Champagne Warehouse - Buy Champagne online

A visit to Champagne Roger Legros

Back in January Helen was looking at the travel forum on Jancis Robinson’s website and came across Darren’s plea for some names of growers he could visit during his trip to Champagne. A few emails later and Darren was all set to visit Gauthier Legros at Champagne Roger Legros. (The picture shows Gauthier in his cellar).

This is Darren’s story.

Ay, Bouzy, Ambonnay,Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly. The scenic route from our hotel in Epernay takes us through these familiar Grand Cru villages. Most of the vineyards are deserted except for a few hardy souls continuing with the seemingly endless task of winter pruning. Snow is still lying on the frozen ground and what few pruning teams we can see are wrapped in several layers of clothes and never venture far from their drums of burning pinot noir and chardonnay prunings trying to retain some warmth in such miserable weather.

Finally we reach Reims but continue straight past this centre of Champagne production heading for another village that is less familiar, Prouilly. A lowly cru normalle on the massif de St Thierry, our expectations are not high. We were about to be proved spectacularly wrong.

The house of Roger Legros, now run by Roger’s son Gauthier, works 9 hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards on steep slopes that are not unlike those on the Montagne de Reims. The soil is made from chalk and calcareous deposits, again just like the montagne.

Gauthier is sensible enough to take the day off from pruning, which is lucky for me as he has the time to show me round the winery, from the modern Bucher pneumatic press, the large stainless steel fermenting vessels, the vats holding the reserve wines and also to the thousands of bottles of gently maturing champagne in the precisely – temperature and humidity – controlled warehouse. A gyropalette sits patiently in the corner, loaded with several hundred bottles, waiting for its next cycle in the automated riddling sequence.

At long last, we could wait no longer and had to test the results of all this labour, technology and years of ageing. (I’m always amazed at the patience required to be a Champagne producer – The 2002 Legros is the current vintage). Gauthier invited us into the warmth of his home and a couple of bottles were expertly popped open, the anticipation mounted, glasses were topped up and the first sips taken….

Not one for voluptuous tasting notes, I’m just going to say I came away with a boot full of Legros NV and 2002 Vintage. Need I say more?

A big thank you to Helen for being kind enough to put me in touch with Gauthier, and also to Gauthier for taking the time to show me around and being a charming host despite being kept up all the previous night by his 2 year old son!

Thanks to Darren for taking the time to write this for our website and good luck with your exams Darren…