Lancelot Pienne

Gilles Lancelot is a member of Les Artisans du Champagne, one of the more elite of the bands of growers in Champagne. Gilles farms 22 acres of vines, more or less the same as his friend Jean-Marc over in Pierry. Gilles’ base is in Cramant, and his 55 parcels are spread along the northern sector of the Côte des Blancs, dip into the Côteaux Sud d’Epernay, and reach into the Marne Valley. The varietal breakdown is 60% Chardonnay, 30% Meunier, and 10% Pinot Noir. The oldest vines are 60 years old and the average is 40. As with everything, Gilles is careful with his labels, and each back label is concise with information specific to its cuvée. Annual production averages 70,000 bottles, or just south of 6,000 cases. He comes from a long line of growers. His great-grandfather cultivated his own grapes in Cramant in the post Great War years while working as Mumm’s vineyard manager, a connection that explains how Gilles was able to buy the old Mumm winery in Cramant early in this century. His grandfather began domain-bottling his Champagne in the post WWII years. In 1967, his father married Brigitte Pienne from Chouilly and the two domains merged. Gilles himself officially took the reins of Lancelot-Pienne in 2005 following his enology studies and after working at his father’s side since 1995. Each of his many parcels offers something different, and each is farmed and trained in ways that best suit it and its grape variety. He’s a keen blender, and is careful to ferment only in steel or glass-lined concrete vats in order to have the clearest expression of the wine. He likes malolactic fermentations for the aromatic complexity this gives, and he leaves his wine in tank or vat over the winter, bottling in the spring or summer before ageing the wine sur latte (i.e., in bottles on their sides on thin wooden battens). Upon disgorging, he uses the minimum dosage to showcase the wine’s origins. His reserve wines come from perpetual reserves that he began around the turn of this century. What he likes most in wine is detailed clarity and elegance.