Champagne Dumont Domaine de Mondeville

Village:
Champignol-lez-Mondeville (Côtes de Bar, Aube)
Appellation:
15 ha
Champagne
Coteaux Champenois
Grower:
Bernard Dumont
Website:
http://www.champagnedumont.fr
Downloadable PDF

The Champagne house of the Dumont family is situated in Champignol-lez-Mondeville, a village in the southern Champagne region of the Aube, some 90 miles southeast of Reims and Epernay. Characterized by forested hills, streams and vineyards, it is a natural and reflective environment that has attracted people such as Saint Bernard (Clairvaux) and Renoir (Essoyes). The Dumonts have owned vineyards in this area for over two hundred years and in recent years, it has been Bernard Dumont who has set the direction of the family domain and its 15 hectares. In 2019, Bernard was joined by his nephew, Laurent, who spent a decade travelling the world and gaining wine producing experience, including some years working with Roederer on their bio-dynamic farming project. Laurent’s experience and enthusiasm for bio-dynamic farming dovetailed perfectly with Bernard’s move to organic farming and in 2021 the domain was certified both organic and bio-dynamic. In recognition of this progress, the Dumonts decided to rename the domain by adding the village name, Mondeville, and thus drawing attention to their terroir. The vineyards on the Mondeville hillsides reach as high as 396 meters giving the Dumont’s the distinction of having the highest elevation vineyards in Champagne. The soils are a geological extension of those in Chablis, namely kimmeridgian chalky clay. Bernard’s comments concerning the common terroir are amusing; “we grow grapes on the same soils as the vine growers in the Chablis region. There, they produce white wine from white grapes and here we produce white wine from red grapes.” The Dumont vineyard is planted with 90% Pinot Noir, (with nearly 50 different clones) 8% Chardonnay and 2% Arbanne. The winery has also refined its wine making; fermenting with indigenous yeasts in large foudres produced from oak trees harvested from their local forest and using little or no S02 throughout the process.

Read Bernard’s comments in the Champagne Vintage Reports

Brut 396 NV

The Dumont Brut NV is a blend of 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay. The soils and south facing slopes yield base wines with qualities that seem less aggressive and more sumptuous than those from the northern districts of Champagne. In addition, vinification of whole berries at low temperatures enhances this quality of soft elegance. The NV is typically a blend of vintages that are between two and five years old. It is aged for a minimum of three years “sur lattes” before disgorgement.

Brut Rosé NV

The Dumont Brut Rosé is made exclusively from Pinot Noir. The grapes are harvested from a parcel named “En Ville” that yields particularly ripe grapes and has a high proportion of a Burgundy clone which produces small bunches with deeply colored skins. Fermentation proceeds as with red wines, but the wine is drawn off the skins after a day or so with the Dumonts looking carefully at the balance of extraction, color and tannin. This method, known as “saignée”, is a tricky art but one that can produce the most natural and delicately complex style of Rosé champagne.

Nature Blanc de Noir

Dumont’s Nature Blanc de Noir is produced from Pinot Noir. The Dumonts select “vins clairs” that are perfectly balanced and pristine to create the blend. The champagne is matured 5 years “sur lattes” before being disgorged with a dosage of 0g. The extended aging in the cellar serves to soften the acidity and enrich the palate. This cuvée is a wonderfully transparent expression of Dumont’s terroir.

Solera Reserve

Dumont is one of the very few Champagne producers who produces a champagne using the solera method. Bernard Dumont has dedicated one stainless steel tank to the project which was first filled in 1991. He works exclusively with chardonnay for this cuvée and has been adding to the tank every year, making it at present, a blend of more than 20 vintages. This solera system produced its first release in 2010. One of the most striking features of this champagne is the different effect created by producing a champagne from aged wine (the aging occurs after the first fermentation) followed by the typical duration of two years “sur lattes” as contrasted with a champagne produced from relatively young wines which are aged for a long time after the secondary fermentation and thus remain in contact with the lees “sur lattes” for an extended period. The dosage is 0g. Production is about 400 cases annually.

Vintage 2012 Extra-Brut

The Dumonts make vintage Champagne when a vintage has the sufficiently strong character to merit giving it a voice. The selected parcels for the vintage champagne have intensity, length and structure. The 2012 vintage is a blend of 65% Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay, chosen from four different parcels. The components were assembled after the first fermentation and then matured “sur lattes” for more than eight years before being disgorged and released to the public. The dosage is 0g. The Dumont’s patience and commitment results in champagne that expresses the complexity and elegance that great champagne can achieve.

Blanc de Noirs Brut Nature Vintage 2012

In addition to their vintage champagne, the Dumonts occasionally produce a vintage Blanc de Noir from their best parcels of Pinot Noir. The champagne is aged for 10 years “sur lattes” before release and shows the potential of Pinot Noir from the Dumont’s terroir. The dosage is 0g.

Coteaux Champenois Rouge, « La Voie de Chanay »

The appellation, “Coteaux Champenois”, covers still wines in the Champagne zone of production. The Côtes de Bar has a long tradition of producing still wines and Bernard Dumont is doing some amazing things as he brings forward his family’s tradition. The Coteaux Champenois Rouge is produced from a single parcel named “La Voie de Chanay” which rises to 396 meters in altitude (the highest in Champagne) and is planted with massale Pinot Noir clones. The grapes for the Coteaux Champenois are harvested late and are fermented as whole clusters in stainless steel. The wine is kept “sur lies” for 10 months before being bottled without filtration. No SO2 is added throughout the process. The production is quite small.

Coteaux Champenois Blanc de Noir, “Tailles de Pinot »

The appellation “Coteaux Champenois” covers still wines in the Champagne zone of production. The Côtes de Bar has a long tradition of producing still wines and Bernard Dumont is doing some amazing things as he brings forward his family’s tradition. The cuvée « Tailles de Pinot » is produced from a selection of rows in a few different parcels which are harvested late. The juice is taken exclusively from the second pressing, known as the “tailles”. The wine is fermented in stainless-steel tanks. It then goes through its malo-lactic fermentation and rests “sur lies” for 12 months. The wine is bottled without filtration, and no SO2 is added throughout the process. Production 999 bottles.

Ratafia

Ratafia is Champagne’s version of a “vin de liqueur”, which blends unfermented grape juice (must) with a distilled spirit made from wine. The Dumonts produce a light and fruity style from Pinot Noir.

Region: Champagne

Champagne, at first glance, seems easy to understand. It is after all the most popularized and recognized wine in the world. It has been endorsed by Napoleon, Churchill and Warhol (it’s the “war” theme). However, once the fizz of gaiety evaporates and the veil of simplicity is pulled back, Champagne reveals a region with a fascinating history that has for centuries fastidiously cultivated a complex wine appellation. It is an appellation governed by complicated regulations that touch all aspects of production, a classification system of villages that sets grape prices and a myriad of styles including: wines of a single vintage, of blended vintages, of a single grape variety, of blended varieties; all of which can have different levels of dosage ranging from Extra Brut to Doux. Dare I mention content measurement? How did a 15 Liter bottle of Champagne come to be associated with Nebuchadnezzar?

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The Romans gave this region its name. I suspect that these explorers had already dipped into the “local water” before naming it Campagna in memory of the area around Mount Vesuvius. Perhaps in contrast to the vast plains that flank the region to the west the geological undulations of Champagne appeared to be a similar wonder of nature. The region’s boundaries are basically unchanged since the 15th century and the “champagne viticole” (vineyard area) today spans five “départments” , the vast majority of them located in the Marne and the Aube. The vineyards cover approximately 30,400 hectares, although this area has recently been expanded. Most of the vineyards fall into the following broad areas: Vallée de la Marne, Côte de Sézanne, Côte de Blancs, Montagne de Reims and the Côte de Bar. A complete and more precise categorization divides the vineyards into twenty regions and is explained in the wonderful book Grand Atlas des Vignobles de France.

Champagne became an important center in France after Hugh Capet was crowned in Reims Cathedral in 987. Kings were crowned in the Cathedral for the following eight centuries and during this period considerable grants were given to the local monasteries which in turn became centers of winemaking until the revolution in 1798.

Until the 17th century the wines of Champagne were labeled according to small geographic regions such as vins de la Montagne or vins de la Riviere or more specifically by village or place names such as Bouzy, Verzenay, Ay and the Abbey of Hautvilliers. These wines were predominantly made from red grapes, their color compared to an onion skin or the eye of a partridge and they were gently effervescent or not. As fashion changed, so did the style of the wines to the extent that the producers could control it. The style of Champagne that we know today began in the 19th century and continues to evolve. The biggest change in the last twenty years is the increase of small scale recoltant-manipulant, “RM” producers. These estate bottled champagnes offer a remarkable diversity of expression resulting from the different philosophies of the independent producers and the more specific terroirs with which they work. These more personal expressions of champagne stand in stark contrast to the large negociant manipulant, “NM” producers who blend wines from hundreds of villages and often produce Champagne with a calculated uniformity.