Champagne Jeaunaux Robin
Truly a treasure, this tiny family domain was founded in 1964 by Michel & Marie-Claude Jeaunaux and is now run by husband and wife Cyril & Clémence Jeaunaux-Robin. The estate is only 5.7 ha, with vineyards beginning at the end of the family garden, just behind the children’s trampoline, where the grass of the lawn merges into the grass between rows of vines. With the proximity of the vineyards to the family home, it’s no surprise that they’ve been fully biody-namic since 2010 and organic for far longer.
Jeaunaux-Robin is located in the village of Talus Saint-Prix in La Vallée du Petit Morin, so named for the Le Petit Morin river (a tributary of the Marne), at the very southern tip of the Cote des Blancs. The entire village has only 39 ha of vineyards planted on south facing slopes . La Vallée du Petit Morin is known for its flint-rich, silex soil which imparts unmistakable texture and minerality to the wines. Average vine age on the family’s property is 40 years, which is ancient by Champagne standards and only increases the depth and richness of the wines.
Jeaunaux-Robin produce only about 40k bottles in their tiny cellar. There are two basket presses in the garage and grape must flows by gravity into settling tanks under the back door and into the winery beneath the house. Cyril uses old oak barrels to vinify around a quarter of the wines, with malolactic fermenta-tion, with the rest in stainless steel, also with malo.
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