Over the past dozen years, Cédric Bouchard’s Champagnes have become among the region’s most coveted.
 
It’s not only Bouchard’s tiny Roses de Jeanne lieu-dit bottlings that quickly disappear from the market. His Inflorescence Val Vilaine cuvée from nearly identical Kimmeridgian soils also gets snapped up as soon as it arrives.
 
As a result, anything older than the current vintage is very hard to find, making it difficult to experience Val Vilaine with some age on it.
 
But as we often do with our favorite producers and their wines, we’ve created a library of Bouchard’s vintages so we can offer small verticals—affording a unique opportunity to offer the wines at various stages of their development. And, as with everything we age, it’s done in a strictly temperature-controlled environment.
 

Back Story

From the time of its discovery by Champagne writers close to a decade ago, Bouchard’s Val Vilaine cuvée has been revered among grower Champagne insiders for its captivating perfume and seductive texture.
 
The wine is sourced from Pinot Noir vines planted in 1974 by Cédric’s father in his 1.5-hectare Côte de Val Vilaine vineyard in the Aube village of Polisy. Initially, Bouchard called the wine Inflorescence Val Vilaine to differentiate it from his Roses de Jeanne, which comes from his own vines.
 
But in 2012, he took control of the vines from his father. And from that point on, the wine is labeled Roses de Jeanne Val de Vilaine. (The word “Infloresence” was dropped.)
 
Slightly more approachable than the other Roses de Jeanne cuvées in their youth, it ages with comparable grace, developing even more seductive nuance and texture with time on the cork.
 
You won’t find this many different perfectly-stored older releases of Val Vilaine anywhere else...