Champagne Jacquesson - Cuvee 746

Jacquesson needs no introduction, but his 700 cuvée deserves some space.

The winery is based in Dizy and the first cuvées date back to 1898 with the number 1.

Starting in the 2000s, things changed and it was decided to create wines that could capture the identity and soul of the vintage without being vintage wines.

While a brut sans année aims to maintain a regular style through the blending of several vintages which becomes the Maison's hallmark, the Cuvée 700 is at the opposite extreme and the wines are assembled to represent a great wine, the fruit of a great vintage: the Maison puts its own style in second place compared to the vintage and its characteristics.

Why not simply make vintages? Because the addition of reserve wines (including actual cuvées made previously) brings a complexity to the wine that would not otherwise be possible, and producing a line of vintage Champagnes alongside the 700 cuvée would result in a loss of complexity from the 700, to which Maison Jacquesson remains particularly fond.

The first cuvée 700 produced was the 728, which bears this number because it was the 728th cuvée produced by the Maison.

The wines used for Cuvée 700 come from three Grand Crus (Ay in the Marne Valley and Avize and Oiry in the Côte des Blancs ) and two Premier Crus (Dizy and Hautvillers in the Marne Valley), only the first pressings are used and the vinification takes place in wood.

Fermentations last 3/4 months, without racking, refrigeration or filtration and clarification. Batonnages are performed and clarification occurs naturally.

These are great wines, with great elegance and finesse, with good complexity and great aging potential, so much so that the cuvée 700 is offered in two refinement lines: the classic one and the Dègorgement Tardif one. The classic Cuvée 700 is refined on the lees for 4 years, while the DT spends another 4/5 years in contact with the lees before dégorgement.

The Maison also produces another line of Champagne, Lieux-Dits. If Cuvée 700 aims to enhance the vintage, the Lieux-Dits line aims to enhance the terroir and is produced only from certain vineyard parcels that over the years have proven to be more typical, authentic and expressive than others. Lieux-Dits is produced only in compliance with two conditions: the first is the quality of the vintage, which must be excellent, the second is that the emphasis on the terroir must not undermine the quality of Cuvée 700, which is given precedence.

The reference year for Cuvée 746 is 2018, a year characterized by a rainy winter, a mild spring and a dry summer. The harvest was early, between August 30th and September 11th, with perfectly healthy grapes with excellent ripeness and good acidity.

68% of the grapes were harvested between Ay, Dizy, Hautvillers and 32% between Avize and Oiry.

242,012 bottles, 9,770 magnums and 398 jeroboams were produced.

The dosage is 2g/L.

Alcohol content: 12.5 Vol.

Disgorgement: February 2023

The Cellar:

Since 1798, this Maison has borne the name of its founder.
From the very beginning, trade was prosperous, thanks to the quality of the wines produced.
Champagne Jacquesson was Napoleon's favourite, and in 1810 the Emperor, following a visit, awarded the highest recognition of the time for a commercial enterprise, a gold medal for "la Beauté et la Richesse de ses Caves".
Today, the Maison Jacquesson & Fils is proud to follow in the footsteps of its glorious founders and focuses its efforts on an annual production of around 250,000 bottles, with non-industrial production methods, dedicated to the highest standards of quality.

This ancient but small maison in Dizy, at the gates of Aÿ, under the wise and ambitious guidance of the Chiquet brothers until 2022, is one of the best quality realities present in the Champagne region. Today, Jacquesson is part of the Artémis Domaines group (Pinault family) whose ambition is to continue the magnificent path created by the Chiquet brothers, continuing to improve the quality of the maison's wines.
Despite its success, production has never been inflated, and the grape supplies come essentially from the estate's 28 hectares of vineyards, 11 of which are located in the Côte de Blancs, in Avize.

Rigorous vinification, followed by optimal aging, leads to the vintage cuvées being placed on the market according to their maturity rather than in chronological order.
A very low dosage (all the vintages are made as extra-brut) preserves the finesse and purity of the wine.