brouilly), where she learned under the Geoffray family, but also got to learn from conversations with Jacques Néauport, a disciple of Jules Chauvet, who was dubbed the “godfather of natural wine”. It was in this arena the Valentine began to grasp the Beaujolais way, and the carbonic macerations that make Gamay from the region so emblematic.

“We both love Beaujolais,” Stephane professed, “But above all, we were looking for delicacy, freshness, and altitude.” The search mainly circled around Fleurie of Julienas, and with the help of their network, the timing in 2021 proved fortuitous; Christophe Pacalet (Marcel Lapierre’s nephew, cousin of Philippe) was selling his Fleurie parcel, an old vineyard with 1970s-architectural buildings, named “Les Labourons.” “It was perfect,” remembers Valentine; “A cuvage (winery), a house, a cellar, and even housing for pickers, some twenty to twenty-five concrete tanks…no temperature-control, but we can rebuild that from A to Zed.” What was even more perfect was the raw material: Gamay vines dating back to 1951 on deep, sandy granitic soils, in what Valentine called a “Very woodsy, very preserved place.” In other words, for someone having studied the intermingling of plants, animals and vines, perfect.

WIth Valentine working mostly alone as Stephane maintained his day job, 2021 was the first harvest, splitting fruit with Pacalet - his last involvement with Les Labourons. With the confidence imbued upon the Mathieu family, the search for vineyards did not relent. Stephane had dreamed since he was a little boy of the vineyard he grew up playing in; this vineyard, with the view of the stunning Mont Blanc, possessed the energy that had never left him since his childhood. “I told the woman who owned it - she’s one hundred and two now - when I was fifteen years old, ‘I want to buy this when I grow up.’ She said she would never sell it, but when she saw how serious we were [with the purchase of Les Labourons], she relented.”

La Madone is widely known as the best terroir of Fleurie, and the Mathieus had just sealed the purchase of what they deem the finest plot within La Madone. Their (so far) final purchase was that of an 0.65 hectare plot within Chapelle des Bois with vines over fifty years old. Not bad for outsiders.

As the vintages progress, Valentine and Stephane have gained much more knowledge about their land; “We could make five or six different Labourons,” Valentine admits, “But we like it as a whole, also.” From the first vintage, they made two different bottlings; Prelude was a sum of all the vineyard’s parts; Prelude Face “B” was created from the very oldest, tightly-spaced vines. “We hated it in barrel,” Stephane admitted, “But the lees gave more texture, and after it was brilliant.” Face “B” will continue to be produced in the top vintages.

The couple feel - as do many in the village - that both La Madone and Chapelle des Bois could eventually be re-classified with Premier Cru (or even Grand Cru, the Mathieus claim) status. La Madone has thin, very rocky soils, while Chapelle des Bois’ thin granitic soils elevate the wine’s aromatics to the very essence of raspberry, Stephane admits.

Five years in to their project, Valentine and Stephane are firmly entrenched in their home, pushing for further improvements constantly. With time and money invested into the improvement of the cellar, holding the wines in barrel for two winters - an ideal for them - is becoming increasingly realistic. They are firm believers in the aging capability of Gamay, and its belonging to Beaujolais. “It’s not for nothing that Beaujolais is only Gamay,” Valentine asserts, “The grape is at home with the soils, and has the capacity to generate emotions.”

Viticulture & Vinification

Valentine handles the pruning and all of the “spring work”, while Stephane is in charge of the organic treatments, the soils, and maneuvering the tractor. Both, however, are present for the blending, and will utilize the help of their community for any analysis, combining the collective efforts.

Les Labourons has two big “faces”, North-facing and West-facing. The latter is home to the old parcel, dating back to 1951. The Northern face is picked last, as it’s very cold. A small part of the North side is home to the younger portions, planted in 2008 and 2016. As a whole, Labourons is “Stronger, more sun, full of happiness.”

In the winery, the grapes are kept cold (12-14 degrees Celsius) and then placed in a concrete vat (no lining). The fermentations occur naturally - no pied de cuve, no inoculation. La Madone typically commences its fermentation first, and in a pinch can be a source of yeast if the other tanks need encouragement.

There will be remontage (pumping over, which is done to circulate juice onto the cap, and serves to homogenize the yeast and temperature) only for the first and second day of the fermentation, which generally lasts 10 days. The grape skins will macerate with the juice for the whole duration, and the only additive is some carbon dioxide - only if needed (carbonic macerations can generate enough carbon dioxide to avoid using sulfur). No punch-downs are performed.

After the wine has been transferred to barrel or holding tank, the skins are pressed slowly, at light pressure, and the press juice will be added to the final blend “to taste”. In 2024 - a cold, hail-stunted vintage - there was about 80% loss, and the entirety of the production had its elevage in barrel. The barrels used are exclusively 500L used barrels; “A good barrel,” Stephane muses, quoting a local adage, “Is a barrel washed by good Pinot.” The 2024 release features only the Cru - Chapelle des Bois & La Madone - and Les Labourons bottlings.