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Duval-Leroy

Champagne, Vertus, France

  • 535
    of the 245 000
    wine producers
    of the world
Photo © Nuikki

  • Weather

    4° C Overcast clouds

  • Time

    07:50 AM

  • Wine average?

    90 Tb

  • Country Ranking?

    772

  • Region Ranking?

    80

  • Popularity ranking?

    129

History

Duval-Leroy is a family business, established in 1859 through the merger of two Champagne growers. The company is still based in its village of origin, Vertus.

Handed down from father to son, it has remained independent for 148 years.

With five hundred hectares of vines, Vertus (with 2500 inhabitants) is now the second largest wine-growing district in the Champagne region, after Les Riceys. It has had rather an eventful history. An important regional centre during the Middle Ages, it was entirely destroyed once during the Hundred Years’ War and then again during the Second World War. Today it enjoys its status as a thriving community based on its qualification as one of the top Premier Cru rated areas in Champagne.

 

Since its creation, Champagne DUVAL-LEROY has been located in Vertus, in the heart of “La Cote des Blancs”. Currently the House cultivates about 200 hectares, much of which is devoted to production of high quality Chardonnay grapes. The predominance of Chardonnay in the elaboration of the cuvees gives a finesse, lightness and elegance to DUVAL-LEROY champagnes. Headed by Carol DUVAL-LEROY since 1991, the company is one of the few remaining 100% family-owned Champagne firms and is ranked in the 15 top Champagne houses.

Some figures:

  • 1970: 400 000 bottles sold
  • 2000: 4 million bottles sold
  • 2006: 5.2 million bottles sold

 

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Vineyards

Whilst approaching Vertus, a village nestling in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, where the Duval-Leroy family home has existed since 1859, we fly over part of the 200 hectares vineyard run by this family business.

This independent supply, on a scale rarely found in Champagne, provides one quarter of the company’s annual grape requirement. A major asset, it guarantees the quality and consistency of Duval-Leroy Champagne. The delicate balance of three grape varieties gives the wine all of its characteristics, but because we are in the Côte des Blancs, Chardonnay predominates. The vines, the sun and the rain decide each year on the quality of the grapes. Nevertheless, the involvement of man is essential to ensure that the harvest reveals all of its potential. At Duval-Leroy, more than 30 people manage the vineyard all year round, giving each vine the attention and loving care that it needs. For the harvest, 500 grape pickers join the permanent staff for the major event in the wine grower’s calendar.

The in-house presses receive the grapes as they are picked along with those purchased from other wine growers.

 

As noted above, among the three Champagne grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier), Chardonnay is the only one that produces a white grape with white juice. The other two produce black grapes with white juice.

 

The harvest must be done in the best possible conditions and the pressing must be done immediately after harvesting to avoid oxidation of the grapes. That is the reason why Champagne DUVAL-LEROY has five pressing centres, containing 16 presses, all located in the Champagne area. The must (grape juice) is transferred by tankers to the winery in Vertus to begin the wine-making process.

During this period of intense activity, we need to employ 500 people in the vineyards, the pressing centres, the test laboratories and the winery.

 

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Winemaking

The first step in production that welcomes the grapes is the pressing unit. This will therefore be the starting point of our visit.

The difference in the grape varieties (both white and black) involved in making champagne means that pressing is a delicate process requiring strict control. The Vertus pressing unit that we discover here is matched by four others, located in Bligny, Beaunay, Chouilly and Sézanne. Technology will now make way for the most discreet, yet important in-house activity-blending.

Duval-Leroy develops its own blends, a jealously-guarded secret known to the chef de cave alone, which give a special quality and enduring consistency to the wines. However, the sophistication, lightness and elegance that have distinguished Duval-Leroy champagnes for over a hundred and fifty years do reveal part of the secret: the predominance of the Chardonnay grape in the wines produced here.

We shall gently close the door again and return to the production unit to watch the bottling process.The bottling process starts in Spring each year. Unlike the first fermentation before bottling and the ageing that immediately follows, the time factor is kept to a strict minimum because the whole bottling process is fully automated.

60.000 bottles thus leave the site each day.

Fermentation process

Let¹s follow the bottles. Silent, dark and cool the natural chalk cellars wait for us...19 million bottles spend from 2 to more than ten years here, depending on the cru. The stillness that reigns in the dimly-lit kilometres of passages that make up the Crayères fascinate visitors, but all is not what it seems. Once bottled, the wine starts a second fermentation, a delicate process where the unhurried passing of time will later guarantee fine quality bubbles.

A long ageing process now starts in the optimal conditions provided by the darkness, adequate humidity and constant temperature of the Duval-Leroy chalk cellars.

 

 

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31 different wines with 66 vintages

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