Les Echalas

Champagne Néret-Vély

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Packshot Label

Type

Sparkling Wine

Appellation

Champagne

Variety

100% Pinot Meunier

Carole’s old-vine expression of Pinot Meunier draws its name from the stakes that are used for support while working in the steep vineyards.

Viticulture

Soil type

Clay-limestone with marl

Vine ageOld vines

Vinification

Fermentation on lees in stainless steel tanks, with indigenous yeasts. No malolactic fermentation.

ElevageIn stainless steel on lees

Harvest typeHand Harvested

Fining/FilteringPlate filtration

More about
the producer

Champagne Néret-Vély

Founded in 1945

7 hectares

Founded in 1945, the Néret-Vély domaine has seen constant change but stayed true to their local roots in their lesser-known corners of Champagne: Festigny, Châtillon-sur-Marne, Nesle-le-Repons, and Comblizy. Carole Néret is the third generation vigneronne to steward the vines and continues to envision new paths forward.

Carole was born to a dairy farmer father and an accountant mother who inherited a micro-plot of 20 ares in Festigny. Against the advice of banks to sell their vineyards at the beginning, the family remained steadfast in their vision, purchasing dense, qualitative woodlands and undertaking the labor-intensive process of clearing them. All was self-financed. Certain parcels of land are remarkably steep, such as their aptly-named ‘Everest’ plot, requiring a ne...