Champagne Brut Nature, Les Rachais, Francis Boulard - 2013

In 2009, Raymond Boulard's children decided to go their separate ways. Francis Boulard, his wife Jeanne and his daughter Delphine founded the estate that bears their names. At the origin of this creation, a guiding principle: for many years already, Francis Boulard had given an organic impulse to his production, with certain vines converted and certified. Francis and Delphine are good farmers and belong to a family of winegrowers for at least six generations. The oldest member of the family to be found to date was born during the French Revolution, in 1792. The estate's vineyards are located for the most part in Cormicy, to the north-west of Reims, in the Massif de Saint-Thierry, known as the "Little Mountain of Reims", on siliceous limestone soils. The vines are also present in Paradis (Hameau de Belval, in the Marne Valley), Cuchery, Cauroy-lès-Hermonville and Mailly-Champagne, a village classified as a Grand Cru of the Montagne de Reims. The vines are mainly exposed to the east/north-east, or even south in the Marne Valley. The orientation towards organic farming goes back several years: with the aim of producing wines with character and the most natural of all, a large part of the Cormicy vines have been worked since 2001 without weedkillers or synthetic products, and have been controlled in conversion since 2004 by Ecocert. They have been cultivated biodynamically since...