Courmas and Environs
This 180-inhabitant village, 10 km (6 miles) southwest from Reims, takes its place within the Montagne de Reims, a sweep of low plateau, much of it forested, with vines covering its gentle slopes. Courmas belongs to the Petite Montagne, separated from the Grand Montagne by a main north-south road, the name a reference to the rather lower elevation of the vineyards here. The calcareous clay and stony-flinty soils tend to be shallow and well draining. In Courmas, Yann has 14 parcels, predominantly planted to meunier. These are matched by an equal number scattered to the north in Bouilly, in the 1er Cru villages Villedommange, Coulommes de Montagnes, and Vrigny, and in the sandier soils of Chenay and Merfy in the Massif de Saint Thierry and, to the south, in the stony, calcareous earth of Marfaux and, down in the Vitryat, St.-Lumier-en-Champagne. These sites have been selected for their advantageous "late climate" as Yann calls it, and their soils, both of which serve to retain acidity and freshness in the wines.
Yann and Severine Alexandre
Yann can trace his ancestry in the region back to 1690. Desire Alexandre, Yann's great-grandfather, vinified still wines and sold them to the big champagne houses. In 1933, Marcel, Yann's grandfather, and his brother, Gaston, decided to keep the still wines and in 1966, Yann's father, Yves, started an eponymous label. Yann follows very much in this tradition, albeit with impressive education to back it up. After studying agronomics, viticulture, and oenology in Beaune, Rouffach, and Avize. In 1999, he returned to Courmas. Meanwhile, in 1995, he had met Severine, who was then working in a different field. As Yann says, I have been sharing my passion for wine with her ever since.
Vineyards and Farming
The vineyards span 6.3 hectares of parcels with varying soil compositions all carefully matched to their varieties: 55% Meunier, 30% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Noir. The primarily southwest-facing hillside sites encompass yellow tuffe, white marl, calcareous clay, white stone (pierreux) with flint. The vines, which are on average 25 years old, are a mix of clonal and massal selections. Yann's farming is pioneering. His stated goal is to make as natural a champagne as possible achieved through careful plant health strategy, respect for biodiversity, water resource management, cover crops, and ploughing. In this way, he says, the vine deepens its roots and becomes self-sufficient, erosion is stopped and the inputs are held back and made available for the next crop. The reappearance of the tulipe de vigne, a delicate flower once present everywhere in the region but wiped out by chemical farming, is an encouraging confirmation of yanns approach, echoed by a level three high-value environmental certification from the french ministry of agriculture earned since 2015. The thorough maintenance of the soil allows for the self-development of the vine, which takes everything it needs, Yann notes. Vine training, green pruning and shearing of lateral shoots to thin the vine and ensure the ripening of the grapes are all done by hand. Likewise, sequential, selective harvesting of the various plots to ensure perfect grape ripeness.
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