NV Jacquesson Champagne Extra Brut Cuvee 747

Country/Region: France, Champagne 

• Style: White, Dry, Sparkling, 12% abv

• Blend: 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay & 20% Pinot Meunier

Description: Cuvée 747 from Maison Jacquesson is made from the 2019 harvest of the Ay, Dizy Hautvillers and Champillon terroirs (75%) and the Avize and Oiry terroirs (25%). A few reserve wines from the Domaine complete the blend.

Jacquesson's Cuvée 747 is a highly refined Champagne with fruity and mineral notes. The nose evokes citrus fruits, pastries and brioche notes. The palate is intense, full with a nice mineral tension and a very long vibrant finish.

About: Champagne Jacquesson was founded in 1798 by Memmie Jacquesson and he did so well that Napoléon gave him a medal. The business left family hands toward the end of the 1800s, and eventually was bought by the Chiquet family in 1974. Today Jacquesson is jointly managed by Jean-Hervé and Laurent Chiquet. Jean-Hervé, once the cellar master, now primarily runs the commercial aspects of the business, while his younger brother Laurent runs the production side and has taken the role of chef de cave. In a given year, Champagne Jacquesson farms between 69 and 76 acres in the grand cru villages of Aÿ, Avize, and Oiry, and in the premier cru villages of Hautvillers, Dizy, and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. The acres vary because the house owns 69 acres with the option to take farming contracts on as many as 7 more, and Jacquesson does all the farming on whatever it contracts for. 

Sustainable practices are the norm here, and one-third of Jacquesson’s vineyards are certified organic. The brothers use vertical presses rather than more abusive horizontal presses. The juice flows by gravity into steel tanks for 24 hours of settling, after which it is transferred to large neutral wood casks (foudres) for several months to undergo alcoholic and malolactic fermentations. The dosage is typically in the extra-brut range of one to six grams of sugar per liter. 

The aim of the 7-series is to emphasize the best qualities of a given year, rather than to dumb down individual vintages to make a uniform non-vintage. It’s worth noting that this series is being aged progressively longer in bottle, so that by the time Cuvée 734 was released in May, 2010 it had a full three years of bottle age, including four months after disgorgement. Jean-Hervé and Laurent had decided that the 7-series would be Jacquesson’s best blended wine. Going forward, the vintage wines would be limited to the four single-vineyard wines, made only in good years and in very limited numbers, while the house’s one blend would be the 7-series. The requirements for the vintage-dated single vineyards are simple: the wine must have a distinct personality, one that reflects its terroir, and it is not needed in the 7-series blend.