Interview – Hervé Dantan Chef de Caves, Champagne Lanson

GREEN CHAMPAGNE?

Lanson shows off its innovative flair

Established in 1760, Lanson is one of Champagne’s oldest houses and has been producing Champagne for over 250 years. Now with a dynamic team behind this globally recognizable label, its focus is about innovation and sustainability whilst remaining true to the fresh and zesty style. The Chef de Caves, Hervé Dantan, visited Australia to promote an exclusive range available to on-premise and independent retailers.

Dantan has been the Chef de Caves since 2015 and grew up in Champagne on a Chardonnay vineyard. He says it was written that his life would be in Champagne. As a teenager he says he wanted to study medicine but his love of Champagne was so strong he chose oenology. Dantan worked in many regions such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, Alsace and California before finally settling back home. “I knew I would come back to Champagne because I had champagne in my blood,” says Dantan.

For his first two years at Lanson, Dantan worked in collaboration with his predecessor, veteran Chef de Caves of 25 years Jean-Paul Gandon. He officially took over the role in 2015 and says those years were an interesting and valuable transition period from his previous 20 years as Chef de Caves at Mailly. Dantan says coming to a new Champagne house is a time of discovery, exploration, learning and possibility. “It’s an exciting period because you see the vintage collections, the reserve wines, you see what you have to work with.”

“When you arrive at Lanson with a long story you need to arrive with your experience and without your experience. You need to learn about the story and the style of the brand and be involved in Lanson but with new ideas.”

The ‘style’ references Lanson’s vinification method that favours the original production process of making Champagne without using malolactic fermentation. This method serves to highlight the freshness and vivacity of the fruit and allows the Champagne to sing from the hymn sheet of the vineyard. Interestingly this style went through a period when it was not in vogue but due to climate change and the slow warming of vineyards in Champagne, fruit is now riper and richer, and more Champagne houses are adopting the non-malolactic method.

When asked about global warming and Champagne, Dantan says it is hard to say what the long-term effect on Champagne will be. “We are not happy with global warming but today it doesn’t effect the quality of Champagne.” He says it is a little better than it used to be because vintage years are more common. “We have very high frequency of vintages because we have a high level of ripeness in grapes. This is also effecting harvest which is getting earlier and earlier to preserve the acidity in the fruit.

“The main difference now is during the vegetative cycle the growing of grapes is a little bit more difficult now. We have big differences of temperatures between periods and it can be hard with disease. The maturation can be very fast so in the vineyard you have to be very reactive - it’s very precise and more complicated but that is the future of Champagne,” explains Dantan.

The Dantan Lanson partnership has been extremely industrious. Last year Lanson launched a whole new range in Australia exclusive to onpremise and independent retailers.

LANSON GREEN LABEL NV

Lanson’s certified organic Champagne, its Green Label, is made from fruit sourced from its own biodynamic vineyards in the Marne Valley around the village of Verneuil. Many Champagne houses are now producing organic Champagnes but Lanson remains one of the largest with a production of 1 million bottles. The wine is aged on lees for more than three years, the long maturation balances the high levels of malic acid. “The most important thing is the vineyard, we respect the cycle of the moon, the life of the vineyards, the soil, we use herb teas to fight against disease and copper to fight mildew.

“We are really involved in ecological viticulture not only with this vineyard but also in our partnerships, we encourage our growers to be sustainable and certified.”

THE PÈRE ET FILS BRUT NV

The Père et Fils NV is an enriched version of the Lanson classic Black Label with longer time on lees, up to five years before disgorging, and a lower dosage. Thirty per cent of this wine comes from ten different vintage and reserve wines while 50 per cent is from Grand Cru vineyards and the other 50 per cent Premier Cru.

LANSON PINK LABEL ROSÉ NV.

Dantan says Lanson was one of the first Champagne Houses to market rosé as a serious style in the 1950s and was the first to craft a blended Rosé Champagne instead of using the saignée method.

He says the Australian Champagne sales figures indicate that rosé is under-indexed here so that leaves a lot of potential for Rosé Champagne in Australia. The Lanson Rosé is fruity and elegant with an exclusive bottle design that is vibrant and fun.

LANSON WHITE LABEL SEC NV

This is Lanson’s special sensory style with its stronger dosage of 28 grams specifically added to enhance the fruity aromas of mint, raspberries and strawberries. Lanson even suggests adding natural ingredients to the glass for a different Champagne experience such as a mint leaf, a segment of orange or a fresh raspberry.

LANSON VINTAGE COLLECTION

Lanson began to hold back vintages from 1976 in magnum and 750 ml bottles as part of an experimental program with the ageing of Champagnes. These wines are extremely limited and disgorged on demand with a small dosage of 3 grams of sugar and a new cork. They are now being gradually released to market. Australia has an allocation of the 1985 vintage in 750 ml bottles and magnums and some of the 1990 in magnums. These wines retail from $650 upwards.

CLOS LANSON 2007

This exceptional Champagne is one of Lanson’s most exciting. Clos Lanson is a one hectare plot of Chardonnay vines dating back to the 18th century but the Clos was only created recently when a wall was built around it. It is located in town where the climate is warmer and the soil is chalky. The resulting wine is luscious and rich. The 2007 vintage is the second only vintage and Lanson is hoping to release an allocation in Australia next year.

The Australian market is an important one to Champagne Lanson. After doing some digging in some online archives Champagne Lanson came to the discovery that it was the second only champagne, after Moët et Chandon, to be exported to Australia in 1855. The brand has a long history in the Australian market and is making big investments into its future relationships here.

For more information visit www.lanson.com

Champagne Lanson is distributed by Wine DNA, a network of Australia’s top independent wine distributors: NSW-ACT: Young & Rashleigh Wine Merchants, 02 9967 5900 VIC-TAS: Santé Wines, 03 9429 1990 QLD: Cuttings Wines, 07 3262 1455 SA-NT: Options Wines, 08 8346 9111 drinks trade|79