Champagne Pierre Moncuit, Mesnil


Champagne Pierre Moncuit Hugues de Coulmet label

Country & RegionFrance, Champagne, Mesnil-sur-Oger
Appellation(s)Champagne
ProducerNicole, Yves and Valérie Moncuit
Founded1889
Websitewww.pierre-moncuit.fr

Ce domaine très réputé du Mesnil produit des cuvées indémodables et constantes. (This well-known domain in Mesnil produces cuvées that are timeless and consistent.)
         –Bettane & Desseauve, Guide des Vins 2019

Moncuit makes consistently outstanding Champagnes but doesn’t seem to get much attention, and that’s really a shame. The core of the domaine’s holdings are in Mesnil. Readers will find terrific expressions of the Grand Cru village in the Delos and Vintage bottlings.
        —Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media,, November 2020

In 1889 Pierre Moncuit and his wife, Odile Moncuit-Delos, established the house of Champagne Pierre Moncuit. Nicole Moncuit grew up in the 1960s and’70s wanting to follow her father in the vines at a time when women just didn’t do such things. He said okay, and she put up with the laughter that came from outside the family (even getting a tractor driver’s license was an ordeal). Her father was unexpectedly hospitalized during the 1982 vintage–so it became her first, and upon release the wine won a gold medal.

In more recent times, Nicole’s daughter Valérie joined the domaine to work with her mother.

Mesnil lies smack in the middle of the Côte des Blancs and is its most celebrated village, in no small part because of the vintages of Salon Champagne and the single-vineyard Clos du Mesnil, owned, of course, by Krug. The wines of Mesnil are known above all for steely elegance and minerality, and those from chez Pierre Moncuit—which has some of the oldest vines along the entire Côte—superbly reflect these qualities.

Nicole and Valérie Moncuit of Champagne Pierre Moncuit

The house farms 25 parcels totaling 37 acres in the grand cru-rated vineyards surrounding the village. These vineyards face east as they climb the Côte’s chalk flank, and the majority of the Moncuit vines are 50 years or older. Two parcels, growing in Mesnil’s famous Les Chétillions lieu-dit and used in the best years for the vintage-dated Cuvée Nicole Moncuit, are just shy of the centennial birthday. In a region known for replanting vines before they reach their third decade to ensure vigorous production, these old vines represent a rare patrimony.

Another unusual bent in the Moncuit way of doing things is that no reserve wine is used in its production. All of its wines are made from a single year, regardless if they are labeled non-vintage or labeled with a vintage. The non-vintage wines spend three years on their lees before disgorgement; the vintage wines spend between six and eight years on their lees. After disgorgement, the former age another three months before release while the latter spend another six months in the house’s cellar before going to market.

In order to keep focus on purity and minerality, no wood is used during the élevage. Malolactic fermentation is the norm here. At bottling, the usual dosage for the classic range is normally 6-7 grams of sugar per liter (which stands in contrast to the more standard 12 grams employed by the majority of the Côte’s growers, who tend to disgorge earlier). In addition, the family has been producing more extra brut cuvée Delos and non-dosé vintage wine–something Nicole has long favored but felt that the market had wanted the classical wines. Now, you have the choice. Annual production averages 180,000 bottles, or 15,000 12-pack cases, and includes roughly 10,000 bottles of rosé Champagne. No business is conducted with négociants either to purchase or to sell juice.

About the bottles themselves, a lavender capsule signifies a good vintage; a gold capsule signifies an exceptional vintage (this as judged by Nicole and Valérie). And the crest on the label is a reference to Nicole and Yves’ father, who was an officer in the French Air Force.

The Wines

WineBlendDescription
Blanc de Blancs "Hugues de Coulmet" NV
ChardonnayThe democrat from Sézanne, for this comes from 11.7 acres in the commune of Sézanne to the south-southwest of Mesnil. 'Hugues de Coulmet' is the name of the parcel. Yearly production averages 50,000 bottles.
Grand Cru "Moncuit-Delos" NVChardonnayThe aristocrat from Mesnil, for this is the primary wine produced at the estate’s home vineyards. If the democrat is round, soft, delicious, easy and fine, the aristocrat is lean, long, mineral, racy, and very fine. Production averages 60,000 bottles and the dosage is 7 grams. (Delos is the maiden name of Nicole and Yves' mother.)
Grand Cru “Moncuit-Delos Extra Brut” NVChardonnaySame as the above but with a dosage of 3-3.5 g/l. Less than 5,000 bottles of the total Delos production of 60,000 are bottled each year as extra brut.
Vintage Grand Cru
ChardonnayMade in the best years, this tends to be deeper, denser and more mineral than the non-vintage Mesnil wine and in need of more time. Production averages 50,000 to 60,000 bottles. Vintage 2008, an extra-brut, has a dosage of 3.5 grams. Vintage 2012, another extra-brut, has a dosage of 5 grams.
Vintage Grand Cru Cuvée Nicole Moncuit
ChardonnayThis comes from two adjacent parcels of 90+year-old vines totaling 1.5 acres. These grow in Mesnil's highly regarded lieu-dit of Les Chétillons. Nicole and Valérie are in the process of propagating the healthiest vines via sélection massale cuttings. Like the vintage, this wine is only made in the best years.
Grand Cru Rosé Brut NVRoughly 90% Chardonnay with 10% Pinot Noir This comes from a parcel of Pinot Noir in Bouzy and from one of Chardonnay in Mesnil, both grand cru communes. The blend is more or less 10% of still red mixed with the white, with a dosage of 8g/l. Production is between 8,000 and 10,000 bottles each year.