Jacques Lassaigne

Quick Facts

  • Owner and winemaker: Emmanuel “Manu” Lassaigne
  • Location: Montgueux, France
  • Main varieties: 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir
  • Annual production: 60,000 bottles
  • Age of vines: 60 years
  • Soil type: Porous limestone/chalk 
  • Planted area: 4 ha. (Lassaigne also buys grapes from 2-3 hectares of other growers, all 45 to 70 years old)

 

Fun Facts

  • Montgueux, where Emmanuel calls home, is a 215-hectare region isolated within Champagne: “a chalky hill in the middle of nowhere,” as he lovingly puts it. Technically part of the Aube department, it’s much further north than the Aube that most know. 
  • Emmanuel has been working with Jenny since 2003, just four years into the independent project born from his father’s estate.
  • Lassaigne Champagne has been zero dosage for 15 years. “Before, I was doing two to three grams [of sugar] just to be like everyone else,” says Emmanuel. “I had a Japanese customer who asked me to do a palate with zero dosage. So I did a palate, he took half of it, and I brought the rest to Paris. Everyone asked for it!” He credits the unique terroir and richness of Montgueux-grown grapes for their ability to hold up sans-dosage. 
  • Doing his own research on Petit Meslier, a grape indigenous to Champagne and formerly common in Troyes (now less than 10 hectares remaining), Emmanuel learned that it was dropped by growers because of its high acidity. With a mind to climate change and riper growing seasons, he’s decided to replant it — 2025 marked his first barrel of 100% Petit Meslier Coteaux Champenois.

 

There is Champagne, and then there’s Lassaigne. We get a special thrill from producers like this one who dare to carve their own path in classic regions. After inheriting just over four hectares of old vines from his father Jacques on the storied chalky (white limestone fossil) slopes of Montgueux, Emmanuel has made it his life’s work to let each planted plot reflect the singular character of its grapes by crafting single-parcel cuvées. The fruit of a series of bold decisions since 1999, Emmanuel’s project is now fully biodynamic and often experimental, pioneering a depth and complexity of flavor as well as creative responses to environmental shifts. He lives by some steadfast rules — zero dosage, no addition of sulfites after pressing — and is adamant about disgorging every single bottle by hand. 

“Montgueux is a very special place,” says Emmanuel, “because it is the only village in Champagne that’s completely alone: a chalky hill in the middle of nowhere. In the rest of Champagne you have several villages together, but from here you have to go 70 kilometers north or south to reach the next village.”  While Emmanuel and his father Jacques helped to put Montgueux back on the map for modern-day Champagne, the area has long been known for its supreme Chardonnay. Called the Montrachet of Champagne since the 1980s in reference to the revered pocket of Burgundy, the hill’s exposure, drainage, and deep fossil-rich soil — its limestone vein reminiscent of sites further north in the Côte des Blancs — produce singularly robust, expressive fruit. Emmanuel describes it as a buttery sensation filled with exotic fruits, nutty notes, and a bright, acidic backbone. “We get a really different taste if we compare the wines, the same grape and same soil, against other villages,” he says.

Since the 1980s, buyers from big Champagne houses have come to Montgueux offering a high price for Chardonnay. In fact, Emmanuel’s father’s plantings started as a business decision with his brother in 1964 to replace their cereals and other less-profitable crops with grapes. It wasn’t until the 1970s that they made the first wine of their own — a still wine called Vin Nature de la Champagne (“nature” meaning without bubbles) — and it would be another ten years until their first sparkling wine. Today at 60,000 bottles per year, Lassaigne is one of the two largest grower-producers in the village. Around them, the region’s negociant tradition continues: of the 80 growers in Montgueux, 22 sell their own wine and only twelve make Champagne. 

Emmanuel didn’t need to make many changes to what he inherited from his father; though it was rarely talked about, Jacques worked entirely without sulfur, the first of his kind in Champagne. In Emmanuel’s cuvées added SO2 is minimal to zero, and initial fermentations occur with indigenous yeasts only. His hand-disgorgement is an uncommon practice in Champagne (machine disgorgement is the norm), but allows him to avoid topping up the bottles afterward.

The main difference now, says Emmanuel, is the level of experimentation: while his father made just one cuvée  — essentially Les Vignes de Montgueux minus the third vintage in the blend — Emmanuel dreams up 12 to 14 each year. He describes his process: “The same five cuvées make up the base every year; Vignes de Montgueux, Le Cotet, La Colline Inspirée, Vintage, and Clos Sainte-Sophie. Apart from that, we do anywhere between four and nine cuvées that are different. It could be a Coteaux Champenois, white, red, rosé. We experiment with vessels, barrels from vin jaune, porto and sherry, trying new things.” Each time he makes a change, it can be years before he sees the results. Read on to learn what makes each of Lassaigne’s essential and limited-release wines so distinctive: each one an essential part of an absolutely peerless production!   

 

Check out Levi Dalton’s interview with Emmanuel on episode 141 of the I’ll Drink to that Podcast!

Check out Jenny’s husband Jimmy’s photo gallery from the 2018 Harvest here! 

Enjoy a quick introduction story on Emmanuel, his beautiful place & wines

 

www.montgueux.com

 

 
 
 

Vignes de Montgueux Brut Blanc de Blancs: (non-vintage) — Back to the top

Lassaigne Blanc de Blancs tech sheet

From Emmanuel: “Vin de Montgueux is what I drink the most of for aperitif! It’s a blend of three vintages: 2022, 2021 and 2020. Each wine is vinified in tanks.”

Age of Vines: 35 Years

Yields: 60 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Guyot

Soil: Heavy clay and chalk

Varieties: Chardonnay

The grapes are harvested by hand—from 9 different sites—at their maximum ripeness before being destemmed & gently pressed. The fruit undergoes complete malolactic fermentation & no sulfites are added to the blend. The wine is aged in new & old barrels for 12 to 36 months and held in bottle for 1 to 5 years until it is disgorged, corked & released.

Tasting Note: Pale straw in the glass with lovely mineral, dried fruit and citrus zest aromatics that reflect the purest expression of the Montgueux terroir. The palate is vibrantly alive with crisp citrus and melon flavors that are backed by deft acidity & dazzling minerality. The finish resonates with succulent citrus notes.

Pairing: A wonderful match to oysters, seafood and shellfish. And of course, by itself.

Le Cotet: (non-vintage) — Back to the top

Lassaigne Le Cotet tech sheet

This cuvée comes from a single vineyard called “Le Cotet,” the first plot planted by Jacques in the 1960’s, where the 40+ year-old vines are now deeply rooted in the chalky hillside at this eastern-most part of the Montgueux vineyards.

Click here to read more about the le Cotet bottle Solera System used to make this wine in Nick’s blog post.

Age of Vines: 40+ Years

Yields: 60 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Guyot

Soil: Heavy clay and chalk

Varieties: Chardonnay

Vinification Method: The grapes are harvested by hand at maximum ripeness before being destemmed and gently pressed; the wine undergoes complete malolactic fermentation with no sulfites added to the blend. The wine ages in tanks, new & old barrels for 12 to 24 months and is held in bottle for 1 to 5 years until it is disgorged, corked & released. Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs.

Current Vintage is base 2021 vinified in tanks, with 2020 vinified in barrels. In this vintage Manu has done something special: he keeps the extra wine from disgorgement and puts it back into the tanks and barrels, expanding the range of vintages in a single cuvée.

Tasting Note: Manu says, “I like the character of this parcel very much, chalky with citrus at the end.” A fresh mineral wine but with rich salinity, and lemony notes on the finish — it’s a wonderful match to oysters, seafood and shellfish. 

La Colline Inspirée (non-vintage) — Back to the top

Lassaigne La Colline Inspiré tech sheet

A blend of four different vintages, each vinified separately. “I like very much the goal of this blend,” says Lassaigne:  “Normally blending in Champagne is considered a solution to make the same wine year after year, but that’s not our philosophy. Here the blend enriches the complexity of the wine.”

Age of Vines: 40+ Years

Yields: 60 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Guyot

Soil: Heavy clay and chalk

Varieties: Chardonnay

Vinification Method: The unique path of the Colline Inspirée is that it is vinified and aged entirely in barrels (500-liter). This process does not add any oak flavoring to the wine as the barrels are old; but it does add a sumptuous essence of oxidation, similar to a fine aged white burgundy. 

Tasting Notes: This wine is opulent and creamy, showing gorgeous hazelnut overtones and fresh baked brioche undertones alongside the terroir’s characteristic bright, stony acidity. 

Millésime  — Back to the top

While some champagne houses release a vintage cuvée only when conditions are deemed ideal, Emmanuel makes a vintage cuvée every single year in order to display the variation between the wines. He says the results often surprise him: there have been vintages that he felt were lackluster, but upon revisiting the wine several years down the road he’s discovered it’s one of his favorites; that the wine simply needed time to come into its own.

Says Emmanuel on blending multiple parcels: “To have better fermentation and aromatic combination, we send two or three parcels through the press together to have several yeasts combine. It’s still experimental, but interesting in terms of aromas.”

Age of Vines: 40+ Years

Yields: 60 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Guyot

Soil: Heavy clay and chalk

Varieties: Chardonnay

Vinification notes: This wine is a blend of 2 or 3 parcels, with different ones used each year. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks for about 8 months, then ages in bottle on the lees for anywhere from 8 to 13+ years before it is disgorged. 

Personality: We find notes of creamy marzipan, preserved lemon, verdant florals and oxidative aromas.

Clos Sainte-Sophie  — Back to the top

Clos Sainte-Sophie is a special parcel in the heart of Montgueux that Emmanuel vinifies on its own. Planted between 1968-1973, it’s a historic site for grafting & horticultural research from the 1800s. 

Lassaigne tells the story behind the label. “In the 1980s, [someone] found written accounts of a story buried in the ground in a garden near Mount Fuji: in 1850-1860 when Japan opened their port and sent people to other countries to learn, they sent two Japanese people to the Clos Sainte-Sophie parcel to learn about the vineyard and how to make wine. They stayed for two years and returned to Japan with 100 rootstocks — and planted the first vineyard in Japan.  

The emperor of Japan, to thank the guy in Montgueux, gave him a decoration. And to thank the emperor for the decoration, he cultivated a flower, la fleur de Mikado. In 1885 someone made a drawing of the flower; we found it and re-designed it.”

Age of Vines: 60+ years

Yields: 60 hl/ha

Pruning Method: Guyot

Soil: Heavy clay and chalk

Varieties: Chardonnay

Vinification Method: The Clos Sainte-Sophie juice is vinified in a combination of barrels previously used for Cognac, Savagnin ouillé (from Ganevat), and Burgundy barrels for 6 months. The juice is then blended in tank for 2 months. The wine is bottled in the spring of the following vintage and then spends 6 years on the lees in bottle. 

Tasting notes: This wine is opulence personified. Laser beams of acidity balance out the caramel notes here and the finish goes on and on for millennia. This wine pairs well with long-lived wedding anniversaries and doctoral dissertation completions, but it will also make a random moment feel just as special. Extremely limited and unicorn-like. 

Ephemeral Cuvées  — Back to the top

Each year Emmanuel crafts one or two unique wines that he will never make again. He refers to these wines in an “Acte” and “Scène” numbering scheme. This is Manu’s place to tinker, perhaps with skin maceration, use of pinot noir to make a rosé, elevage in barrels previously used for vin jaune, or anything else Manu’s imagination can come up with. If you’re lucky enough to find a bottle of one of these special wines, we recommend immediate consumption with someone you are close with.

Autour de Minuit Grande Cote Brut Nature 2016: 100% Chardonnay from the Chere Vignes parcel, disgorged March 2022, zero dosage. Mineral, complex, rare and captivating with salinity, umami (bouillon), cedar and candied nuts.

Vinified and aged in vin jaune barrels for 3 years, sitting on the lees of the vin jaune. In this vintage, Manu used one-third vin jaune and two-thirds Les Vignes de Mon Pere barrels, a Savagnin cuvée from Ganevat that aged in barrels for ten years.

 

Coteaux Champenois Rosé Chères Vignes  — Back to the top

Stunningly elegant still rosé coming from the Montgueux terroir, from old vines that Emmanuel has in a long-term lease. Very limited quantity.

“Chères Vignes (French for ‘dear vines’) is the name of one of the oldest parcels in Montgueux,” says Manu. 

Grapes: Pinot Noir

Vineyard: Chères Vignes, old vines on chalk site in long term lease of 70 years.

Making of: the grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, gently pressed, and aged in a neutral oak vat for one year. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, zero sulfur added.

Personality: smooth, pure, light: an ephemeral, nuanced rosé whose poised acidity, mineral notes and juicy fruit will entertain you for ages.

 

Coteaux Champenois Rouge Chères Vignes  — Back to the top

Stunningly elegant still red wine coming from the Montgueux terroir, from old vines that Emmanuel has in a long-term lease. Very limited quantity.

“Chères Vignes (French for ‘dear vines’) is the name of one of the oldest parcels in Montgueux,” says Manu. 

Grapes: Pinot Noir

Vineyard: Chères Vignes, old vines on chalk site in long term lease of 70 years.

Making of: the grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, gently pressed after 10 days of maceration, and then aged in a neutral oak vat for one year. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, zero sulfur added.

Personality: balanced just like a fine red Burgundy and just as rare… succulent red and dark berries, compelling spicy notes, delicate tannins, all intertwined with a mineral crunch of its famous Montgueux terroir and lingering mouthwatering acidity. Pure delight.

 

Coteaux Champenois Blanc Haut Revers du Chutat  — Back to the top

Besides his iconic Champagnes, Emmanuel also makes a very limited amount of stunningly elegant still white wine on his famous Montgueux terroir.

Grapes: Chardonnay

Vineyard: Haut Revers du Chutat, planted in 1968 by Emmanuel’s uncle: the same parcel he uses for all the Coteaux Champenois.

Making of: the grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, gently pressed, and then aged sur lie (no batonnage) in a neutral oak vat for two years. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, zero sulfur added.

Personality: A wine that has it all: the typical intense aromatics and chalky notes of Montgueux Chardonnay, along with its pronounced acidity, made even more irresistible by a delicate touch of meadow-flowers honey & brioche & the finest fleur de sel.

 

Champagne Grain de Beauté Blanc de Blancs — Back to the top

Le grain de beauté: the beauty spot! From Emmanuel, “Rather than a shorter vinification and a longer time aging in bottles, here we do the opposite: a long élevage. It’s Jura-type wine with low bubbles, low pressure, and long fermentation that lasts three to five months.”

Grapes: Chardonnay

Vineyard: all the grapes come from a single plot called Les Paluets – 65+ years old vines on chalk 

Making of: The grapes are harvested by hand, destemmed, and gently pressed. The wine undergoes complete malolactic fermentation and is aged in barrels for 4 years until it’s bottled. Disgorged á la volée (manually) after 3 years in bottle, with zero dosage.

Personality: Vibrant, chiseled, pure, textured, layered, surprising, chalky, mouthwatering, focused, saline, oomph, swoon, “f* this is good…” a unique Champagne that will probably make you go through your entire wine vocabulary.