Benoît Lahaye

story…

Lahaye’s family has been a part of the Champagne landscape since the 1930’s but prior to Benoît the family holdings had not been bottle under their own label. Benoît took over the family estate in 1993 and in 96 he began bottling wines under his own label. The estate is a full family affair, Benoît’s wife Valerie and their 2 sons all work in the winery.

An early adopter of natural practices in the vineyard, Benoît began his foray into cleaner farming in 94 and is now one of the few biodynamically certified producers in Champagne. Today he continues to be a leading light for natural farming practices and the benefits it can have on the wines of Champagne. Though he notes that the wines aren’t necessarily “better” qualitatively from his farming practices, but the fruit achieves a higher ripeness level without losing any acidity and freshness. A statement that may seem trivial until you consider that he is located in one of the most northerly reaches for growing Pinot Noir, so the ability to retain high acidity and produce riper fruit is truly noteworthy.

philosophy…

One of a growing number of biodynamic producers in Champagne, Benoît first started down this path in 1994 with the elimination of systemic herbicides. By 96 he had begun working organically, implementing cover crops in all of his vineyards while also starting to experiment with biodynamics. The estate has been fully farmed organic since 2003 and was officially certified in 2007. In 2010 Benoît also received a certification in biodynamics by Biodyvin.

Also in 2010 Benoît obtained a horse to use for plowing, currently he plows at least 2 hectares by horse and eventually would like to plow all of holdings this way. He only uses his own compost in the vineyards coupled with some organic manure. A handful of herb infusions are applied to the vineyards as well as fermented extracts from plants, essential oils and very small amounts of copper-based and sulphur based preparations only when needed.

Of the nearly 5 hectares of vines Benoît owns he farms all but one 20 acre plot located in Voipreux. This parcel is a good distance away from his home base in Bouzy which is why he has Pierre Larmandier of Larmandier-Bernier farm this parcel for him. It is farmed to Benoît’s high standards of biodynamics and use of cover crops throughout the parcel.

The cellar practices are very inline with the vineyard practices, lots of work with minimal to no additives. Primary fermentations are all done naturally and as of 2012 they have all taken place in barrel. Prior to the switch to 100% barrel ferments, stainless and enamel steel tanks were also used for primary fermentations. All of the wine is aged for 10 months on the lees without any racking. Malolactic fermentation occurs naturally and for the most part all of the wine achieves full malolactic, Benoît does not intervene at any point to encourage or discourage this process. SO2 is kept to a strict minimum and is often not used at all, and since 2008 he has produced a cuvée that is exclusively a sans soufre bottling called “Violaine”.

Bottles are aged with a mixture of cork and crown closures. This is all dependant on the vintage, in more structured years he prefers to age the wines on cork because it gives the wine more richness and breadth. In riper vintages he prefers crown caps because the wines already have the richness he looks for. Dosages are quite small with no more than 5 g/l and a surprising number of his cuvées are bottled with no dosage.

Vineyards…

Benoît owns just shy of 5 hectares of vineyards, 4.8 ha to be exact, that are planted to around 88% Pinot Noir. Three of his hectares are located in Bouzy with another full hectare in the east on the border of Ambonnay. The last bit of vineyards are located in Tauxières, 60 acres, and in Voipreux, a 20 acre parcel of 50 year old Chardonnay.

• Mont de Tauxières

  planted in 1966 to Pinot Noir & Chardonnay in classic Bouzy soils of Chalk and varying levels of topsoil

• Les Cercets

  a south facing parcel located in the mid-slope with very little topsoil over Chalky bedrock planted to Pinot Noir

• Les Argentières

  planted in 1989 to both Pinot Noir & Chardonnay in brown chalky soils on a relatively flat slope in Tauxières

• Les Monts des Tours

  planted in 1990 to both Pinot Noir & Chardonnay in brown chalky soils along the border of Tauxières in the northern part of Bouzy

• Les Juliennes

  a south facing vineyard located in the southwestern reaches of Bouzy | right next to Tauxières | planted in 1973

• Le Jardin de la Grosse Pierre

  a small lieu dit within the larger single vineyard of Les Grosses Pierres, located just northwest of the village of Bouzy, located at the base of the slope. Benoît’s parcel is about .3 ha and was originally planted in 1923 by his great grandfather and then a supplement planting was done in 1952 by his grandfather to replace dead vines. An incredibly unique parcel due to the large array of varietals planted throughout including several that are unknown to Benoît.