VVE Veuve Fourny & Fils

Champagne is always full of emotions, and moreover in our family, it means passion, the passion of the craftsman-winemaker, growing vines on a magnificent Vertus Premier Cru terroir. A treasure which we have been pampering since 1856. We are therefore the fifth generation to produce champagne wines. From Albert, our grand-father and his son Roger and Mme Veuve Fourny, we have inherited a know-how as well as old vineyards, including the Clos Faubourg Notre-Dame, a rarity in Champagne. We are proud to work with it as it has been a monopoly of the Fourny family since 1930.
 

Although we are brothers, we are first accomplices and complementary, so we naturally took over the Family House in 1993. Through our personal experiences and our very different characters, we have jointly decided on the style of our cuvées. Our collection of champagnes highlights our Premier Cru terroir in the Côte des Blancs in a neat style with a fair share of elegance and freshness. We do our utmost, from the vineyards to the cellars,to extract the purest expression of the grapes and the terroir in order to produce champagnes with a low dosage.

We work with this beautiful Vertus terroir, listed as Premier Cru. A “complete” terroir, due to its geological features. The soils, mostly calcareous, contain very little clay, with areas of pure chalk, and there are therefore three different types of soils: brown topsoil over chalk, rendzine over chalk and brown topsoil over chalky gravel. Exposure to the sun is also an essential factor for the diversity of the terroir and Vertus enjoys three different exposures: East, South and South-East.

Therefore we operate a very strict selection of our plots with a separate vinification of the grapes coming from about thirty “lieux-dits” located in Vertus Premier Cru only. This mosaic of expressions gives specific personalities and identities to each of the blends in our cuvées. Moreover, we are fortunate in having a further advantage: the average age of our vines is over 40 years.
Moreover, this vineyard was mostly grafted by massal selection by our grandfather Albert since 1930. A real advantage which brings regularity and complexity to our wines.
The perfect age to best extract the salts and minerals from the soil. Our soils are fed with compost, some of the vineyards are ploughed and some are grassed over for better protection.

Our commitment to the respect of our terroirs goes further than our vineyards: our cellars. We patiently wait for the best maturity of our grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, in order to reach a balance between ripeness and freshness. Grapes are harvested by hand, separately for each plot, and then delicately pressed. Only the best juices, called “cuvées”, are kept. Our intention is to intervene as little as possible and to let our wines take their time. This is why our wines, after thei first alcoholic fermentation, spend more than six months on their own lees in vats or in old small oak casks… This pause lets them release all their aromatic complexity. Moreover, in keeping with our philosophy, we do not use fining methods on our wines and most of them are not filtered.

Our will is to create a natural link representing a beautiful harmony between the fruit and the salts and minerals of the soil. From our reserve wines to the wines of the year, in casks or in vats, with a malolactic fermentation or not, whether Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, lower or higher plots exposed south or east, older or younger vines; these are all the elements used to compose our music… And to let our wines fully express their potential, we have made the choice of little or no dosage when disgorging.

The Cuvée “Clos Notre Dame”, a rare bottle, comes from a single plot, a single grape variety, Chardonnay, and a single great Vintage…

The Faubourg de l’Abbaye Notre Dame is an exceptional terroir with its specific subsoil and micro-climate. Listed as a Clos since the 19th century, this property, nestled in the heart of the village of Vertus Premier Cru, belongs solely to the Fourny family. Its special vinification in small oak casks as well as ten years of ageing in our own cellars put forward its exceptional minerality and complexity.

Only a few hundreds of bottles, recently disgorged and with an Extra Brut dosage, are at last ready to be enjoyed by connoisseurs…