Benoit Munier: a Blanc de Blancs rarity without sulfites

Benoit Munier is a Champagne producer with a tiny winery in Cuis, a Grand Cru village in the heart of Cote des Blancs, whose wines are imported to Italy by Heres. His vineyards are a splendid example of sustainable agriculture born from an emphatic feeling with his vines that borders on intimacy compared to the classic concept of winegrowing.

The history of his family is typically Champenoise and their original vineyard was far from where Benoit Munier today cultivates his grapes. His maternal great-grandfather, Constant Gendron, acquired a just over one-hectare vineyard in 1930 in Bouzy, south of Montagne de Reims. After the Second World War, his maternal grandfather André Gendron was forced to abandon Bouzy, a village close to the region’s boundary where the Germans build a canal in order to reach Reims. Worried about his family’s future, he sold the property in Bouzy and moved to Cramant in the Cote des Blancs.

In the following decades, thanks to the savings of a lifetime, the Munier family were able to accumulate 30 tiny vineyard parcels for a total of 1.6 hectares. The parcels are cultivated exclusively with Chardonnay and all are in Grand Cru villages in the Cotes des Blancs: Avize, Cramant, Chouilly and Oger. Today Benoit Munier is a Cooperateur Manipulant because having such a small production he must rely the small Viticulteurs d’Avize cooperative to vinify his grapes in stainless steel and under controlled temperatures. The identity of his grapes, however, is ensured by the fact that the entire ‘marc de Champagne’ can be pressed 4,000kg at a times using only his grapes. This allows Benoit to directly follow every stage of production.

The wine undergoes secondary fermentation bottles that age in the Cuis cellars where Benoit manually completes the habbillage, choosing the moment he thinks is right for dégorgement. His line of production includes a Brut des Blancs and a Vintage as well as a very rare Champagne of which less than 1,000 bottles are produced. It is called Belemnite and is a cuvée conceived to represent the terroir of Cotes des Blancs in its absolute purity and for this reason not only is there no dosage added but no sulfites either. Benoit Munier Champagne will probably never be put on the same level as the great Champagne legends. Nevertheless, it has a lovely story to tell, one made of values, traditions and, above all, a lot of determination in order to expand what was inherited and continue to enhance quality in every detail, protecting the vineyards for use by future generations.

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