Champagne Stéphane Regnault
Stéphane Regnault
Stéphane Regnault released his first single-vineyard cuvée from his family’s prime terroir in Oger and Le Mesnil in 2018. These bottles are the result of over a decade of reflection, experience, and trials. In 2007, after working briefly as a sommelier in London and an aerospace engineer in Paris, Stéphane returned to the Côte des Blancs to take over the family domaine. Inspired and influenced by the conversations he had with other young producers, Stéphane decided to stop using herbicides in the vineyards, and gradually converted to organic farming.
The domaine comprises four hectares of Chardonnay, divided equally between the legendary chalk terroirs of the Grand Cru villages Oger and Le Mesnil. The majority of the vines are between 40 and 60 years old. Stéphane has selected three parcels for his cuvées: Chemin de Flavigny in Oger, Moulin on the border between Oger and Le Mesnil, and Hautes-Mottes in Le Mesnil. These single-vineyard, multi-vintage wines harmonize the individual expression of the vineyard within the multivintage Champenois tradition. Each parcel is fermented and vinified in a similar fashion - ⅔ in stainless steel tanks and ⅓ in used barrels. Malolactic fermentation is neither blocked nor encouraged, as Stéphane allows the wine to take its course each year, tasting regularly to determine the right moment to blend the barrels and tanks into one of the three perpetual solera that are kept separately for each of the three cuvées.
In addition to making wine, Stéphane is a passionate jazz saxophone player, and has named his three cuvées after a different jazz mode that each wine reminds him of.
Key information
Champagne
Le Mesnil
4 hectares
Founded in 2007
The wines
Champagne Lydien Grand Cru
'Lydien' is the expressive of Régnault's cuvées and is characterized by its openness and energy. The numbering of his cuvée names represents the vintage blend (example N° 29 = vintages 14 + 15 blend).
Champagne Chromatique
Stéphane wanted to create a non-vintage blend that would be more accessible, richer, and open right upon release. In 2018, he finally had the chance to start and created Chromatique - a wine that uses a bit of everything in the cellar to make a har...
Champagne Dorien Grand Cru
The Dorien cuvée is the most reticent and complex of Stéphane's cuvées. The wine needs time in the bottle in order to express its full potential as an epic, rich, and structured wine. The first release of Dorien is a single vintage (2014) and was d...
Champagne Mixolydien Grand Cru
Reminiscent of the Mixolydien mode, this cuvée is complex, balanced, and marked by a rare silkiness. The first release of Mixolydien is a single vintage (2014), disgorged in 2019. Future bottlings will be from the perpetual solera of the Moulin vin...