Les Monts Fournois

History of Champagne Les Monts Fournois

Born in Champagne into a family of winegrowers, Juliette Alips discovered her vocation at an early age. Guided by her cousins Raphaël and Vincent Bérêche, founders of the celebrated Domaine Bérêche et Fils — an essential reference in artisanal Champagne viticulture — she trained in every aspect of Champagne production: vine growing, winemaking, blending and tasting.

A graduate of the oenology school in Beaune in 2020, Juliette has already accumulated several vintages alongside renowned producers such as Louis Latour in Burgundy, G.D. Vajra in Piedmont, and, closer to home, Maison Roederer, where she spent more than a year learning the codes of this institution.

Drawing on these wide-ranging experiences, Juliette Alips returned to Champagne with an exceptional technical and sensory background. With the unwavering support of Raphaël and Vincent Bérêche, she founded Domaine Les Monts Fournois, anchored on an eponymous Premier Cru lieu-dit in Ludes, which she intends to establish among the great expressions of the Montagne de Reims.

The first vintage of the monopole Les Monts Fournois will be the 2022, with its release expected in 2027. While awaiting this historic release for the estate, Juliette offers a confidential selection of vintage Champagnes from Grand Cru and Premier Cru vines, crafted thanks to the vast network of winemaker friends built up by the Bérêche family over the decades.

Terroirs and Vines of Champagne Les Monts Fournois

Domaine Les Monts Fournois is situated in the northern part of the Montagne de Reims, in the sub-area known as the Grande Montagne, around the Premier Cru Les Monts Fournois, in Ludes. This Premier Cru village, nestled between the forests and vines of the Montagne de Reims, benefits from varied exposures and clay-chalk soils that lend the wines a taut minerality, persistent freshness and a remarkable aptitude for ageing.

But the estate's ambitions reach beyond the terroir of Ludes alone. In its Crus Sélectionnés phase, drawing on the Bérêche family's vast network of contacts and the assistance of winemaker friends, a micro-négoce project was developed in order to create Champagnes from purchased grapes sourced from remarkable vines on the Côte des Blancs, the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne.

Each grape source corresponds to a geographical appellation clearly identified on the label. The name of each Champagne indicates the origin of the grapes: Côte refers to the Côte des Blancs, Montagne to the Montagne de Reims, and Vallée to the Vallée de la Marne; the name of the village or villages of origin also appears in the upper right-hand corner of each label.

Among the vines used for the current range, one finds Grand Cru plots from Verzenay (Montagne de Reims), Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger (Côte des Blancs), Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Aÿ (Vallée de la Marne) — names that resonate like the cathedrals of terroir-driven Champagne. In Ludes itself, Chardonnay vines planted in the 1960s on the chalky soils of the Premier Cru form the basis of the estate's Coteaux Champenois Blanc.

Winemaking at Champagne Les Monts Fournois

The winemaking philosophy at Les Monts Fournois is rooted in the tradition of the most rigorous récoltants-manipulants in Champagne, with an approach resolutely focused on the expression of the vintage and the legibility of the terroir.

Each cuvée is crafted as an Extra Brut, with deliberately low dosages, often below 6 g/l, so as not to mask the native personality of the grapes. The wines are aged on laths for exceptionally long periods. The Vallée NV cuvée, for example, spends 75 months in the cellar on laths before disgorgement. This choice of extended maturation imparts remarkable depth, complexity and bubble integration to the Champagnes.

Disgorgement is carried out on precise dates corresponding to fruit days in the biodynamic calendar, an attention to detail that betrays the influence of the biodynamic approach championed by the Bérêche family. The blending style varies according to the cuvée: some are single-varietal, single-plot wines of surgical precision, while others are inter-plot blends designed to reveal the complementarity of Champagne terroirs.

Priority is given to purity, terroir and a thoughtful approach to winemaking, without artifice or compromise with fashion. Each stage of the winemaking process, from manual harvesting to bottling, from the second fermentation in bottle to the development of the mousse, is guided by this demand for authenticity.

The Cuvées of Champagne Les Monts Fournois

The Crus Sélectionnés Range

This range constitutes the estate's current offering, while awaiting the release of the eponymous monopole. It brings together vintage Champagnes from great Champagne terroirs, each named after the geographical area of origin of its grapes.

Vallée - Champagne Premier and Grand Cru, Vallée de la Marne

The Vallée cuvée is a Blanc de Noirs crafted 100% from Pinot Noir, sourced from vines in Aÿ, a renowned Grand Cru of the Vallée de la Marne. Aged on laths for at least 8 years before disgorgement, it is an Extra Brut with minimal dosage, conceived to preserve the purity of the fruit and the deep expression of the terroir. The terroir of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Aÿ encourages a fine development of the fruit. The wine is distinguished by its elegance, structure and the fine complexity of Pinot Noir, with beautiful notes of charred vine wood, gentle spices, noble pepper and dried fruits. A Champagne of fullness and structure, an authentic testament to Pinot Noir on clay-chalk soils.

Montagne - Champagne Grand Cru, Verzenay, Montagne de Reims

The Montagne cuvée is a 100% Pinot Noir, Extra Brut, produced in only 1,000 bottles. It is sourced from a single plot: Les Noues, in Verzenay, near the village's famous lighthouse. The Mailly soils, rich in red clay, give this terroir a strong identity. The essence of Verzenay is precision: vivid freshness, fine maturity, ferrous minerality, structure and blood orange juice — a very original expression of Pinot Noir.

Côte - Champagne Grand Cru, Côte des Blancs

The Côte range explores the different facets of Grand Cru Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, through distinct vintages and villages. The available editions include notably a 2016 Grand Cru from Cramant and a 2017 from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, two of the most renowned villages on the Côte des Blancs. These slender, mineral Champagnes develop a lace-like texture with deep chalk running as a watermark throughout. Notes of ripe nectarine, yellow plum and lemon curd are answered by accents of grated ginger, lime blossom and pink grapefruit zest, with a final touch of pain d'épices. Each Côte expression is an ode to Blanc de Blancs Champagne in its purest and most airy form.

Coteaux Champenois Blanc, Ludes Premier Cru

The Coteaux Champenois Blanc is a still wine crafted from Chardonnay sourced from old vines planted in the 1960s on the chalky soils of Ludes, a Premier Cru of the Montagne de Reims. A very limited edition, with only a few hundred bottles produced. This non-sparkling wine is the most direct expression of the Premier Cru terroir of Ludes, the very place where the estate's monopole is currently being developed. It offers a unique window onto what the forthcoming domaine Champagnes will be: straightforwardness, mineral tension, vinous freshness and the character of a wine built for long ageing.

Le Monopole

The estate's flagship cuvée will be Le Monopole Les Monts Fournois, whose first vintage is the 2022, expected to come to market in 2027. Produced exclusively from the eponymous Premier Cru plot in Ludes, this cuvée will be the culmination of several years of determined viticultural work by Juliette Alips. It will represent the quintessence of the project: a single terroir, a single family, a single expression, a single vintage.