Legras & Haas Exigence n. 8, from vielles vignes

Exigence n. 8 is a Champagne with a decidedly personal style distinguished by precision, purity and complexity. Legras & Haas at its best.

In Côte des Blancs there is a village with just over a thousand inhabitants where almost everyone has at least one small vineyard parcel, a precious treasure passed down from one generation to another for over 100 years. It is the Grand Cru village Chouilly and its Chardonnay is one of the most after.

Chouilly is home to the Legras & Haas family Maison that only began producing its own Champagne in 1991 but has been growing grapes there for almost six generations, 200 years, in vineyards situated on the northern side of the Côte des Blancs. Today the estate is run by brothers Jerôme, Olivier and Rémi and has 37 hectares, 17 of which are in Chouilly. The estate’s expansion was thanks to Brigitte Haas and her husband François Legras, both the children of winemakers who in the 1960s began enlarging the family’s vineyard land.

And it is the vineyard that dictates everything, with each parcel vinified separately which allows for the creation of new cuvée, starting with the tasting of the vins clair. A case in point, Jerôme said, was the birth of the Champagne Les Sillons, a lieux-dits that they have had from the beginning, which began when he and his brothers tasted its wine in 1995 and recognized its traits of being tonic and complex.

Aside from the grapes from their own vineyards, wine is made with grapes from other vigneron with whom the family has had a consolidated relationship of trust for over 20 years and whose grapes are used for the non-vintage blends. The first step in winemaking is the harvest, also because making wine using the bunch as a whole means the grapes have to be perfectly intact so they maintain after pressing – which is done as delicately as possible – the particular characteristics of a specific area. The stabilization of the must is done in a natural way within 24 hours of the pressing after which slow fermentation begins under a controlled temperature between 17 and 18°C to best preserve the fruit aromas.

For stylistic reasons, malolactic fermentation is carried out in full, after which they wait until spring to create the cuvée, and this is the only moment the whole family is on hand to take part in. And when asked what his favorite dosage was, Jerôme reply was simple: “a good dosage is one you forget about”, and this whether it is high or low because there must never be the sensation that the balance is lacking.

The decision by Legras & Haas to following each step of the vinification parcel by parcel allows them to express the tradition of the land create a Champagne with a decidedly personal style composed of precision, purity and complexity. The Legras & Hass line of wines includes one that is not a Blanc de Blancs, Exigence n. 8, a very limited production made from vielles vignes (old vines), an equal blend of Grand Cru Chouilly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Aÿ. The number in the wine represents that of the versions that have been made. Thus this is the eighth edition of this intense and compelling Champagne.

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