Les Frères Mignon 1er Cru Cumières Extra Brut

Traditionally this family had vineyards in the best locations of the Côte de Blancs, one of the four regions the A.O.C. Champagne (in northwest France) is divided into. Their premier cru, with a high level of excellence, offered high quality grapes that the family used to make their own wine, but a change of plans caused these little gems to be sold to the big producers and champagne houses where impersonal cuvées were produced. This was the case until 2015 when Florent and Julien Mignon stuck their neck out and took the lead in production again with support from their father. They quickly got to work and in less than a year they had the winery ready to produce champagnes like Les Frères Mignon 1er Cru Cumières Extra Brut.

Les Frères Mignon 1er Cru Cumières Extra Brut is a very dry champagne made from the grapes of the Cumières premier cru located in the Marne Valley and inherited by these two brothers from their family. At that time, both were under 25 years old, but they were very clear: their work was going to be based on organic agriculture, thus becoming part of the group known as Grower Champagne, which includes other names like David Léclapart. The foundations of this movement are based on opposing the impersonal productions of the big champagne houses. So the group’s essential requirements are to produce wines using the winery’s own grapes, where the identity of the terroir is captured in each bottle. So, when you open Les Frères Mignon 1er Cru Cumières Extra Brut, you are sure to notice unique elements of the A.O.C. Champagne terroir, like its chalk subsoil (with a high calcareous composition and a great capacity to retain water), its terrain (with vineyards facing southeast and sloping) as well as the oceanic climate (with rain, cool temperatures in the summer and mild in winter) and the continental climate (with good sunshine and winter and spring frosts).

To a large extent these elements can be picked out thanks to the meticulous work in the winery, where they intervene as little as possible. Fermentations are spontaneous, using native yeasts, and no clarifying or filtering. The Les Frères Mignon 1er Cru Cumières Extra Brut production process involves a lot of supervision, so this champagne becomes a limited production gem with no more than 600 bottles made.