Label: Gaspard Brochet
Vintage: NV
Fruit: Pinot Noir (base 2022 with 2020 reserve wine)
Region: Écueil, Champagne, France
ABV: 12.5%

biodynamic

erotic discourse / wandering hands / red smoke 

Brochet is based in Écueil, in the Petite Montagne de Reims, working old-vine Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier from Écueil, Sacy, and Villers-aux-Nœuds. His vineyards include parcels planted in the 1950s and 1960s, farmed biodynamically, with low yields, high ripeness, and a very direct read on terroir.

The signature here is density without heaviness. Écueil brings a deep, smoky, red-fruited character (a signature of the Montagne), but the old vines and chalk/clay/sand soils pull everything back into tension. The wines are salty, deeply textural, and incredibly expressive once open.

In the cellar, there’s an obsessive nature to his work, but nothing is polished out. The wines feel like a study in terroir even in the Vins Clairs. He uses old barrels for ageing, some from Burgundy, a few from directly from Clos Rougeard.