Champagne Delamotte

CHAMPAGNE DELAMOTTE WAS ESTABLISHED BY FRANÇOIS DELAMOTTE IN REIMS IN 1760. AT THE TIME, THE NOW WELL-KNOWN HOUSE WAS ONLY THE FIFTH CHAMPAGNE HOUSE TO BE CREATED.

LEFT: Delamotte, shining since 1760

RIGHT: Salon and Delamotte’s Grand Cru Chardonnay FRANCOIS WAS THE FORMER CAPTAIN of the Bourgeois Militia of Reims, and a large owner of still wine vineyards. His wife, Marie Claude Thérèse Bourgongne, was the daughter of Antoine Bourgongne, who also owned many vineyards, in Ay in particular, and had been producing Champagne for several years.

Undoubtedly encouraged in this direction by his father-in-law, in 1760 François created the first Champagne under his own name and continued to do so until his sons, Alexandre and Nicolas, both later became part of the family business, with their Champagnes growing in both reputation and popularity.

Unfortunately, due to a string of family deaths and marriages, the House of Delamotte no longer has a Delamotte at its helm, but was instead stewarded throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries by other Champenois ‘families’, including Lanson and Laurent-Perrier.

Today Champagne Delamotte is managed by an independent and dedicated team, led by President Didier Depond. Located in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, one of the most prized Grand Cru Villages of the Côté des Blancs, Delamotte is also is situated next door to its ‘sister’ house, the mythical Champagne Salon, with which it shares the same viticultural, winemaking and management team.

While Salon exclusively produces Vintage Champagnes only in extraordinary years, Delamotte uses the same exceptional grapes and talented winemaking team to produce nonvintage Brut, Blanc de Blancs and Rosé varieties on an annual basis.

Vineyard location is the key to Delamotte’s expressive wines and is what sets them apart from others. Unusually, most of its grapes are sourced from Grand Cru vineyards, including the Delamotte non-vintage wines, which are crafted from these exceptional grapes.

Delamotte’s Chardonnay grapes are sourced principally from the Grand Crus of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Avize and Cramant and Pinot Noir from the southern Montagne de Reims, primarily Bouzy, Ambonnay and Tours-sur-Marne.

The winemaking team at Champagne Delamotte aim to craft wines that perfectly express the characteristics of these preeminent grapes, in particular their noble Grand Cru Chardonnay. Light, gossamer-textured, impertinent, more complex with ageing, discrete yet present, heady but not heavy. Champagne at any time, for any occasion. ❧