An Established Winemaker in Champagne – Ernest Rapeneau

When it comes to Champagne, few people are wholly aware of how the internationally famous and quintessentially French wine comes from a region that has as much viticultural diversity as it does. The legal boundaries of what constitutes today’s Champagne Apellation d’Origine Controllee (AOC) was set out in 1927, where the five wine-producing districts were recognised within the Champagne region — The Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne — covering over 33,599 hectares and encompassing 319 villages (also known as crus). Of these 319 crus, Ernest Rapeneau is present in 52 of them, expressing the unique characteristics of a wide range of diverse soils, all in the style of the Ernest Rapeaneau winery.

Ernest Rapeneau’s heritage goes back over a century to 1901, when the winery’s namesake Ernest Rapeneau started his Champagne and wine business in the Hautvillers village, the birthplace of Champagne production. After the legal designations of the Champagne-producing regions were established is 1927, Ernest fully embarked on his journey into the Champagne trade before the onset of the Champagne AOC propelled his business to new heights.

The Ernest Rapeneau winery has since remained a family business, led by the succeeding generations of Rapeneaus. Today, the estate is helmed by Ernest’s descendant, Christophe Rapeneau, who has a particular penchant for focusing on three different varieties of Champagne grapes — Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay.

The Advantage of Diverse Regional Subsoils

As is required for all wine grapes, Champagne viticulturists of Ernest Rapeneau have their work cut out for them throughout the seasons of the year. Champagne grapes are hand-harvested in the autumn months from the end of August to mid-October — a manually intensive exercise involving almost 100,000 grape-pickers to preserve the integrity and wholeness of the grapes before they are sent for pressing and extraction. A slow and gradual pressure is applied on the grapes to extract only the entirely white juice from the grapes, providing the sugars and flavours that goes into Champagne’s elegance.

During the winter months that follow this process, the Champagne grapevines are pruned based on specific protocols — within the Champagne region, only four types of pruning are allowed, namely Cordon de Royat, Chablis, Guyot and Vallée de la Marne. You may recognize some of these names on the labels of Champagne bottles, being one of the hallmarks of wine-making unique to this region.

The vineyards of Champagne are in a unique position to benefit from both oceanic and continental climatic conditions, with temperatures ranging from relatively mild to freezing winters, as well as warm summers with abundant sunshine and rainfall for the grapes to develop and elegant acidity and sweetness. The geological range of the Champagne region, with its soils rich with variations of chalk, limestone, and marl make it conducive for the three main Champagne grape varieties that Ernest Rapeneau utilizes – the aforementioned Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier grapes.

That being said, Ernest Rapeneau’s presence in 52 of the Champagne wine-making crus gives the estate a great advantage to capture the diversity of terroirs and soils in Champagne and ensure the quality of their Champagnes.

Champagne Review: Ernest Rapeneau Champagne Brut

Today we’re trying out Ernest Rapeneau’s Champagne Brut, which is produced by the estate under the winemaker Christophe Rapeneau. This champagne is made from grapes manually harvested from vines with an average age of 20 years, before being macerated and fermented and aged for around 15 months. The estate’s Champagne Brut is comprised of 45% Pinot Noir, 35% Meunier, and 20% Chardonnay grape varietals, bottled at 12% alcohol content.

With all that said, let’s give it a go!

Tasting Notes

Colour: Straw

Aroma: Bright and fresh florals, drizzle in some light runny honey, and at the base are some of that classic butter biscuits and orchard fruits in the form of pear and apple juices. It’s lightly zesty with some firmer richness to it.

Taste: Pretty good richness here, the elderflowers and honey immediately comes through. It still keeps a moderate buttery quality to its body, leaning alittle sweeter. More on citruses and florals, orange blossoms, sweet lemons, an assortment of white florals, as well as a little bit of green apples and pears.

Finish: Pretty clean and short finish. Moderate amount of fizz that’s delivered with more of that honey and white florals.

My Thoughts

This is a pretty classic Champagne that captures broadly what it’s all about - you’ve got the florals, the fruits, the biscuit. It’s all there and so this delivers well (especially on its price!). For an entry level brut this is definitely a cut above - it’s fresh, it’s fruity, it’s not overly sweet or confectionary and also carries a good vigour about it, with a pretty respectable concentration of those fruit flavours.

Now granted it’s not intense, perfumed, long-lasting, or the ultimate definition of chiselled precision or utter concentration, and it’s not going to give you the perfect structure, but it does put you at the gateway of quality Champagne where you get a glimpse of something worth paying for. Ernest Rapeneau's Brut is after all the quintessential Champagne on a budget - and to that end, it definitely delivers massively on value! If you’re going to get something where you’re going for quantity, this should definitely be on your list. This is the everyday man’s daily drinking Champagne.

Till next time, happy sipping!