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Wine Description
The Story
L’Apôtre is the estate's top cuvée — a single-vineyard champagne from the La Pierre St-Martin vineyard, with vines planted in 1946 by Léclapart's own grandfather. The wines are barrel matured in order to match the concentration and intensity of grapes from these old vines. In each vintage, L’Apôtre is known for presenting the greatest complexity and expressiveness of any of the cuvées.
Léclapart uses no reserve wines, instead producing each champagne from a specific vintage that appears on the label. Chaptalization was only performed in 2001 and 2007, and the initial fermentation uses only wild yeast. Amateur and half of Artiste are aged in enameled steel tanks, while the rest are matured in oak casks. To stabilize the wines and avoid the use of sulfur, all cuvées undergo malolactic fermentation. The wines remain "sur lie" until shortly before the next vintage's harvest and are filled without fining, filtration or cold stabilization. All champagnes are zero dosage.
Leclapart's wines are notable both for their extremely high quality, yet also an uncompromisingly distinctive nature. They are remarkably pure and nuanced, and express the essence of Trépail. The wines are released relatively young, as Léclapart lacks warehouse space. Ideally the champagnes will be allowed to mature for several years in the cellar before being enjoyed. Decanting is recommended should the champagnes be opened young, as they can be otherwise inaccessible in their youth.
Vintage 2005
The 2005 vintage was a year of marked contrasts between seasons and regions. Following a fairly harsh winter, 2005 had a mild spring with relatively warm temperatures all year long. There was above average sunshine and a slight water deficit, as had been the case throughout the dry cycle of 2005/2004 and 2003. The heat and humidity in July produced larger grapes and bunches, rather unusually for the Champagne region, while the cooler weather in August, followed by a very sunny month of September, led to favourable ripening in spite of heavy parasite pressure. The harvest dates were “typical” of those of the decade: September 12th for Chardonnays and the following day for Pinots Noirs.
