Champagne Nathalie Falmet

01/12

Winegrowers?

Winegrowers’ Rouvres Les Vignes

In the great family Falmet in Rouvres-les-Vignes, Nathalie, wine grower and oenologist,
built up a name and a reputation of greedy champagnes.

Since the Antiquity Rouvres-les-Vignes has its hills covered with stocks, leaves, and bunches! This village of the Aube region is located between Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, the crystal glassworks of Bayeul and the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux. It is the family Falmet's HQ.

Michel's daughter, Edgar's grand-daughter, Nathalie, from childhood, has been helping her father in the lands. And left when she was 18 to study: technology degree of chemistry in Orsay, then a university diploma in Paris XI after which her father gave her 3 hectares of vines (1.5 ha of Pinot Meunier, 1 ha of Pinot Noir and 50 ares of Chardonnay). This legacy leads to a change in orientation. Nathalie thus registers at Reims in oenology then at the postgraduate diploma for Champagne wines. Having passed her degrees, she opens in 1994 a laboratory in Bar-sur-Aube and comes back in her lands to “prune, trellis, fasten the vines but also rack the wine from the vat, blend the crus, the varietals.” Only the treatments are entrusted to a neighbour.

The making of Champagne delights her as it combines all her passions: physics, chemistry, blending, the taste for good things and luxury. She changes life but not her… very Parisian look. She welcomes us with sparkling eyes, in jeans, leather and Stilettos. Her wines are undoubtedly at her image, with a very feminine character, so light and delicate. She is fond of Chablis and Beychevelle. She scarcely drinks but only good things. She likes fruity and floral champagnes. And in 2007, to lay them down in the best conditions, she creates her vathouse in the heart of the village, facing her home. All is new in this industrial building, air-conditioned and lit up with sodium lamps: scales, Péra press of 4,000 kg, refrigerated stainless steel vats, wooden barrels, but also an office, a kitchen. This volunteer young lady leaves nothing to chance and makes every effort to manage to make greedy champagnes.

In 2011 she presents four cuvées: a Brut nature 100% Pinot Noir of the year, zero dosage, at the same time vinous and fruity; a classic Brut with 30% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir and 20% reserve wine; and a 2011 fashion, a Bled Rosé with Meunier and old vine grapes of which she lets the berries macerate to obtain an attracting Rose Petal colour, that she names “Tentation Rosée”; and at last “Val Cornet” stemming from the terroir of the same name, her favourite cuvée.

This monocru is planted with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier Old Vines producing not more than 6,000 kg per hectare. “This small yield guarantees an important aromatic range and a long ageing potential, she states, all the more since I work with young wood.” These wines are vinified in wood barrels to perfect their expression and are dosed at 6 grams per litre. They give a Champagne good for a meal, complex, exuding aromas of honey and caramel with a palate of apricot and vanilla flavours that will evolve on liquorice and mint. Val Cornet, a cuvée of excellence!

Nathalie Falmet's year production represents 33,000 bottles. She is looking for a vineyard for sale or grapes to buy because, in July 2011, she has already sold all to Galeries Lafayette in Paris as in Japan or United States.

Vineyards, a laboratory and a new winery in the Aube region, Nathalie masterfully manages everything and wants even more. Because the dynasty Falmet is not to decline soon: her daughter Claire, 15, firmly intends to walk in her mother's steps and dreams of studying agribusiness…
Succession seems to be assured!
MC Bourrellis