Clement Leclere

Clément Leclere is based in Coulommes-la-Montagne. After working for Julien Guillot and David Léclapart (excuse the pun!), Clément decided to take over a few hectares of family vineyards in the heart of the Montagne de Reims. The first obvious choice was to grow his vines organically, even if a first vintage gave him a hard time and forced him to postpone his conversion for a year. He grows Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Clément Leclere joins the Coulomme cooperative winery. For him, as for other winegrowers in the village, it's a question of going back to the basics of Champagne cooperatives. Instead of mixing grapes from one cooperative with those from another, the aim is to pool tools to produce wines with the identity of each cooperative member. As a result, Clément benefits from a more than comfortable environment in which to make his wine. Trained at the right school, Clément carefully selects the press fractions from his juices, then lets them ferment with indigenous yeasts. Ageing then continues in oak barrels, for both the vins clairs and the coteaux champenois. Today, Clément's work is scrutinized by connoisseurs of champagnes made by winemakers, and it's easy to see why when you taste it...